Netflix to get button on remote controls

Jan 4, 2011, 1:50 GMT

San Francisco - US video rental giant Netflix is getting its own button on numerous remote controls in a sign of how the firm is dominating the US market for streaming video content, the company announced Tuesday.

The Silicon Valley company, whose easy rental plans have already driven former giants like Blockbuster to bankruptcy, and the new hardware will help it compete with companies like Apple, Google and Amazon in the market for video content streamed to televisions.

'With the Netflix one-click remote, it's simply a matter of pushing the Netflix button to instantly watch any of the vast selection of TV shows and movies available to stream from Netflix,' chief product officer Neil Hunt said in a statement.

Among the companies that will be placing dedicated Netflix buttons on their remote controls are Panasonic, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Haier and Memorex, Netflix said.

The buttons will appear on gadgets like Blu-ray players, Internet TVs and other devices that are capable of streaming internet video to televisions.

Netflix dominated the video rental market by allowing users to choose DVD's over the internet and have them delivered and returned by mail. It has been increasingly focused in recent months on online video streaming subscriptions and is planning to start expanding from the US and Canada later this year to Europe.

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