--Company Said to Be Planning to Launch Streaming Service on iPhone/iPod Touch and Nintendo Wii
Video rental company, Netflix, announced Monday that it has signed an agreement with Disney-ABC Television Group that will make several of the ABC broadcast network's most popular series available to be streamed instantly through Netflix's broadband video service. According to the company, the deal will allow Netflix subscribers to instantly stream the first five seasons of "Lost"; seasons four and five of "Desperate Housewives"; season five of "Grey's Anatomy"; and seasons one and two of the ABC Studios syndicated action-adventure/fantasy series, "Legend of the Seeker." A number of episodes--including the first four seasons of "Lost"--have been available on Netflix since Saturday as a result of the new deal, and the company says that the rest will begin rolling out next month.
The new agreement between Netflix and Disney-ABC, which was brokered by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, extends an existing broadband video relationship between the companies, which announced their first digital licensing deal last September. That deal, which the companies say will continue, makes episodes of original series from Disney Channel--including "Hannah Montana," "Wizards of Waverly Place," "The Suite Life on Deck," and the Disney Channel's two newest original series, "Jonas" and "Sonny with a Chance"--available on Netflix's streaming platform the day after their linear-TV broadcast. "We're excited about this new agreement since it builds on a strong foundation with Disney-ABC Television Group," Robert Kyncl, Netflix's VP of content acquisition, said in a prepared statement. "In all, we're providing Netflix members with some of the most popular and avidly followed shows on TV while working with an important business partner to help grow several of its key franchises."
Netflix says that it now offers over 12,000 movies and TV episodes that its subscribers can watch instantly on their PC's and TV's as part of their subscription at no additional cost. Over the past year or so, the company has announced several partnerships with consumer electronics manufacturers to make its streaming content available on living-room television sets: devices that support--or that are slated to do so in the near future--over-the-top delivery of Netflix's service to the TV include various Blu-ray disc players and Internet TV's from LG Electronics, Blu-ray disc players from Samsung, the Roku digital video player, the Microsoft Xbox 360 game console, TiVo DVR's, and Internet TV's from Sony and Vizio.
In related news: According to a report by Multichannel News's Todd Spangler, last Friday, Netflix plans to shortly roll out its instant streaming service on Apple's iPhone and iPod touch devices, as well as on the Nintendo Wii game console. Spangler said that the source of the information was "an industry executive familiar with Netflix's plans" (when approached for official comment, Netflix told Spangler that it does not comment on "rumors or speculation"). As Spangler pointed out in his report, the service would likely be restricted to WiFi--i.e. would not be allowed on AT&T's 3G data network--just as other bandwidth-heavy video applications, such as SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone and CBS's March Madness iPhone app, have been.
