As Netflix begins the process of spinning out its streaming business from its traditional DVD rentals, I wanted to examine the alternative streaming services that are currently available. I looked at Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, Vudu.com and Justin.tv. Added to this mix is what is available on Comcast's Xfinity service to just show what can be found from a typical cable TV company. (Of course, if you don't live in a Comcast service area, you can't subscribe to their streaming service online.) I choose five random movies and five TV series to see what was available on each service.

Granted, your results might differ based on your own personal content selection, but the general trend is that Netflix is still the champ, but only if you count both its the streaming and DVD mailing services. All ten of our selections were available, but only four of them via streaming. Amazon and Comcast had five streaming videos out of the ten available for instant watching, and Vudu and Hulu each had four.

Hulu Plus and Comcast Xfinity both have a better selection for TV series than movies, whereas Vudu is better in finding more movies. Amazon has decent coverage in both media.

If you are searching for something on Justin.tv, you will quickly find out that you can't easily find anything. If you hunt around, you might come up with a movie or TV show that someone has uploaded, but chances are this upload won't be around for very long if it violates the show's copyrights. Still, if you know your way around, you might be able to find popular shows that have been posted.

Netflix has made a name for itself supporting a wide variety of clients and browsers, on everything from Blu-ray TVs to iOS phones and tablets. Of the services examined, Amazon was the only one missing an iOS client.

What does it all cost?

The fees for each service are also hard to compare with Netflix. Vudu charges per show, and there are different prices depending on the popularity and vintage of the movie. Amazon wants you to sign up for its Prime service at $79 per year, but once you do you have unlimited streaming access for the next 12 months. If you don't want Prime, you can pay from $1 to $4 to rent the movie for up to two days, or purchase it for download. There are a host of restrictions on how long you can actually have possession for the movie too, based on our wonderful studios legal departments. Justin.tv offers both free and paid accounts that remove inline ads. And Hulu also has two pricing levels: Plus for $8 a month (the same for Netflix' streaming component) and free. Plus adds full episodes of the TV shows that it offers along with HD quality streaming.

Overall, once you leave Netflix you will find fewer choices and searching won't be as easy to find something to watch. Netflix has a great search engine that won't just look for movie titles but also check for actors and other principals involved in the movie itself, something the other services don't do as well at.

Plus, your collection of recommendations and previously watched content on Netflix can't easily be exported to any other service. Finally, while all of the services provide for streaming to your Windows or Mac Web browser, not all movies are available to stream to your iPad or Tivo box.

So while you might be upset about paying for two bills for your video rentals from Netflix, unless you are willing to spend more time searching for content, you are probably better off sticking with the service for the time being, at least until the others catch up with their content licenses. Or if you already have a cable TV subscription, investigate whether it offers something similar to Comcast's Xfinity and see what their coverage is there. Ironically, that might be your best alternative to Netflix after all.

NB: Thanks to Maia Rowland who provided the research for this article.

The announcement comes two days before Amazon is expected to launch one of two Kindle tablets to compete with the iPad.

A new tablet also opens up channels for the 100,000 non-Prime titles Amazon already has in its queues.
We expect that the device will provide network channels to all sorts of content beyond movies and TV, and that it will run an Android system skinned to the Kindle theme. It should dramatically lower the entry cost for users of a tablet to around $250.

FOX titles available to Prime members will include contemporary movies such as, "Speed," "Mrs. Doubtfire," "Doctor Dolittle," "Last of the Mohicans," as well as classics like "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." FOX will also stream TV series including "24," "The X-Files," "NYPD Blue," "Arrested Development" and "The Wonder Years."

What was less clear before today's press conference was exactly what the details would be. Those are now revealed, and as it turns out, what Dish and Blockbuster have planned is hardly the "Netflix killer" many predicted.

The offering Dish unveiled today is not a stand-alone video streaming and DVD rent-by-mail service like Netflix, but rather it's a $10 add-on for Dish subscribers. This might be a really nice added value for existing subscribers, but it doesn't look as attractive to other consumers.

What turns a lot of people off from cable and satellite TV subscriptions is their price and the fact that providers bundle together a ton of content that they're not necessarily interested in. A growing number of people instead look toward Web-based, on-demand video content from the likes of Hulu, Netflix and others. This is especially true of younger consumers, who are moving fewer TV sets into their dorm rooms this Fall and instead packing merely their laptops.

Blockbuster Movie Pass may have its perks for Dish's 14 million pay TV subscribers, but for everybody else, it simply chains them to the old model of paying for and consuming content.

Even With Their Price Hike, Netflix is Still Cheaper

In this morning's presentation, Dish touted the price point of Blockbuster Movie Pass as one of its advantages over "the competition," an obvious reference to Netflix, whose pricing model they cited specifically. While it's true that $10 is less expensive than the $16 that Netflix customers must now begrudgingly pay for the DVD-and-streaming combo, Blockbuster Movie Pass ends up being more expensive in the end becaue it's tethered to Dish.

Blockbuster Movie Pass doesn't launch until October 1, and the prices listed on the Dish website now say that plans "start at" $19.99, a price that only appears to only be in effect for 12 months (and requires a two year contract). If the new service is an extra $10, then consumers will be paying a minimum of $30 per month.

Granted, this package gets you more than what Netflix offers, including all that satellite TV content and a DVR functionality, so the price comparison isn't apples-to-apples.

You Think Netflix's Streaming Selection Stinks? This is Worse.

People have long complained that the content available to stream on-demand from Netflix is limited. That's improved over time, but may take a major hit if the company can't manage to salvage its deal with Starz Entertainment.

Even so, the site has 20,000 titles available to stream instantly, whereas Blockbuster Movie Pass will start with only 4,000 that are available to stream to desktops. Interestingly, only 3,000 will be able to be streamed directly to TV sets.

Blockbuster Movie Pass may prove to be an attractive option for those already interested in traditional pay TV subscriptions, but for people looking for an alternative to Netflix, this probably isn't the way to go.

Blockbuster photo by yapsnaps.

The agreement will keep programming from NBC, Fox and ABC on the service as the parent companies of NBCUniversal, News Corp. and Disney work out the direction that Hulu will take in years to come. What does the agreement mean? It is likely a stay of execution for the Web video service, keeping the status quo as the television giants fumble for the future of premium content on the Internet.

What does the rumored Hulu extension mean for consumers? In the short term, not much will really change. The networks continue to provide it content and derive revenue from Hulu and Hulu Plus. At the same time, none of the networks have thrown their full weight behind Hulu, making it a bit of a forgotten castoff in the web of network empires.

AllThingsD's Peter Kafa points out Disney CEO Bob Iger's statement on Hulu from the company's earnings call this week; "We don't intend to let a platform--even one we own--get in the way of doing what we think is right."

What Will The Networks Do?

The question is, what do Disney and the networks think is right? ABC is owned by Disney. One of the most popular applications on the iPad over the last several months has been the ABC Player, an application that streams ABC content and special features from shows like No Ordinary Family, Cougar Town and Desperate Housewives. Disney, not content with just making its shows available on Hulu, wants to keep its content within its own network funnel as much as possible.

If the ABC Player becomes a revenue hit for Disney, look for NBC, Fox and CBS to create their own dedicated apps, moves that would undercut Hulu and its chances of becoming the de facto location for watching new shows on the Internet. As it stands, the networks other than ABC only have news applications available, such as Fox News and CNBC. NBC has an application called NBC live that has the tag line of "watch shows on your TV and interact on your iPad."

Then there is the elephant in the room when it comes to new shows and movies - Netflix. So far, the networks and studios (one and the same when it comes to Fox Pictures and NBCUniversal) are playing a vicious game of keep-away when it comes to allowing Netflix next-day rights. Essentially, the feeling among the networks is that if Netflix is allowed streaming rights of new material, all bets on Hulu or their own dedicated online channels are off. Hence, it is in the best interest of the networks to keep Netflix at arms length, feeding it bygone content from eras past, like once lovable sitcom Cheers.

Hulu continues to float on top of deep currents, its life strings attached to behemoths of media that do not trust each other nor the potentially disruptive child they have created. Will Hulu ever fulfill its potential as the go-to source for premium content on the Internet? Not under the current agreement and, as time goes on and the networks do little to innovate it, probably not ever.

Streaming video and DVD subscription service Netflix announced its first quarter earnings for 2011 today. In its letter to shareholders (.pdf), the company showed off its continued growth, with 3.6 million new subscribers worldwide and $719 million in revenue, but the real story might be the company's continued march away from its once-bread-and-butter offering - the humble DVD.

The company barely pays lip service to DVD subscriptions, and spends the majority of the letter discussing plans for first-run TV series and movies, expanded network offerings and competition within the streaming video space.

We believe that DVD will be a fading differentiator given the explosive growth of streaming, and that in order to prosper in streaming we must concentrate on having the best possible streaming service.  As a result, we are beginning to treat them separately in many ways.  Already, if you look at our signup page for non-members, it is all about streaming.  Having said this, DVD rental is still a great business for us, and we are working on solutions to make sure DVD continues to be a profitable business for us in the years ahead, but it is not core to winning in streaming at this point. 

In the handful of other mentions, we find the word "DVD" next to words like "flattening" and "decline". The writing has been on the wall for months now and here it is again. So what does Netflix have in store, then, for its multiplying streaming customers?

• A "wider and better selection of TV shows and movies then ever before. Netflix points to a partnership with CBS, which it says makes it the "only online premium subscription service that offers shows from all four broadcast networks, as well as many of the largest cable TV networks."
• Increased content with: Sons of Anarchy, Glee, Mad Men, Weeds, Blue Mountain State.
• Look out for more first-run, serialized content like "House of Cards". The company says "Serialized dramas, like the original BBC series on which "House of Cards" is based, have been big favorites on Netflix and we want to confirm our theory that because we are click-and-watch rather than appointment viewing, we can efficiently build a big audience for a well-produced serialized show." If this one is a success, the company says it is like to "license two or three similar, but smaller, deals."
• The biggest competition is coming from Hulu Plus and Amazon Prime, with Dish Networks "likely to launch a substantial subscription streaming effort under the Blockbuster brand," in case you're looking for an alternative.
• The word "stream" shows up 26 times in the letter, while "DVD" shows up only 12 times. Just saying.

Netflix, the streaming movie and DVD subscription service, has continued on its march to a streaming-only future by removing the option to quickly and easily queue DVDs from yet another device.

The company announced in January that it would begin removing the option from "streaming devices," but we wonder if users - who were outraged at the idea - realized that the move would extend to devices like the iPad.

According to Netflix, most members use the website to manage their  DVD queue, so the additional functionality should be missed. Except, perhaps, by a vocal minority. The blog post announcing the change in January quickly reached a 5,000 comment max in just over a week's time. (By comparison, the most epic comment thread ever on ReadWriteWeb has garnered just over 3,000 comments in a year's time.)

The point, however, is not that users will disagree with the change. Netflix, like it or not, intends to get out of the DVD shipping business as fast as it possibly can. With DVDs costing 20 times more than streaming, who could blame them?

Now, the only thing we can hope for is that Netflix passes those savings on to its users and gets more streaming content. Then we can all stop complaining about ordering DVDs.

Actually, now that I think about it, I've been streaming only since the day it came out. What's wrong with you folks, cat got your Internet connection?

One more thing - the DVD queue feature is still completely available on the Netflix website, which is available using Safari. On the iPad.

Amazon's new streaming video service has been anticipated for several months, as the retail giant moves to compete with Netflix in the movie-streaming - not simply the DVD rental or purchase - business.

The launch of this new feature comes - so far - without company fanfare, first noticed by The Next Web's Matt Brian this morning. We anticipate Amazon will make a formal announcement with more details.

Update: Amazon just announced the service, adding this key detail: Prime Instant Video Service is available today for Roku customers as part of the Amazon Instant Video Channel on Roku

Currently the service is only available to U.S. customers. If you're not a subscriber, you can sign up for a free trial and give it a whirl.

A new service from Encoding.com launches today that seeks to address this with a simple new service to make a video playable on a variety of mobile devices: Vid.ly.

From there, Vid.ly makes it easy to share the video with others as it provides a short URL. Those that click on it will be served the video file compatible with the device they're using. You can also embed the code on your website to the same end - people can stream your movies no matter if they're on a Blackberry or an iPad.

Vid.ly certainly addresses one of the major pain points of watching and delivering video content online, and Encoding.com says it will launch a Pro version in the coming months that will offer API access.

According to Netflix VP of Engineering Christian Kaiser, this is a key area of focus for Netflix in the coming year, and the company hopes to help define a standard that will bring streaming video to a variety of consumer electronics using HTML5.

Today's blog post addresses this issue, explaining that HTML5 "seems like a natural next step for us to use it for streaming video playback within our HTML5-based user interfaces. However, as of today, there is no accepted standard for advanced streaming through the <video> tag."

For Netflix to use HTML5 to stream video, writes Kaiser, a number of requirements need to be met, from agreeing on protocols to formats to protecting  content. He explains that, with proprietary  technology such as these iPhone and iPad apps, Netflix has solved most all of these issues. The only thing remaining is "a way of exposing all this functionality into HTML5." The result would be a standard that could be used by many services to bring streaming video to nearly any device, writes Kaiser:

But what if we could replace all these proprietary solutions with an industry-wide standard? Then Netflix, or any other video streaming service, could deliver to a standard browser as a pure HTML5 web application, both on computers and in CE devices with embedded browsers. Browser builders and CE manufacturers could support every OS and device they choose, leveraging the same implementations across multiple streaming services instead of building and integrating an one-off implementation for each service. Consumers would benefit by having a growing number of continually evolving choices available on their devices, just like how the web works today for other types of services.
We believe that this is an attractive goal.

To this end, Netflix has said that it is getting involved with the community to devise a standard. It is working to define an "industry standard for adaptive streaming" and to "define the requirements for premium on-demand streaming services like ours"."

Even this description is glossing over the more technical points presented in the post, but the short of it is that this sort of advancement could bring a more device-agnostic standard to streaming video and help put an end to much of the debate over how to get streaming video on different devices.

If you felt eternally confused by "Lost" and you want to give it another go, or you have children that love "Hannah Montana", then Netflix just gave you another reason to join.

• Prior season episodes of current ABC hit series "Grey's Anatomy,"  "Desperate Housewives" and, for the first time on Netflix, "Brothers & Sisters," all of which are among the network's most successful and popular TV franchises in recent years.
• Every episode of recent ABC favorites "Lost" and "Ugly Betty," the latter making its streaming debut at Netflix.
• Each season of several hit series from ABC Studios, including "Scrubs" and "Reaper," which are both new additions to Netflix.
• A host of content from the Disney Channel, including the hits "Phineas and Ferb" and "Good Luck Charlie," which are also new to Netflix; updated and expanded offerings of "The Suite Life on Deck" and "Wizards of Waverly Place;" and library offerings from the smash hits "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody."
• A wide range of content from ABC Family, marking the introduction of ABC Family content streaming from Netflix.  Included are the hit series "Greek," "Make It or Break It," "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" and "Melissa & Joey."

This isn't, however, the in-season content we wrote about Netflix vying for the other day, as far as we can tell. Although the release mentions not streaming any content sooner than 15 days after its initial airing, it only mentions "prior season episodes of current ABC hit series."

I, for one, can't complain - I want to give Lost another shot to see if it makes any more sense the second (or is it the third?) time around.

Seeing this success, then, it doesn't come as a surprise that Amazon - the world's largest Internet retailer - is looking to make a subscription-based, streaming-only option of its own to compete with Netflix.

Amazon Prime is a program that gives "unlimited fast shipping" for frequent Amazon shoppers. It's interesting that Amazon would focus so much on the form of content delivery and package it together with traditional shipping. Will Amazon users really have to continue paying à la carte for most content and only get a Netflix-type option if they subscribe to a service meant for traditional shipping fees? The Business Insider points out that, at $79 per year, the service would beat out Netflix at its own game, which comes in at $95 annually "and doesn't include free shipping on purchases from Amazon."

What do you think about Amazon getting into the game? Will the heating-up of the streaming video space only lead to more expensive Internet plans? Or will competition lower the cost of streaming video to make up for it?

According to the report, Netflix has become predominantly streaming, with a majority of its users watching more content streamed online than on DVD.

"In Q4 a majority of Netflix subscribers will watch more content streamed from Netflix than delivered on DVD. With that transition in the business from mostly DVD to mostly streaming, this will be the last quarter the company will report this metric."

Last month, we examined statements by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings pointing to a streaming-only service for the U.S. Currently, streaming-only is only available in Canada. At that time, Hastings had said that "If our results are as strong as we think they will be, then we will look to start this offering later in this Q4. Pure streaming could become our core offering in the USA, and DVD would be offered as a supplement for an additional charge, like we offer Blu-ray today."

The fact that streaming video has overtaken DVDs as the primary form of content consumption for Netflix users seems like a good indication that a streaming-only option is soon on the way.

As McQuivey notes, with users watching Netflix on devices like Xbox and soon Google and Apple TV, streaming video is taking over that same screen real estate once owned by the DVD and "the percent of subscribers that watch instantly is no longer just material to the business, it is the business."

As all of these streaming video solutions and Internet-connected TVs become more mainstream (and no other console is more mainstream than the Wii), more and more consumers will likely be willing to cut their cable subscription in favor of using services like Netflix and Hulu+ in their living rooms. This, of course, is something the cable companies are rather worried about, but it is definitely a boon for consumers who now have more choice for how and when they want to consume video content.

Hulu Plus requires a $10/month subscription in order access content across a wide variety of portals, including iOS devices, connected TVs, gaming consoles and now the Roku. Apple TV will let users rent TV shows for $.99 a pop, but avid TV watchers may prefer an unlimited monthly plan from Hulu.

The other area the Roku is beating the $99 Apple TV is its price. Roku's new line of boxes starts at $59 for built-in WiFi and 720p HD playback via HDMI. For $79, customers can access 1080p streaming, and at $99, a USB port for local file playback is added. The Apple TV, on the other hand, is only capable of 720p streaming. The new Roku boxes also feature a 7-second rewind feature, helping to cut down on stream buffer times when trying to quickly rewind a program.

Any little feature is certainly going to help, but the partnership with Hulu has propelled the Roku into the center of the fight for our living room entertainment. There's no word yet on the stream quality, but so far Hulu Plus has only offered 720p to other devices. Regardless of this, however, Roku's deal with Hulu is a big win for the company and makes the set-top box conversation much more interesting.

Blockbuster's decline can be partly blamed on the rise of online rent-by-mail services like Netflix and Gamefly. Other services, like Redbox which lets users rent DVDs at $1 a night from conveniently placed kiosks, have equally eaten away at the retail giant. Blockbuster has tried to react to these competitors, launching both online and kiosk-based rental service, but it clearly hasn't done enough to help plug the leaks in the sinking ship that is Blockbuster.

The major advantage Netflix has over Blockbuster is its online streaming capabilities. Netflix subscribers can stream a continuously expanding library of movies and TV shows directly to any of a number of devices, including the iOS devices, gaming consoles, and networked BluRay players. While Blockbuster users have the ability to swap discs in stores, the inability to stream any content has long been a thorn in the service's side.

DVDs are going away. This already happened with music. One day that vast majority of us will no longer buy physical copies of movies and keep them on a shelf. Netflix realizes this - which is exactly why they want to get out of the expensive rent-by-mail business and completely focus their efforts online with streaming content. Blockbuster, by failing to make the move to online streaming, will inevitably go down with the ship as fewer and fewer people purchase physical media.

However, until broadband speeds improve to handle full streaming at BluRay quality, there will still be lingering business for physical disc renters and sellers. Blockbuster hopes it can eventually pull itself out of bankruptcy and continue to survive for a bit longer.