With more than 2 million people now using the online DVD rental service NetFlix they have teh capabilities to rent over 25,000 titles simply through the mail, but now Newsweek reports that the NetFlix service is looking to up the ante as competitors such as Blockbuster are aiming to make similar late fee dodging services with customers with rental passes and the such. Along with TiVo, a service that lets people digitally record their favorite shows and zoom through the ads the two companies are hoping to make lounging on the couch a full time sport by allowing people to directly download movies over the Net to their television.
In this article here Newsweek reports that Netflix and TiVo want this digital nirvana to arrive as soon as possible, and they are about to join forces to make it happen. Apparently later this month the companies plan to launch the service which will allow subscribers of both services to download their Netflix DVDs over the Internet directly into the TiVo boxes in their homes, instead of receiving them in the mail.
While Newsweek wasn’t able to get official confirmation an insider close to the deal says the partnership is all but a done deal, pending only the approval of the TiVo board this week: “You don’t need a lot of creativity to figure out the details,” the insider said.
This deal is sure to have Hollywood keeping a close eye to ensure that copyright protections aren’t hacked, which could lead to its biggest nightmare: high-quality versions of its movies released freely onto the Internet.
