Netflix gears up to take on Apple TV and others
Following on from our predictions for the Apple TV earlier this week and yesterday’s insightful presentation by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, Netflix today announced of Linux and open source boffin Greg Peters as vice president of partner development.
In making the move, Netflix also confirmed its interest in helping push for services and hardware to let consumers access streaming content on their TVs, showing Apple to have some competition in the den.
Peters will be responsible for bringing to market a range of devices from leading consumer electronics manufacturers that are capable of instantly streaming movies and TV episodes from Netflix directly to consumers’ TVs.
The company continues to invest in the front room multimedia TV dream, forging partnerships this year with LG Electronics, Roku, Microsoft, Samsung and TiVo to offer Netflix-ready devices that can instantly stream from its growing library of over 12,000 movies and TV episodes at Netflix.
Peters has extensive experience in strategic planning and product development in the digital media market. Most recently, he was senior vice president of consumer electronics products for Macrovision and also served as vice president of engineering for Mediabolic prior to its acquisition by Macrovision.
“Greg’s expertise in all aspects of the product development lifecycle - from vision to design to implementation - will be a significant asset to Netflix and our partners as we push toward our goal of eventually enabling all US households to stream Netflix to their TVs,” said Netflix Chief Product Officer, Dr. Hunt.
Peters was also director of Red Hat network for Red Hat; vice president of engineering for NOCpulse and director of Web development for Wine.com.
![[Post to Twitter]](http://distorted-loop.com/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/tweet-this-small.png)
Tweet This
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
I have the Roku Netflix Player. I’d toss it to the side in an instant if the AppleTV added just ONE feature. (Hint: It’s not DVR Functionality)
http://replacetelevision.wordpress.com/2008/11/13/how-to-fix-the-appletv-hint-its-not-dvr-functionality/
He’s neurotic. he’s a Nomad! He’s got some good points in his (doubly-posted) post ..Thanks for dropping by, Mr Nomad.
Neurotic, I am. (As the evidence shows)
The Roku Netflix player has been a lot of fun, but the service it’s connected to makes it mostly a Vintage TV box; hosting up Miami Vice, Quantum Leap, and the Pink Panther Show.
I did see Superbad with it a few weeks ago, thanks to Netflix’s deal with Starz, but it’s still a ghost-town compared to their DVD offering.
If any of these boxes (Vudo, Roku, Samsung, Blockbuster, AppleTV, TiVo) did half of what Boxee is capible of, the world would beat a path to their door.
You see, that’s why the evolution of content availability is inevitable. The technology is there and the market demands it. The advantage now is that business plans exist which are hopefully workable enough to survive and be developed which means the people who make that content can survive. That’s a good step toward the ultimate digital entertainment nirvana of being able to access anything, from anywhere, using you choice of delivery method. A simple evolution of the broadcast model.
There’s probably a number of licensing issues to work out, in which for me what matters most is that creativity is possible and creators can survive in dignity and comfort.
Doesn’t NetFlix allow you to view movies instantly now? Directly from their website?
Stream Host
Stream Host