Netflix, LG in Movie Set-Top Box Deal

By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews

On Wednesday Netflix announced something that has been anticipated since mid-2006: a set-top box to stream movies from the Internet to subscribers’ TVs.

The company wants to strike deals with electronics companies that will let it send movies straight to TV screens over the Internet. Its first partnership, announced Wednesday night, is with the South Korean manufacturer LG Electronics to stream movies and other programming to LG’s high-definition televisions.

The partnership will extend a novel feature from Netflix, announced a year ago, that allows paying subscribers to watch any of 6,000 movies and television shows on its Web site free. But that service can be accessed only with a personal computer.

Reed Hastings, chief executive of Netflix, said he hoped to strike other such deals and that Netflix would soon be viewed as a movie channel that might appear on myriad devices. Source: The New York Times

We Say: Similar to its PC instant delivery system, the TV streaming service will be included in the standard Netflix price plans, which currently run from $4.99 to $23.99, for no extra charge.

Of course, you can bet there will be an extra charge for the set-top box. However, pricing information and other details for the set-top box were unavailable.