TiVo, Netflix partner to instantly stream movies, TV shows (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Marketwatch.com ^ | October 30, 2008 | Michael Kitchen

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Digital-video recorder company TiVo Inc. (TIVO) and online movie rental service Netflix Inc. (NFLX) said Thursday they are teaming up to provide Netflix and some TiVo subscribers with the ability to have thousands of movies and TV episodes instantly streamed from Netflix directly to their TVs. The two companies said they are initiating a test of the new capability Thursday in several thousand U.S. households and expect it to be broadly available in early December.

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"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."

"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer and commentator

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ping

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http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/081030/aqth525.html

[LauraJean]

I have netflix and use the instant movies on my computer all the time. We all have the roku box so we can get shows on our tv. I discontinued my cable and just watch netflix.

[bert]

That would be great for me if I could ever get the laptop to communicate with the flatscreen and actually work as a second monitor.

It boils down to a windows problem and many efforts have failed. The wall paper is there but no desktop.

[SueRae]

I’d LOVE to dump cable. What’s a roku box? I’m not a netflix subscriber yet but would be if I cn get them on the TV (I treated myself to one indulgence last year - a Sony Bravia)

[MediaMole]

Netflix is also teaming with Microsoft to stream movies to Xbox360 consoles.

It is already possible if you have a computer running Windows Media Center.

[abb]

As we have chronicled here many, many times, there are HUGH changes afoot in how information is distributed. I rather like this quote from not too long ago.

"I was taught when I was a young reporter that it's news when we say it is. I think that's still true -- it's news when 'we' say it is. It's just who 'we' is has changed"

David Carr (b. 1956), US Journalist. CNN "Reliable Sources", Sunday, August 10, 2008.

[BubbaBobTX]

I have actually been thinking about doing the same thing. Is their a month service for the Roku box or is it a one time charge to purchase?

[abb]

http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer/

[Borges]

That’s awful. Movies are becoming more and more disposable.

[LauraJean]

The Roku box was about 100 dollars and no monthly fee. I have to snail mail at least 1 netflix movie at a time. I think that is about 9 dollars a month. The instant movies are covered by the 9 dollars a month. It is a lot cheaper then what I was paying for the dish network.

[weegee]

We are moving to that model. The dinosaur media is going out in scandal and shame, faking the nightly newscasts (witness Dan Rather).

People want their entertainment “on demand”. Many cable channels now offer repeated broadcasts of content. They time shift and even skip past the ads.

And as for “news”, there are 24 hour news channels for “headline news” and “round the clock coverage”. The audience can also go to the internet and instantly pull up the wire service feeds without a Nexus search or subscription.

The daily newspaper is the biggest con. Home delivery of information that is already 12-36 hours old. There is no home delivery of milk and other things anymore. It provides limited local news coverage unavailable from other sources but the coverage is often limited and stilted to the city’s (liberal) movers and shakers. Many cities are one paper towns now so there is no need to be objective (they are the only game in town).

But it is good to see people break their chains with their television sets and even cable movie channels (which subsidize the loss of movies like Batman & Robin or W. with the heavy repeated broadcasts when you want to watch some other movie). But that’s what you get when Time-Warner owns a movie channel like HBO and needs to recoup loss on a Warner Bros. film.

[Yo-Yo]

TiVo used to have a deal with Amazon.com for movies-on-demand.

I wonder if TiVo ended the relationship with Amazon.com when they partnered with Netflix.

[Domandred]

Omgosh I think this is the best news I’ve heard all week. I’m already a subscriber to both.

[dilvish]

Not to belabor the obvious or anything and I’m sure the answer is yes, but just to try to help have you tried to drag anything beyond the far left or right of your desktop? There’s different modes of dual screening: duplication, long screen, and second screen. And if you’re in second screen mode it starts off just like you describe (wallpaper only) until you drag something over to it.

I just recently figured out all this stuff on my own computer, it’s definitely a bit confusing. Then it gets more confusing as you have to figure out which stuff works best which way, and learn that your desktop configuration app doesn’t like to change modes when there’s a video running, and if you’re going to do this a lot forget having your desktop icon arranged all pretty because this will re-arrange them randomly periodically. But once you figure it all out it’s kind of cool.

[dilvish]

Not really. This just replaces rental not ownership. This is a faster less travel more instant gratification way of accomplishing something that never resulted in keeping the movie anyway.

[abb]

Weegee, I have been doing these Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™ threads systematically for nearly three years now. GrampaDave and others have posted for longer than that on this subject.

It has been a fascinating education for me. I’ve also been reading as much as I can on the history of information distribution. And I’ve read about the ‘business’ of information - how it was paid for. Printing, the AP, Time, Inc., CBS. I have stacks and stacks of books in my office yet to read.

For most of my 58 years I have been a news and information junkie. I wanted to know what was going on in the world and I wanted to know it right then. And many, many years ago I realized what was being told to us by the broadcasters didn’t square with reality. It was a propaganda system.

I don’t know if the brave new world of information distribution will be an improvement or not. But I’m grateful to God for letting me live long enough to see the propagandists put out of business.

[Borges]

My comment was about the idea of watching films on an Xbox or even a smart phone as some people now do. It makes the Art seem cheap, shallow and disposable.

[HawaiianGecko]

  Well, don't look at it as a replacement for cable TV. View it as an add-on or a means of replacing the premium channels such as HBO, MAX, STARZ etc.

You still have to have a Netflix subscription $16.99/month, a TIVO subscription $12.95/month + $6.95/month for each additional TIVO box, you need a TIVO-HD (well I guess a Series-3 will work, but what's the point?) and you need a high speed internet connection which basically means CABLE connection.

For Comcast users that would mean paying $69/month for an internet connection only, up from $39/month if you also have CATV. 

And you won't be getting Fox News, CNN, C-Span, History, Discovery, A&E etc.

IMPORTANT:  Most cable systems are moving to a monthly download limit with an additional charge per megabyte when you go over it.  Since they are the ones actually providing the bandwidth in this Netflix/Tivo deal, you can bet they are going to cash in on it.  So you're internet connection may become expensive in the near future and surpass the cost of CATV.

I'm betting the cable companies will ultimately be the content providers of choice.  Currently Comcast advertises 9,000 on-demand titles while Netflix says they have 12,000.  Not that much of a difference. Plus Comcast has all of the prime time network shows on-demand. Something NetFlix doesn't do.