The announcement comes just two weeks after Netflix' introduction of streaming content for the Xbox 360 gaming console. That followed the company's debut of the Netflix Player by Roku earlier this year. The steps are all part of the company's plan to reach every venue in which movie fans could possibly be.

"The Netflix goal is to be ubiquitous," Steve Swasey, Netflix vice president of corporate communications, told TechNewsWorld. "We're doing that through partners ... [that have] seen the vision that getting the Internet to the TV is the way to the future," he said.

Though accessed through a Blu-ray player, the streamed content will not be available in HD at launch. It will, however, be at a quality comparable to a standard DVD, the company promises.

Limited Library

While Netflix' mail-based DVD service offers about 100,000 titles, the streaming library is limited to only about 12,000 options as of now, and its movie selection consists greatly of old or low-budget films rather than recent blockbusters. That may end up being the service's strongest limiting factor.

"It's a natural evolution, moving toward digital distribution," Jonathan Taplin, a professor specializing in digital media entertainment at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, told TechNewsWorld. "The problem is that until the industry creates a completely different way of approaching video on demand, it's just not going to be the most satisfying experience," he said.

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