Netflix to start streaming through Xbox
Video Business
By Danny King -- Video Business, 11/19/2008 9:59:00 AM
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 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.
