AfterDawn: News

Netflix announces more set-top box partners

It appears that online DVD rental giant Netflix, whose streaming video service has become very popular with customers, appears ready to make a major move into the set-top box market. Early this year the company announced a deal that will have LG manufacturing some sort of networked player that will work with the Netflix service, and now Reuters is reporting that deals have been made with with three more companies to sell similar devices.

"We have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products," Netflix Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said on a conference call with analysts.



"Three of the four partners are major companies, which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in the fourth quarter of this year," he said, adding "The fourth partner is a small company, which will likely launch sooner than Q4."

No specifics about the identities of the new partners have been announced.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 22 Apr 2008 23:18

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• 8 comments

• Hunt720

  Im pretty sure that im almost out of rackspace for another "set top box"... and how would it differ from the movies I can already get from my cable provider that are saveable to my dvr?

  22.4.2008 23:45 #1

• ydkjman

  Well I don't think any cable provider offers an unlimited amount of viewing of movies for a certain amount of money right? You have to pay per movie. If they don't charge any more for this service and you can still rent the DVDs for a reasonable fee I would sign right back up. I'm thinking about it any way.

  23.4.2008 01:23 #2

• mspurloc

  These are just going to be MORE landfill lumps.
  Very Earth-unfriendly.
  
  Why the HELL didn't they just partner with TiVo the way they had planned? The delivery system's already there.
  
  This is Hollywood pressure, pure and simple.
  They want this delivery system so you won't get the DVDs and rip them so you can watch them any time you want.
  
  Sure, it'll be convenient for one-time watchers, (if you're willing to wait for days for them to download) but do we really need to put this proprietary model garbage back into the consumer market?
  
  So what's the format going to be? I'll tell you. YET ANOTHER proprietary, wasteful DRM-ridden closed structure.

  23.4.2008 01:26 #3

• trexxus

  I ran out of space to hook anything else up to my tv months ago.

  23.4.2008 07:00 #4

• Hunt720

  Thats true, I doubt there will be the "out of box" ability to copy the movie to anothe system (THumb drive, External HDD, etc) I bet they will set it up like the mail order system, and you may only have a limited viewing time before it deletes... or maybe it is cancelled out when you download the next film (lame). That would make it more like thier basic mail-order package. It will be DRM riddled to say the least.

  23.4.2008 07:35 #5

• mspurloc

  Originally posted by trexxus: I ran out of space to hook anything else up to my tv months ago.I hear ya!
  What became of the wireless world we were going to live in?
  Switchboxes, wall warts, cables and now digital converter boxes (most of which don't have a pass-through, by the way).
  Last thing I need's another heat source or power drain.

  23.4.2008 16:14 #6

• DieMPAA

  Why not just partner with Microsoft and Sony for access to their stores?

  23.4.2008 21:41 #7

• six60six

  i bet it will be free to all regular netflix subscribers, as well be unlimited, just like their current video streaming service, plus have the ability to pay-per-view the newer releases. as a current subscriber, this sounds great.

  26.4.2008 02:01 #8