Starting today, Netflix members can check out Lilyhammer, which is the first original series available only on Netflix Instant. Lilyhammer features former Sopranos star and E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt in this fish-out-of-water dramedy. Van Zant is also a writer and producer for the show.

The show centers on a New York mobster, who after testifying against a mob boss, who enters witness protection and chooses Lillehammer, Norway. He chooses Lillehammer as his hiding place due to his love of the 1994 Lillehammer winter olympics. As one might expect, hijinks do ensue.

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Renting DVDs is fast becoming an antiquated concept, soon to join music stores and MySpace as nostalgic reminders of days gone by. With the prevalence of digital downloads and high quality streaming, brick and mortar rental stores are fast becoming an endangered species.

Redbox has been able to carve out a niche for themselves in the failing industry by bringing the maximum amount of affordability and convince with 1 dollar rental units in stores nationwide. Not just content with staying alive for a few more years Redbox has recently partnered with Verizon to bring a new streaming service to compete with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and all the rest.

Verizon and Coinstar, Inc. today announced the formation of a joint venture that will create a new choice for quality- and value-conscious  consumers seeking a simple and affordable way to access the video entertainment they crave. The venture’s services will offer all of the convenience, simplicity and value of Redbox® new release DVD and Blu-ray Disc® rentals combined with a new content-rich video on-demand streaming and download service from  Verizon.

The service is expected to roll out in the second half of 2012, and with the infrastructure of Redbox already in place this new service stands a real chance at biting into Netflix’s failing grip on the market place it basically invented.

It seems Apple has realized people may actually want to purchase content and watch it on their Apple TV devices instead of just stream content from a very limited set of suppliers. To facilitate this, the company issued an update to the Apple TV late yesterday that will allow users to stream purchased high-definition TV shows directly from iTunes.

Specifically, the update makes the following changes:

• iTunes TV Shows: Purchase your favorite TV shows directly from the iTunes Store and watch the shows you already own, commercial-free, in HD.

• Vimeo: Browse and play videos from Vimeo, access your video inbox, and mark videos you want to watch later.

You may recall that when the second generation Apple TV first launched it only allowed users to rent movies and shows and there was not an option to purchase titles for permanent ownership. Now, that’s changed — at least for TV programs.

For users in the U.S., Apple has also rolled out preliminary iCloud support with this update, allowing users to re-download some purchased television shows, though movie support is not yet available. We expect full iCloud support sometime in the next few months.

With Instant Netflix making itself readily available on both the Playstation 3 and Wii without the use of a disc this week, there have already been some major leaps made in the world of streaming. Netflix has already projected that the last quarter of their yer will see more streaming customers than disc users.

With projections like that, action is required.

Until now, Netflix users who want to stream have been tethered to a disc-subscription plan, which means that the only way to get Instant Netflix is by subscribing to at least their lowest disc-subscription plan of one disc at a time, for a limited time. The company plans to change that by the end of the year. From the LA Times.

The company last month started offering a streaming-only service in Canada for $7.99 per month. Hastings said success there has led Netflix to test an identical offering in the U.S. If the test fares well, all consumers will be able to sign up for streaming-only service. Chief Executive Reed Hastings did not identify a price, but it is likely to be the same as it is in Canada.

It’s also noted that this won’t effect their current subscription plans, only annex a new plan at the bottom of the scale to accommodate those users who only plan to watch movies and TV shows via their computer or streaming device.

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Yesterday we brought you news that may have changed the console race between PS3, XBox 360, and PS3 as it was announced that the Wii owners will no longer need a disc to stream Instant Netflix on their console. However, mere hours later, the same was announced for the PS3, with a all-new browsing and search functionality, that may just blow XBox 360 out of the water.

Coming with this new system is the ability to browse through the thousands of movies and TV shows available to stream instantly via Netflix by way of genre, category, and even suggestions. Also added is a fully functional search feature, which is new to all forms of the streaming service.

Dolby 5.1 Stereo and 1080p video are also available to help the PS3 keep the edge on video playback.

Finally, and probably the coolest feature in the system, is the new Browser feature that allows you to cycle through each movie, while a select scene plays in the background. Just in case you need extra incentive to watch that classic episode of Dexter. Check out a full video of the new features after the jump.

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We’ve all speculated that the time would come when everyone’s favorite free TV and movie streaming site, Hulu.com, would start charging a subscription for people that wanted to use the site to its full potential. Now it seems that time has finally come.

Even though the site is a close second to Google’s YouTube, and has generated more than $100 million in revenue from advertising, major networks are now vying to take some of that profit. The solution? A monthly subscription plan. From LA Times:

Under the proposal, Hulu would continue to provide for free the five most recent episodes of shows like Fox’s “Glee,” “ABC’s “Lost” or NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” But viewers who want to see additional episodes would pay $9.95 a month to access a more comprehensive selection, called Hulu Plus, these people said.

Hulu plans to begin testing the subscription service as soon as May 24, according to people with knowledge of the plans.

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Steve Job’s now legendary feud with Adobe over its flash product notwithstanding, streaming video is indeed coming to the new Apple iPad. In the run-up to the iPad’s release date, the tech media has been abuzz over the device’s lack of flash support.

With approximately 75% of the web’s streaming video running on the flash platform, how in the world would iPad owners be able to consume this content with their new devices? And furthermore, wouldn’t this so-called Achilles’ heel of the iPad allow competing tablet devices running flavors of Windows and Chrome to position them as superior, at least in this one regard?

As it turns out, it’s not even going to be an issue, as a new batch of streaming apps have won Apple approval for the App Store and will be coming out to coincide with the iPad launch — as evidenced by their listings at AppShopper.

The official Netflix app for the iPad is perhaps the most notable of this bunch. While the app is free for iPad owners, it will work in conjunction with a user’s unlimited Netflix membership and allow users to stream TV shows and movies from the service’s extensive catalog of instantly-available titles.

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With the idea of Hulu coming to the iPhone still a distant pipe dream, other services on the device seem to be closer to reality than we thought. Netflix, which is slowly but surely becoming the leading company in online movie and DVD rentals, has put out some feelers on their site to see if fans would be interested in a streaming service for the iPhone. From a survey on Netflix.com:

“Imagine that Netflix offers its subscribers the ability to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on their iPhone. The selection availability to instantly watch includes some new releases, lots of classics and TV episodes. There are no advertisements or trailers, and movies start in as little as 30 seconds. You can fast-forward, rewind, and pause or watch again. The movies & TV episodes you instantly watch are included in your Netflix membership for no additional fee.

Whenever you want to instantly watch content on your iPhone, your iPhone must be connected to a Wi-Fi network (such as one you might have at home or at work, or in public places like coffee shops, book stores, hotels, airports, etc.)

If this functionality were available, how likely would you or someone in your household be to instantly watch movies & TV episodes on your iPhone via a Wi-Fi network?”

So what could this mean? Is it just a ruse? With Netflix allegedly having an exclusive streaming deal with Xbox Live, this could mean that we won’t see anything on the iPhone for another year, but with the Apple iPad hitting stores in the coming months, that may be just enough time for us to be ready.

What are your thoughts on Netflix streaming on the iPhone or iPad? Would you use it? Comment below and let us know!

Good news for PS3 owners everywhere! Netflix and Sony have partnered up to bring Netflix streaming to the Playstation 3 console, Kotaku reports. The announcement comes after much speculation that Netflix streaming would become available for consoles other than the Xbox 360.

The PS3 version of Netflix streaming will be very similar to the experience we’re familiar with from the Xbox 360, with the ability to browse and update right from the PS3′s XMB. To access the streaming, Playstation 3 owners will need a Netflix-provided Blu-ray disc in their consoles in order to take advantage of the Blu-ray’s BD-Live technology and watch movies and tv from the service. These discs will be free, and can be requested at netflix.com/ps3.

As of now there’s no release date for this new feature, but The Playstation Blog reports that Netflix expects to begin streaming to PS3 owners in the United States sometime next month.