Netflix hired Anthony Wood -- founder and CEO of digital-video-recorder startup ReplayTV -- to the newly created position of vice president of Internet TV.
Wood, 41, will be in charge of Netflix’s efforts to deliver movies directly to subscribers' televisions via the Internet. He will report to chief product officer Neil Hunt.
The DVD-rental-by-mail company in January launched Watch Now, its first video-on-demand service, which allows subscribers to view several hours of movies per month online on their PCs. At the time, Netflix it would eventually extend its services to play movies and TV shows, downloaded from the Internet, on television sets.
"I believe Netflix is the company best-positioned to lead Internet-delivered video," Wood said in a prepared statement. "The company has taken the first step -- and an innovative one -- in offering online video to its members, and I'm here to work with a range of partners to get that video to the television, where consumers watch most of their movies."
Wood founded ReplayTV in 1997. Consumer-electronics company SonicBlue bought ReplayTV in 2001. Broadcasters and film-studio outlets sued SonicBlue over the ReplayTV DVR’s ad-skipping and copying features in 2002; the following year, the company filed for bankruptcy. ReplayTV is now owned by D&M Holdings U.S.
Prior to joining Netflix, Wood was CEO of Roku, a digital-media company that manufactures and markets an Internet-radio device.
