Danny King

How bad do Netflix streamers want Wii?

Just asking, as usual, Netflix says.

The largest U.S. movie-rental chain via mail is polling its subscribers on how interested they would be having Netflix's video-streaming titles playable on televisions through Nintendo's Wii videogames console.

Netflix is trying to find out whether customers are anywhere between "very likely" and "very unlikely" to order a free disc that would allow Nintendo Wii owners to order from Netflix's inventory of more than 12,000 digital titles, Web site HackingNetflix.com reported last week.

The poll is at least the second time in about three months Netflix has tried to gauge customer interest in having its digital titles played on consoles other than Microsoft's Xbox 360. Netflix, which started making its digital titles playable on Xbox consoles last November, won't say how long its exclusive agreement with Microsoft will be in place.

Last week's poll is one among many Netflix sends out to gauge interest of its more than 10 million subscribers on a variety of subjects, said company spokesman Steve Swasey.

Still, this poll differs from March's, which measured interest in streaming on both Wii and Sony's PlayStation 3 platforms, because it said the so-called "Instant Streaming" disc would be available for free. In March's poll, Netflix said it would charge $9.99 for the disc.

By reaching an agreement with Nintendo, Netflix would further expand the number of people who would be able to stream its digital titles by partnering with the most popular non-handheld videogames system in the U.S. Last month, Nintendo sold 289,500 Wii units in the U.S., compared with 175,000 Microsoft Xbox 360 consoles and 131,000 PlayStation 3 machines, NPD Group said earlier this month.

Nintendo Wii owners in Japan will be able to video-stream movie titles from Viacom's Paramount Pictures unit by way of Roxio CinemaNow, according to an agreement announced last week by CinemaNow parent Sonic Solutions.

Posted by Danny King on June 29, 2009 | Comments (0)