Netflix preparing to enter the set-top box fray?

When Netflix first emerged a few years back, the service was hailed by lazy and impatient movie lovers everywhere. All of a sudden, you didn't have to leave the house to rent movies and you could even have multiple movies out for as long as you wanted, with no penalty. Pretty much the only drawback was that when you wanted a new movie, you would have to wait a few days to receive it in the mail. But what if you could just stream those movies, on demand, to your television? Well, that would be pretty much the ideal solution now, wouldn't it? It might be in the pipeline, if a recent hire offers any indication of where the company might be headed. Netflix has named Anthony Wood, founder of ReplayTV and Roku, as its VP of Internet TV. While Netflix's Internet TV is currently limited to PC streaming, the company's hiring of the man who is often credited as the creator of the digital video recorder seems to suggest that there's more exciting stuff in the works. As does Netflix's press release, for that matter, which plainly states that the company is "expanding its selection of instantly viewable content and [would] work to bring the feature to all Internet-connected screens, from cell phones to PCs to plasma TVs". Whether this takes the form of a Netflix-branded set-top box or a partnership with a manufacturer of an existing box (Apple? Microsoft? Sony?) remains to be seen. All I can say as a movie lover is that whatever it is, it can't come soon enough.

For more on Netflix's new hire:
- see this press release