Netflix to start streaming through Xbox

UPDATE: 12,000 standard-def titles, 300 high-def titles available

By Danny King -- Video Business, 11/18/2008

NOV. 18 | Netflix said today that owners of Microsoft Xbox games consoles starting tomorrow will be able to stream from Netflix’s inventory of digital titles directly to their TVs, making good on an agreement it made with Microsoft four months ago.

The service, dubbed “The New Xbox Experience,” will give Xbox owners access to Netflix’s inventory of more than 12,000 standard-definition digital titles, Netflix said in a statement. Additionally, the Xbox, the only videogame console included in this service, will allow streaming of about 300 high-definition titles.

Netflix, the largest U.S. movie-rental service via mail, has been trying to boost subscribers by augmenting its by-mail service with an expanded inventory of titles through its streaming service and partnering with component makers to allow the service to be accessed directly from TV sets. Since last month, Netflix, which inked the agreement with Microsoft in July, has agreed to have its titles streamed through TiVo digital-video recorders and Samsung Blu-ray players.

Netflix’s agreement with Microsoft might have caused Sony to block its movie titles from being streamed by the Netflix service because Sony’s PlayStation 3 videogame console competes with Microsoft’s Xbox, according to reports this week.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said that a "few hundred titles are temporarily unable to be streamed via that Xbox game console," though declined to comment on whether the titles were all Sony’s or whether Sony was blocking its films.

"This issue is not specific to Xbox or any other individual platform," Sony Pictures Entertainment spokesman Jim Kennedy wrote in a statement. "Sony Pictures is currently in discussions with the relevant parties to resolve certain licensing matters related to the distribution of its motion pictures."

Netflix in May introduced the Roku set-top box, which allows customers to stream from its digital-title inventory. Later that month, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said products such as Netflix Player by Roku, which had to be back-ordered within three weeks of its introduction, would double the company’s subscriber base within a decade.

Since then, the company has announced agreements to carry video-streaming content from Liberty Media’s Starz movie channel, Walt Disney’s Disney Channel and CBS.

High-definition titles available for streaming starting tomorrow include Heroes and La Vie en Rose, said Netflix, which Roku said earlier this month would also make high-definition titles available to owners of the Roku box by the end of the year.