While it won’t move the needle much on its content library, IFC Entertainment announced yesterday that it will offer 53 films through Netflix’s Watch Instantly streaming service, reports Variety.

True, that’s not a very large number, but it marks the first time IFC is providing its content to a subscription streaming service. Up until now, the company has placed films from its 300-title library on EST destinations like Amazon, iTunes and Blockbuster.

IFC titles heading to Netflix’s streaming service include Errol Morris’ The Thin Blue Line and John Sayles’ Return of the Secaucus Seven.

As we’ve written before, Netflix’s Achilles’ heel is its streaming content library. Though it has over 17,000 titles, it needs to make sure that service is robust enough so that the number of subscribers using the service keeps growing. Check out Om’s recent talk with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings at our recent NewTeeVee Live Conference for more on his company’s streaming efforts.

Separately, though we didn’t see anything official announced, it looks like Netflix also just got a whole boatload of Saturday Night Live content in this week, including seasons 1 – 5.

To learn more about streaming directly to TVs, check out the report on The Evolution of Over-the-Top Video over at our subscription research service, GigaOM Pro.

BBC Gives Technical Details of Its New iPlayer On the Wii; the U.K. broadcaster has encoded streams using H.264 at a 700 kbps bit rate, compared to 1.5 Mbps for regular TV or even 3.2 Mbps for HD. (BBC) Speaking of British TV, the U.K. version of YouTube debuted its new site section that hosts roughly 4,000 full-length programs. (Variety)

Silverlight 4 Beta Launches for Developers; new features include out-of-browser capabilities, advanced business application development, and native multicast and offline DRM support for video. (Ars Technica)

Sony Announces Plans for Digital Media Store; new Sony Online Service will sell music, movies, books, and other downloadable applications for mobile devices. (BusinessWeek)

Disney Launches Its First Branded Entertainment Channel; “The Possibility Shop” will be exclusively sponsored by Clorox and promote Clorox products. (Ad Age)

Blu-ray, DVD Sales Expected to Stabilize in 2010; high-definition Blu-ray DVD sales have yet to make up for the decline in standard def DVD sales in 2009. (Video Business)

Digiboo Does Partnership with Movie Gallery; deal will put 100 Digiboo movie kiosks (see previous coverage) in retail locations. (Video Business)

Grey’s Anatomy Gets a Web Spin-Off; Seattle Grace: On Call will be a six episode run that’s on immediately after Grey’s is aired. (The Hollywood Reporter)

NBC Launches Social ‘Communicator’ Tool; new ad-supported application allows users to watch full-length episodes of NBC programming, with built-in texting and unlimited VOIP calls. (paidContent)

CBS High School Sports Site Inks Deal With Comcast; MaxPreps.com will produce hundreds of short-form video features on local high school sports teams for Comcast’s Houston affiliate. (MediaPost)

Fliqz Launches Video SEO Product; new SearchSuccess tools will be sold as an add-on to the company’s Gold Edition hosting solution. (FierceOnlineVideo)

ABC News Partners With Ustream for Nightline Twittercast; anchors and correspondents from the show will participate in a half-hour web program once a week streamed by Ustream. (emailed release)

Cox Tests Dynamic VOD Ads With NBCU; the companies will dynamically insert ads against episodes of The Office and Monk that are viewed on Cox’s MyPrimetime video-on-demand service. (Multichannel News)

Tinychat Launches Ustream Competitor; the new Tinychat.tv service will allow users to share their live video conversations with anyone on the web. (TechCrunch)

Pirate Bay Tracker Really Shutting Down Now; founders want to encourage other BitTorrent sites to move away from torrents. (TorrentFreak)

Shortly after we learned some more details about Comcast’s TV Everywhere trial yesterday at NewTeeVee Live, Disney CEO Bob Iger said on his company’s earnings call that he believes TV Everywhere solutions should not be offered to consumers for free. Broadcasting & Cable reported on the call yesterday, and here’s a transcript of what Iger said (emphasis ours):

Look, TV Everywhere is maybe an example of what we have talked about often, and that is digital technology providing us with more opportunities to reach consumers and consumers more opportunities to consume our product. And to the extent that TV Everywhere serves consumers better, we are in favor of it. However, when you serve consumers better, when you provide more convenience or more utility, you should be able to charge for that and charge an appropriate amount. And some of what we have heard about TV Everywhere suggests that interest in charging the consumer for greater access is not necessarily a priority and we believe it should be.

We also believe that we should still have the ability if we go to a world where there is authentication and TV everywhere for the multi-channel subscriber, we should not be precluded from offering our product directly to consumers who may not be subscribers to multi-channel services, because we believe that would — and even though there aren’t many of them, that wouldn’t necessarily be good for consumers and while we realize we are trying to serve many masters, the master that is most important to serve for us is the consumer.

We’ve been skeptical that MSOs would offer TV Everywhere for free for very long — operators never pass up the opportunity to add a charge. In this case, we wonder if Iger should be so quick to want people to pay. Yes, there are monetization issues surrounding TV Everywhere plans, but as Comcast Interactive president Amy Banse told us yesterday, we’re in the first inning of this new online video world, there’s a lot about how the service will work and how consumers will use it that’s left to be determined. Prioritizing a fee out of the gate would most likely dissuade people from giving the service a fair shot. Besides, every good pusher knows the first hit’s always free.

Not to pat ourselves on the back, but you know how we know yesterday’s NewTeeVee Live conference was awesome? We’re not exhausted. Typically after an all-day show packed with interviews, on-stage moderating, and shaking hands, you’re pretty wiped out.

But the energy was so great yesterday that we’re just pumped for the year ahead. If you weren’t able to attend, you should check out the video from the day (thanks, Livestream!), but if you’re looking for something faster, here’s a recap of what we learned:

Fireside chats = awesome
We went out on a limb yesterday and built our day around one-on-one chats and short presentations and only had one panel. The result was the ability to have deeper conversations and extract real news from our guests.

Take Comcast’s TV Everywhere To Go
Comcast Interactive president Amy Banse is a charmer who could sell ice to the Eskimos. Talking with her, you literally start thinking “Hey, Comcast isn’t so bad… maybe I should get that triple play package.” While she’s a cagey one, Banse did provide us tasty TV Everywhere nuggets:

• First, it sounds like Comcast’s On Demand Online will be available “by Hanukkah” (which starts Dec. 11).
• You’ll need to download the Move player along with an authentication app, and you can authorize up to three devices in the home.
• Also, contrary to earlier reports — Comcast subscribers will be able to access their On Demand Online content outside the home. So you can fire up your laptop while traveling to catch up on content you may have missed.

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