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One Million Xbox Live Members Stream Movies From Netflix

Posted on: Thursday, 5 February 2009, 10:35 CST

One million Microsoft Xbox 360 video game console users have activated Netflix's movie streaming service in the past three months since the two companies formed a partnership, Reuters reported on Thursday.

Although Netflix didn’t reveal how many subscribers it has actually gained from the partnership, the Xbox LIVE community has watched 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes through its Watch Instantly video service.

The emerging market for movies delivered over the Web seems to be catching on, analysts said.

Earlier this week, Walt Disney Co reported declining DVD sales and said the traditional business for delivering home video needs to be revised.

Netflix said its Web video streaming service was energizing its growth.  Last month, the company posted stronger-than-expected quarterly results that it mostly attributed to the growing popularity of streaming.

The Watch Instantly streaming service was originally only available on PCs.  But over the last two years, Netflix has begun streaming video from the Internet through various devices, including the Roku set-top boxes, the Xbox, LG Electronics products and others.

The Xbox LIVE Gold members, who pay $50 a year to Microsoft for various different applications, including one for Netflix, also have the ability to instantly view content from Netflix on a TV via the Xbox 360 system as long as they are also Netflix service subscribers.

The Netflix service is priced at around $9 per month, which includes Watch Instantly unlimited streaming.

The traditionally mail-based movie rental company is the only company offering a subscription-based streaming video service as other rivals like Amazon.com, Apple and Blockbuster compete with a la carte, pay-per-view rentals.

Currently, most major movie studios have resisted making new releases available digitally for subscription services, so Netflix's library of about 12,000 titles for instant viewing includes mostly older Hollywood titles.

But with a library of more than 100,000 titles, Netflix offers newer releases on DVD or high-definition Blu-ray Disc exclusively through its mail-order service.

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On the Net:

• Xbox 360
• Netflix
• Xbox LIVE

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

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