Vudu HD streaming video lands on Boxee Box, Netflix coming soon
Boxee Box owners (all two of you) rejoice! As promised, Boxee is bringing Vudu's extensive library of streaming high-definition movies to its set-top box in an update today. — Additionally, the company says Netflix support …
Context & Ripple Effects
Boxee spent 2009 as a darling of the enthusiast web on the strength of its desktop software — coverage then debated whether it deserved Hulu's blessing (Why Hulu Should Embrace Boxee) and why the community loved it so much (Why Does Everyone Heart Boxee?). With the Boxee Box now shipping as hardware, the company's problem has shifted from buzz to catalog: a set-top box lives or dies on what it can play.
Today's Vudu update gives the box a premium HD rental and purchase library, while Boxee says Netflix support is coming soon — unconfirmed, but strategically essential given Netflix's aggressive device push over the past two months, from its iOS app and a redesigned PS3 experience in December 2010 to its stated plan to use HTML5 to stream to any device.
First-order effects
- Boxee Box owners get immediate access to Vudu's HD movie catalog, filling the paid-content gap on a device that until now leaned on free web video.
- Vudu gains a new distribution endpoint among standalone set-top boxes, extending its reach beyond TVs and Blu-ray players.
Second-order effects
- Netflix's rapid multi-device expansion — iOS, PS3, and its HTML5 standardization effort — makes promised Netflix support a credibility test for the Boxee Box: if rival boxes carry Netflix and Boxee does not, the box's catalog argument collapses at retail.
- Competing streaming devices face pressure to match the combination of transactional HD rentals (Vudu) plus subscription streaming (Netflix) that Boxee is assembling.
Third-order effects
- If Netflix follows through on HTML5-based delivery, streaming apps become portable across hardware, shifting competition among set-top makers from exclusive apps toward price, interface, and openness — the axis Boxee has always campaigned on.
- Set-top boxes consolidate into general-purpose aggregators carrying both subscription and transactional catalogs, eroding the distinction between device ecosystems and pushing studios' licensing terms toward per-platform deals rather than exclusives.
The trend: Streaming devices are converging on full-catalog aggregation — subscription plus transactional HD — with cross-device delivery standards like Netflix's HTML5 push determining which boxes can compete.