LG expects to price its new BD300 Blu-ray player with Netflix str...

late Thursday. “We're essentially not charging a premium” for the Netflix feature, Jason said. The BD300 “will be priced with other premium Blu-ray players.” Quoting no definitive price point on the BD300 suggests LG wants to be able to react flexibly to Blu-ray pricing trends as it makes the Netflix decks a cornerstone of its Q4 marketing strategy. Netflix and LG will throw in a two-week Netflix trial subscription for BD300 buyers who aren’t Netflix customers, Jason said. LG sees the BD300 as “a true convergence device,” melding the playback of “traditional” physical media like DVDs and Blu-ray movies with Internet content, Jason said. The deck is “a perfect marriage between content and hardware,” he said. “This is a premium Blu-ray player,” with 1080p playback and BD Live, among other features, he said. LG put Netflix “instant streaming” in the BD300 because it sess the feature as “a great consumer benefit,” he said. The means of bringing “that feature from Netflix direct to our TV” drove BD300 development, a six- to eight-month process, Jason said: “We think we're doing this in a very easy and seamless way.” An icon-based on-screen menu includes pause, fast-forward and rewind functions with which viewers are so comfortable on PVRs, he said.