IP Democracy: Netflix Aims for the DVD Player, TV Set

It's already starting...the annual frenzy of CES announcements is starting, with a few newsworthy items trickling in ahead of the flood. Hoping to beat the crowd, movie rental company Netflix has revealed a deal with consumer electronics giant LG Electronics to ship its rental movies directly to LG's HD sets.

The deal gives the snail mail-based Netflix a further toehold in the emerging online movie business. Netflix currently offers customers the ability to watch selected movies and TV shows on their PCs, a bid to keep customers who might be migrating to online film sites such as Apple's iTunes or Amazon's Unbox (but not Walmart's online film business, which generated the sound of crickets for the retail giant and has been discontinued.)

Although not seemingly part of this latest deal, Netflix could also extend its movie rental business to LG's HD DVD/Blu-ray DVD player, which would give the still-hot movie company yet another pathway to the living room. Netflix is also angling to cut deals with other consumer electronics manufacturers.

Films would route from the PC to TV or DVD player via wireless connections, a still-iffy proposition because most of these devices don't yet feature Wi-Fi connectivity...and it's not clear if Wi-Fi is the ideal medium for transmitting bulky movies. But, Netflix doesn't have much of a choice.

The expensive and cumbersome delivery of films by email and the user-unfriendly viewing of movies on PCs are inefficient and interim steps in the in-home movie delivery business. Plus, Netflix had been planning to manufacture its own set-top box, an idea that has mercifully died.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on January 3, 2008 10:42 AM to IP Democracy