Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners rejoice! It appears that Netflix streaming video could soon be showing up on your consoles.

The speculation comes from a recent Netflix survey which asked, “If as part of your Netflix membership you could instantly watch movies and TV episodes on your TV with your PS/3 or XBOX 360, how likely would you/anyone in your household be to do that?”

The survey goes on to say that consoles would be able to play streaming media using a “special Netflix disk.” It gets even better! Netflix claims that there wouldn’t be any fees except for the subscription fee you are already paying and a one-time $3 charge for the disk.

Video on consoles seems to be a pretty small market for the rental giant, so we’re not quite sure if they’re ready to offer the service just yet. If the rumors are true, though, this would be a great alternative to Apple TV.

It looks like this one is all but over. In another major blow to HD DVD, Netflix announced today that by the end of the year they plan to phase out their stock of HD DVD and go exclusively Blu-ray.

The decision comes after most of the major Hollywood studios dropped HD DVD and decided to only use Blu-ray for upcoming high-definition DVDs.

“The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix.

He also added, “We’re now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer’s preferred means.”

Netflix seems to believe that Blu-ray has won, and this has us completely convinced. With such a major company standing behind Blu-ray, expect HD DVD to die out soon.

Netflix has announced plans to offer a Mac version of their Watch Instantly streaming service sometime this year. Netflix executive Reed Hastings dismissed Apple’s new iTunes rental service:

“You only have 24 hours in which to complete watching the movie [on iTunes], so if you watch over two nights, you pay twice. DVD rentals advantages over VoD are ubiquity of content, ubiquity of DVD players, an early window for new releases, and lower prices.”

Watch Instantly is a Video on Demand service that, for $5 a month, allows subscribers to watch as many movies as they’d like with no other charges or fees. The system is currently heavily dependent on Windows Media copy protection mechanisms, which aren’t available on the Mac.

I think this is fantastic news, seeing as Netflix has a very comprehensive library of films (although only 6,000 are currently available through Watch Instantly, that number is bound to go up as the service really takes off) and being able to access them on a Mac allows a wider audience of people to take advantage of the program. Thank you Netflix!

Photo: http://gizmodo.com