By : Erik Gruenwedel | Posted: 17 Nov 2009
egruenwedel@questex.com

Netflix Nov. 17 officially began offering subscribers the ability to stream movies and television programming from the Internet to select networked Sony televisions for free.

Originally announced last summer, the Sony Bravia TVs now available to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix include the W5100, Z5100, XBR9, and XBR10 series in 40-inch, 46-inch and 52-inch screen sizes, which are priced from $1,100 to $5,000. Netflix also is streaming to the Sony N460 Network Blu-ray Disc Player, which retails for $250.

Edward Woo, research analyst, equity research with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said the current usefulness of Netflix streaming is limited because few of the less-expensive Bravia TVs on the market have the Bravia link required to stream movies.

“If this adapter becomes standard in all Sony TVs, then this would be a big deal, but I don’t think this will happen any time within two years,” Woo said recently.

Netflix currently offers more than 12,000 title streams to subscribers via the Microsoft Xbox 360, Roku digital video player, LG Electronics’ BD300 Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player, Samsung’s BD-P2500 and BD-P2550 players and TiVo Series 3, HD and HDXL broadband digital video recorders.

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