LG HDTV to Download Movies via Netflix

LG Electronics announced a range of Internet-enabled televisions on Monday that can stream movies from the Netflix rental service. The companies will show the televisions at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, a year after they first announced their plans to work together on a set-top box for downloading movies.

The new televisions will have Ethernet connections allowing Netflix members to stream high-definition content over the Internet, LG said. It plans to release plasma and LCD models in the first half of this year.

These are not the first high-definition devices on which the companies have collaborated: LG recently announced an Internet-enabled Blu-ray disc player, the BD300, which can also download movies from Netflix. That company's customers pay upwards of $8.99 a month to rent DVDs from a catalog or to stream unlimited movies to compatible devices. Netflix boasts a catalog of 100,000 DVD titles and 12,000 titles available through its streaming service.

LG recently announced plans to allow its Internet-enabled Blu-ray players to stream content from YouTube and from CinemaNow, another online movie rental service.

Users of the new Netflix-enabled televisions will be able to choose movies directly on screen using the television remote control. Streaming a movie through the Blu-ray player involves using a PC to add it to a queue of movies to watch.

Netflix is also working with other consumer electronics manufacturers to incorporate support for its movie streaming service in their devices. Samsung released a Blu-ray player, the BD-P2500, in December with similar functionality to the LG BD300. And with Roku, it developed a set-top box that streams standard-definition movies from a queue created using a PC to access the Netflix Web site.

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Netflix Partners With TiVo

Movie rental website Netflix is finally joining forces with TiVo to allow subscribers to get access to more movies and TV episodes.

The partnership has been a long time coming, and will take effect in early December in the US.

TiVo will deliver selections of Netflix's 12,000 movies and TV shows to owners of TiVo's latest digital video recorders (DVRs).

The content is delivered over high-speed broadband connections and it goes live in December.

Netflix is the largest online DVD rental service, offering flat rate rental-by-mail movies as well as online streaming to customers.

The deal between Netflix and TiVo has been in the works for four years because Netflix couldn't obtain licensing deals to stream movies and TV shows via the Web.

Netflix finally got its video ducks in order almost two years ago, but both companies had partnered with different companies by that time and so a TiVo-Netflix partnership never got past the opening credits.

TiVo executives also said questions about a TiVo-Netflix partnership were the most often asked queries by customers.

TiVo is currently partnered with Amazon, Disney, YouTube and Jaman, a site where people can find, watch and review movies. TiVo has used its partnerships to sell itself as a unique service that is different than the PVRs and DVRs hawked by local cable providers.

So when it comes to the Netflix partnership, TiVo users will get access to the streaming service at no extra charge. The only catch: They have to be a Netflix subscriber who pays at least $8.99 per month for movie rentals.

Netflix is also facing increased competition, and strategic partnerships have given the company a strong foothold in the budding movie download industry. Netflix has partnerships with LG and Samsung who sell Blu-ray players with built-in Netflix support, and Netflix has even partnered with big boys like Microsoft who announced they would stream high-def Netflix movies to gamers via the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live.

Netflix has seen strong growth, and its profits are up 30 per cent despite a weak economy.

And the more streaming services Netflix can offer, the better it is for the company's bottom line. The company has to cough up $0.84 for every DVD rental sent by mail, so streaming services cut back on overhead.

Netflix launches movie download device

Online DVD rental company Netflix Inc. took another step into the home entertainment market Tuesday by unveiling a new set-top box that allows its subscribers to stream videos directly from the Netflix Website to their televisions.

Netflix said it developed the player with technology company Roku Inc. and will begin selling the device Tuesday for $99.99. The service will initially offer 10,000 movies and TV episodes from Netflix's 100,000-title library.

The announcement of the new device helped send Netflix shares up $2.85, or more than 9%, to $33.85.

Customers will need what Netflix calls an "unlimited" subscription, starting at $8.99 a month, in order to use the Netflix player. The player itself comes with no other charges aside from the original pricetag.

Netflix said the device is about the size of a paperback book and works with wireless Internet connections.

The move is seen as the latest attempt by various companies to establish a footprint in consumers' living rooms with devices to bring content from the Internet and their computers to their televisions. Similar devices have come from Apple Inc.

Separately, Lehman Brothers analyst Douglas Anmuth raised his rating on Netflix's stock to overweight from equal weight, and also increased his 2008 earnings target for the company to $1.26 a share from $1.24. Anmuth said Netflix is showing signs of benefiting from growing subscriber trends

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Netflix to offer unlimited online movie streaming

Netflix will begin offering unlimited online movie streaming from a library of over 6,000 movies to customers on their $16.99 plan starting Monday.

The move is said to be in response to the expected announcement by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at the Macworld Expo Tuesday that iTunes will offer movie rentals from most major studios. The expected price of the iTunes rented movies is $3.99 each, putting Netflix is a competitive position for high value regular movie watchers.

Netflix has previously offered limited movie streaming to its 7 million + customers, but capped the streaming access at 17 hours a month.

According to AP, the offer will not be available to Netflix customers currently on the $4.99/ mth 2 DVD plan.

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