Korea's LG and US-based online DVD rental service provider Netflix announced on January 2 that they have signed a cooperation agreement, whereby the two companies will jointly develop a STB (Set-Top Box) enabling direct movie streaming from the Internet to TV sets. The initiative is expected to be welcomed by Netflix subscribers with HDTVs (High Definition Televisions).

The new STB, which will carry the brand name of LG, is slated for commercialization in the second half of 2008, with a monthly fee ranging from US$4.99 to US$17.99, according to Reuters News. To date, Netflix has a subscriber base of approximately seven million.

This plan follows the company's introduction of PC video streaming service in January 2007, which allowed subscribers to stream movies to PCs via the Internet. Other similar partnerships exist between Amozon and TiVo, Movielink and Vudu. Meanwhile, as a cooperation with Twentieth Century Fox Studio, Apple's VOD (Video On Demand) service is expected to debut during the MacWorld Conference in January 2008, the Financial Times reported.