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Who’s getting Netflix support?

The recent quarterly conference call with investors to Netflix revealed some new interesting facts!  We already knew that they were partnering with LG for a set-top box (and rumor has it that a few are in beta testing around the country already), but they also revealed that they will be working with some other companies as well:

At this point, I can tell you we have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products. Three of the four partners are major companies which each sell millions of devices per year and will enable the Netflix functionality in some of those devices likely in Q4 of this year. The fourth partner is a small company with which — which will likely launch sooner than Q4.

So who are these mystery companies.  Well I can guarantee one of them is Microsoft.  That’s the easy one!  Chances are they will be putting Netflix watch-now support into the Xbox 360.  It’s a no-brainer.  The Xbox 360 has the processing power, the HD outputs, and the internet connectivity all set up, not to mention that it already has windows media DRM streaming ability built in (which is what Netflix streaming solution uses).

I’ll also speculate that it will be going to Sony’s playstation 3 as well, seeing as it similarly has the built in internet and HD support.  Though they will have to code a custom player for that since I believe it doesn’t support Windows Media out of the box.

So who’s left?  Who’s the mystery company?  Some people have been speculating that it’s Apple.  Though I have an extremely hard time believing that.  As of right now, you can’t even run Netflix streaming on a Mac, and I doubt that Apple would cannibalize it’s fairly lucrative iTunes movie rental sales to partner up with Netflix.  As much as I’d love to stream Netflix movies to an AppleTV I just don’t see it happening.  Ever.

Who I DO see getting into bed with Netflix is someone who could enjoy having some streaming movie support,  perhaps Tivo, or Slingbox.  These companies are both trying to really break into the media mainstream and bring a killer-app type product to market.  Personally I’d think Tivo is the best shot here.  The combo of a Netflix streaming set-top box included with your cable guide and DVR is definetly a killer app, especially if more of Netflix’s catalog moves over to streaming.

Time will tell!