• by Fern Siegel , October 30, 2008

The new partnership between the 11-year-old DVR company and Netflix, the online movie rental service, means that more than 12,000 movies and TV episodes can be streamed to the latest generation of TiVo digital video recorders. The new service is expected to be available in early December; there is no charge for customers who subscribe to both services.

Movies streamed from Netflix via specified TiVo recorders are done through a high-speed broadband connection and a Netflix queue-based user interface. Members visit the Netflix Web site to add movies and television shows to their queues. Once added, the selections can be screened immediately on TV.

"Joining forces with Netflix creates the ultimate video-on-demand service and solidifies TiVo's leading position as the one-box solution for aggregating, searching and delivering the best content available anywhere right to the TV," said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo Inc.

TiVo already has deals with Amazon.com and Google's YouTube. The Netflix addition should enhance Rogers' claim that the partnership "differentiates TiVo even further from any other offering in the market today"--a reference to services offered by cable TV companies.

TiVo ended July with 3.6 million subscribers, and Netflix ended with 8.7 million subscribers, per AP.

Tivo and Netflix tried a similar alliance in 2004; it failed when Netflix was unable to get the rights to certain movies.