In case there was any doubt of the momentum Netflix has been able to build as video stores continue to cede market dominance to on-demand streaming and by-mail and kiosk-based rentals, the company today announced that it has 40% more subscribers, 21% higher revenue, and 22% higher profits than last year.

"We believe that the inclusion of streaming in our service has broadened the appeal of Netflix and is driving growth...essentially, both Netflix and Redbox are growing at the expense of video stores." said Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in the company's earnings call this afternoon.

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Both Sony Bravia connected HDTVs and the Sony Bravia Internet Video Link module now have access to Netflix on Demand, the popular service which has already found its way onto the Xbox 360, TiVo HD DVRs, LG Blu-Ray players and HDTVs.

Netflix will reside in the Bravia Internet Video platform alongside Amazon Video on Demand, YouTube, Sony Pictures, Sports Illustrated, Crackle, Slacker, Epicurious.com, Concierge.com, Style.com, and Dailymotion. Unfortunately, Sony's PlayStation 3 is not yet compatible with this service, and today's announcement did not mention the video game console.

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Users of Windows Media Center just got a big boost in the variety of content available through their preferred media manager, as Microsoft announced on Wednesday that the Vista Home Premium and Ultimate users who are also Netflix unlimited members have access to over 12,000 movies and TV shows via WMC, effective immediately (give or take a couple of days).

The arrangement dramatically ups the appeal of WMC, especially for those users who don't feel the need to throw a TV tuner into their PC -- or, for that matter, to sign up for Netflix's Instantly To Your TV service.

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It took Netflix over 7 years to ship 1 billion DVDs to subscribers. It has now doubled that milestone in another two. The company announced Thursday that a Blu-ray disc of Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist was its 2 billionth delivery, and to celebrate, subscriber Clay Shannon will receive a free lifetime subscription to Netflix.

Netflix ships two million movies each day from its 58 distribution centers. Its library has grown from 2,000 titles in 1999 to over 10,000 -- 1,300 of which are on Blu-ray, leading the company to hike fees for the high-definition format. The delivery figures do not include the number of movies Netflix has streamed through its Instant-On feature, which may prove the significance of Blu-ray simply a blip in the company's timeline by the time its 3 billion milestone arrives.

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Although it's been over a year since Blu-ray won the format war against HD DVD and almost all new movies are simultaneously released in the high-definition format, prices have not fallen, with Blu-ray discs still costing up to 3 times more than DVDs. In turn, Netflix has begun informing subscribers that it is raising the cost of those who receive movies on Blu-ray from $1 to $4 per month.

Netflix is attributing the 400% fee increase to the cost of the company having to stock more films in Blu-ray. "As we buy more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of Blu-ray titles. And as you've probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs," the company said in an e-mail to subscribers.

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Hot on the heels of similar lawsuits against Netflix and Wal-Mart in other states, a new court action in West Virginia charges that the two companies colluded over dinner to drive DVD prices "artificially higher."

A newly filed suit by a West Virginia law firm alleges that Netflix and Wal-Mart have broken antitrust laws and caused "damage" to past and current Netflix customers in the US by divvying up various segments of the online and retail DVD market between themselves.

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The number of Xbox 360 users downloading the Watch Instantly application from Netflix has now reached the 1 million mark, according to Microsoft and Netflix. Introduced less than three months ago, the application is designed to let Xbox Live Gold members use their TVs to watch movies and television shows streamed from Netflix to an Xbox gaming system from Microsoft.

By now, Xbox customers have used the application from Netflix to watch 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TVs, the companies maintained in a statement. Over 12,000 movies and TV episodes are available for instant viewing through Netflix, with a growing percentage available in high definition format. Beyond supporting Netflix streaming in the US, the Xbox Live Video Marketplace also offers more than 17,000 other pieces of standard and HD content.

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Certain Netflix members this weekend received a survey from the company in their inbox which asked if users would pay more for premium content.

The survey focused on HBO content, which would add $9.99 per month and give the user instant access to HBO original series and movies. While it is still only an idea by the company, the introduction of a tiered streaming model is a logical next step for the company. It would move the streaming business out of the auxiliary position it currently holds and closer to the company's mail order business which currently has nine different monthly rental plans.

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"It's very clear that streaming is energizing our growth," said Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings, in announcing a 45% leap in quarterly profits for the online video rental service despite a declining overall economy.

With consumers relying more on home entertainment during the financial crunch, Netflix is taking obvious advantage of the trend, closing the fourth quarter with 9.39 million subscribers, up 26 percent from the same quarter the year before.

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Amazon today announced that owners of the formerly Netflix-exclusive Roku set-top box will be able to access Amazon Video On Demand, and LG announced it's building Netflix instant streaming directly into some of its upcoming HDTVs.

Video rental company Netflix is proving to be a genuine gateway to streaming video content. Today, Amazon announced that its Video On Demand service will be hitting Roku players early this year, adding nearly 40,000 more titles to the around 30,000 Netflix delivers to the diminutive box. Titles are pure H.264 streams (no downloading, since the Roku device has no storage) and will play back at 300, 600, 900, or 1200 kbps. Amazon says movies and TV shows will be rentable or buyable.

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This morning, the Netflix service was officially made available to users of TiVo Series3, and TiVo HD XL users with the updated software and an existing Netflix subscription.

On Friday, the TiVo 11.0 software began to roll out, but other than a slight rearrangement on the main menu and the "11.0" insignia, there was little to speak of in the update. However, this meant that the updated boxes were primed for the Netflix On Demand service, which was announced at the end of October.

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An apparent licensing issue has rendered Columbia Pictures movies unwatchable through New Xbox Experience's Netflix instant queue, for reasons Netflix is describing as a "natural ebb and flow" of licensing.

AOL gaming blog Joystiq reported that Instant queues in their advance access to the New Xbox Experience had been updated with a "Notes" column, where many movies were listed as "Not available on Xbox."

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Subscribers to the online movie rental service Netflix this afternoon found a not-entirely-unexpected message in their e-mail, informing them that HD DVD-based movie titles would not be available in one month's time.

"Effective December 15, 2008, we will no longer carry HD DVDs," the message from Netflix reads. "At that time, we will automatically replace any HD DVD titles in your Queue with standard DVDs when available. You don't have to do anything...Last February, we announced that since most of the major movie studios had decided to release their high-def movies exclusively in Blu-ray, we were going exclusively Blu-ray as well and would be phasing out our HD DVDs."

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Online movie rental service Netflix has been evolving on an almost daily basis. Following a number of developments in its streaming video category, it announced yesterday it will soon cease selling previously viewed DVDs.

On the official Netflix blog yesterday, community leader Meghan wrote, "As you know, our core business is delivering great movie rentals to you on DVD by mail and instantly to the computer and TV, so we've decided it makes sense for us to focus exclusively on that. This means we will stop selling previously viewed DVDs through the Web site. We're sorry for any inconvenience for those of you who regularly purchase DVDs at Netflix, but we're excited about being able to spend the extra time focusing on continually improving our core rental business for you."

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Silverlight-powered movie streams are now available to Netflix subscribers, with the promise of better performance and greater HD. Right now, though, the trial is limited to Intel-based systems.

Last week, Netflix announced its instantly viewable movie streams, which had heretofore been inaccessible to Mac users, would be available through Microsoft's Silverlight platform to those without Windows Media Player.

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