How Many "Entertainment Boxes" Do You Have In Your Home ?

Following Sony's lead, Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s largest television maker, will introduce its Internet-enabled TVs using Google software. Internet-enabled TVs let viewers buy video games and applications that do just about anything, while also enabling streaming programming from the Internet. So the TV becomes the computer, the movie theater, image and video library and, oh yea, the TV. Good news for Internet-based services like Netflix, Hulu and online gaming sites. Thought claiming ownership of the remote control was hard when you simply wanted to watch another program ? Well, with many new options available on this new multimedia jewel, the TV now becomes the "entertainment box" in the home and of course, one will no longer due.

The Video On Demand Wars -- Coming To A Digital Screen In Your Home

Now that premium entertainment is becoming easier to stream from the web to directly to your television, the race by Digital Rainmakers on how to make money on the growing consumer demand is becoming fierce. The Rainmaker playing field includes -- Google, Apple, Amazon, Hulu, NBC Universal, News Corp., Disney, Sony, Viacom and Time Warner. Unfortunately for these brand giants, one brand has already beaten them to the punch.

Fresh off its knockout of Blockbuster, Netflix, which originally built its business on DVD rentals by mail, diversified to accommodate consumer's desire for immediate and unlimited access to video entertainment  over the Internet offering, Watch Instantly. In just two years, Netflix has grown its subscriber base by 78% and the percentage of Netflix subscribers who stream video is growing dramatically. Today, more than 61% of subscribers use Netflix' Watch Instantly for at least 15 minutes, compared to 37% just one year ago.Netflix has been smart about partnering with makers of  TVs, set-top boxes, video game consoles, Blu-ray players, tablets and smartphones, including competitor Apple TV. And while Netflix is investing heavily in stocking its movie library, management is being very aggressive in pursuing licensing deals for back seasons of popular TV shows. That means Netflix could soon oust Hulu in the past season TV program content category.