Digital video recorder (DVR) and TV service provider TiVo has announced a partnership with online movie rental service Netflix to provide joint subscribers the ability to instantly stream more 12,000 Netflix movies and TV episodes directly to their televisions.
The companies are currently testing the new capability in several thousand US homes. The service, which will be free of charge for customers of both services, is expected to be broadly available by early December.
When asked about advertiser opportunities, Tara Maitra, general manager and VP of content services for TiVo said, “The TiVo-Netflix partnership doesn’t include advertising, and there are no advertising components to the deal today. But we’re open to exploring additional business models with Netflix as we go.”
Streaming movies to TiVo DVRs is done through a broadband connection and a Netflix Queue-based interface. Netflix subscribers will still go to the Netflix Webv site to add movies to their individual Queues. Those choices will immediately show up on the user’s TV and be ready to watch.
Users also will be able to rate films and view synopsis through their TVs.
