LG Blu-Ray Player to Stream Netflix Movies

Much anticipation has built in light of last January’s announcement of a new product from LG which would play movies on Netflix’s streaming, on-demand service. Today, Allan Jason, LG’s vice president for sales and marketing in the digital media division, said the product will be offered at a premium price which could cost approximately $400-$450. The player does not have wireless capabilities like a standalone box from Roku which offers Netflix films on televisions, but rather depends on network cables.Mr. Jason is guessing some of the first customers who are likely to purchase Blu-Ray players may already have internet connections in their family rooms.

LG is hoping that a deal with Netflix will create a competitive advantage for its Blu-Ray players. Appealing to a customer demand for more content, a deal with Netflix would provide a catalog of over 12,000 movies that can be streamed. This new product also stands out because it is the first Blu-Ray player to provide Internet video. BD Live is the specification which requires an Internet connection in order to download additional content to Blu-Ray discs.

In time, LG intends to add links to other Internet video providers, such as pay-per-view movies. The new services could be added to existing Blu-Ray players through a software upgrade.

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