It looks like Netflix is about ready to get another big boost to its competitiveness in the quest for online video domination. The video service has announced a deal which will see it streaming content through TiVo.
Netflix already streams movies and television shows to Roku devices, Xboxes, and Blu-Ray players from LG and Samsung. Now with TiVo in the mix, they’ll reach an even wider audience, although Tivo may really be the one that needs the competitive boost. Chris Albrecht at NewTeeVee writes:
Perhaps TiVo needs Netflix more than the other way around. TiVo has been hemorrhaging subscribers over the past year and a half. According to TVbytheNumbers.com, the DVR maker had 3.6 million subscribers in July of 2008, the same level they had in July, 2005.
Netflix on TiVo will be available to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL owners. The two companies will start testing the new service today in “several thousand” U.S. households, and anticipate it to be widely available in early December (read: “Hey! Please ignore your cable DVR and buy a TiVo this holiday.”).
The Netflix TiVo service will become widely available in December (just in time for the holidays?), but will of course require users to have a Netflix subscription. If they want to make this really enticing to those who aren’t already subscribed, they might want to consider kicking some content partnerships into gear like they did with Starz.
They’re still going to have to beef up their streaming catalogue before this truly becomes a draw to outsiders. For those of us who are already Netflix subscribers, more ways to access the content are always welcome.
