LG hooks up Vudu with Netflix, YouTube

Wednesday, July 29, 2009 17:20

The streaming-enhanced device market may still be dominated by Netflix, but video on demand service Vudu continues to fight its way into the picture. Today, the company announced its partnership with South Korean company LG will put Vudu directly on connected HDTVs.

Vudu debuted its own streaming set top box nearly two years ago, and managed to be one of the first companies to pump out HD streams. Though it had partnerships with such companies as Sharp and Best Buy, the streaming service remained within Vudu’s own hardware.

Today’s announcement marks the first time the Vudu service has been loaded onto another company’s hardware, and it will debut in LG’s NetCast Entertainment Access service, the same service which brought Netflix streaming to LG’s connected Blu-ray players last year. Currently, it offers content from CinemaNow, YouTube, and Netflix, in addition to Yahoo! TV Widgets.

Vudu premieres on LG’s LH50 LCDTVs and PS80 Plasma TVs, which are available in stores now, and users of other NetCast-enabled LG devices will have access to the service in August.