Never Watch Commercials Again: TiVo, Netflix Partner Up
Netflix has been aggressive in the past weeks, forming partnerships with Microsoft's Xbox 360, Samsung and LG to get its video rental service on more devices and off the laptop and onto televisions.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but it is expected that Netflix will provide the ability to stream movie and TV episodes that are part of its "Watch Instantly" service to many of the 800,000 broadband connected TiVo subscribers, Reuters reports.
TiVo and Netflix are in the early stages of the partnership, with the DVR company beginning to test the functionality of streaming Netflix content to thousands of U.S. homes. TiVo expects the service to be widely available to its customers in early December.
Netflix's latest partners have included the aforementioned Xbox Live service, but the company has also made plays to get onto Blu-ray manufacturers' products as well. Samsung has agreed to stream Netflix's video on its Blu-ray DVD devices. LG reached a similar agreement for its own Blu-ray player earlier this year as well.
TiVo, like Netflix, has been looking to expand its product offering as well, trying to get its content in front of as many customers as possible. The company reached an agreement earlier this year with Amazon to allow customers to rent movies from the online marketplace. TiVo has also teamed with Google to allow some of its subscriber base to stream movies from YouTube directly to their television.
"The YouTube service on TiVo is extremely popular," Tara Maitra, vice president and general manager of content services at TiVo, told Reuters. "I think everyone's trying to figure out the right business model, and they want to get their content on as many platforms as available."