Looks like the internet is eating traditional television again, after Netflix announced on Friday that it has inked a deal with three cable TV companies to make watching Netflix as easy as changing the channel.
This deal is the first of its kind for Netflix. It’s also a definitive sign that traditional cable companies, particularly small ones, are realizing they need to bridge the gap with internet TV in order to survive. Under the agreement, cable companies RCN, Grande Communications, and Atlantic Broadband will offer access to the Netflix service straight from their TV set-top boxes.
For users to take advantage of this deal, subscribers must have a specific TiVo box provided by the cable companies, and they must have a Netflix account, but once everything is set up, the experience should be seamless.
According to David Isenberg, chief marketing officer for Atlantic Broadband " If you’re an RCN customer, perhaps in the D.C. area you would pick up your remote control, you would tune to Channel 450, and there you’d find Netflix. You’d select it and that’ll launch the Netflix app."
The Washington Post
