With Netflix's Xbox Hookup, Can Hulu Catch Up?

The year was 1994 and CD-Rom drives were just becoming a popular device in computers. My thoughts? I saw a world where the computer and the entertainment system merged with a single device controlling movies, television, music, gaming and the web.

It's taking a while, but we are getting there. Not quite on the same road I envisioned way back then, but it is safe to say that the compact disc is dead and digital music is the future. The next question is how long will it take digital video to kill off Blu-Ray?

If Netflix has anything to say about it, the answer is sooner than we think. Netflix -- the popular rent-by-mail alternative to Blockbuster -- has been offering streaming movies directly from their website for some time now. Recently, they announced several devices that would take this instant access and put it on your television set, and last week they announced a deal with Microsoft for the popular Xbox 360 to include this ability.

It is clear that movies "on demand" is the way of the future. Most cable companies already offer this feature, and Netflix is taking the first step toward it as well.

So where does this leave Hulu? They've made a great start in offering video on demand services by partnering with NBC Universal, MGM, Warner Bros. among others, but are they too late to grab the market? Or will we see a Hulu-PlayStation partnership in the future?