Sony to get Netflix movies on the PlayStation 3
Sony is finally catching up to Microsoft in getting Netflix movies streamed to a game console. Today, Sony and Netflix are announcing that Netflix’s collection of thousands of movies on the PlayStation 3, the New York Times reported.
Netflix already streams movies and TV shows to Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Gamers who subscribe to Netflix and use the “watch instantly” function to download and immediately begin watching movies via the Xbox 360. Now the same service extension will be available to Sony’s 9 million PS 3 owners in the U.S.
Next month, the 9 million U.S. owners of Sony’s PlayStation 3 game consoles will have another entertainment option available to them: streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix. Netflix also makes the “watch instantly” service available on a number of Blu-ray movie players, TV sets, Tivo, and the Roku set-top box.
Sony has thousands of its own movies and TV shows available on the PS 3. Those cost $3 to $4 to watch. The Netflix service will be available only to people who pay a monthly subscription of $8.99 or more per month for Netflix’s DVD via mail service, which has 11 million subscribers. To get the Netflix option, PS 3 owners will have to order a free disk from Netflix and then put it into their game console whenever they want to watch a movie. Next year, the disk is not likely to be necessary.
