Netflix has announced a partnership with LG Electronics that is expected to herald the next step in the evolution of the largest online movie rental service, that by producing set-top boxes that stream movies from its online catalog to HDTVs.
"Internet to the TV is a huge opportunity," Netflix founder, chairman and CEO Reed Hastings said in a statement. "Netflix explored also offering its own Netflix-branded set-top boxes but we concluded that familiar consumer electronics devices from industry leaders like LG Electronics are a better consumer solution for getting the Internet to the TV."
The good news - for existing Netflix subscribers, there's no additional cost for the service.
The bad news - we won't be able to tinker with it until the second half of 2008.
The LG-Netflix announcement is the latest in a race among companies to capitalize on what many analysts predict will become a multibillion-dollar download market. Technological advances and shifting consumer attitudes are forcing many companies involved in movie distribution to include online content delivery.
