Andre Yoskowitz
31 Jul 2008 16:59
At the 200 CES event, LG announced that they would in time be introducing a device that could stream movies from Netflix's Watch Instantly streaming, on-demand service. At the time however, there was no word on what the device was or how much it would cost.
This morning however, LG announced that the device would in fact be a Blu-ray player with the built-in ability to stream Netflix movies.
There was still no exact word on price, but the company did say it would be "well under $500 USD." Allan Jason, LG’s vice president for sales and marketing in its digital media division, did add however that he expects the player to retail for $400 USD.
One notable feature that is lacking however is a wireless networking connection that is even available in the $100 Netflix set-top box from Roku. Mr. Jason does not believe that is a problem however as he feels "the sort of early adopters who are likely to buy Blu-ray players in the next few years mostly already have Internet connections in their family rooms."
“Consumers want more content,” Jason added. “Netflix has a catalog of over 12,000 movies that can be streamed. We said, ‘This makes the perfect marketing partnership with LG.’”
The new player marks the first Blu-ray player with Internet video but it will certainly not be the last. BD Live calls for mandatory Internet connection and Sony and Panasonic have BD Live players going live (no pun intended) soon.