Netflix in talks with cable providers for possible Stream Team

With the declining popularity of cable TV’s pay on demand services, the gargantuan corporate cable companies have gone from laughing at the possibility of Netflix cutting into their $100 billion-a-year business to talking with the video streaming company about possibly offering its service on cable in the near future.

Could this possibly be the TV/movie viewers’ wildest dream come true, as a Stream Team provides all of our entertainment needs through cable?

Only time will tell, but we need not wait too long.

Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings has been busy in recent weeks speaking at investor conferences, and he has strongly hinted about the possibility of Netflix one day being a cable channel rival to premium networks like Time Warner Inc’s HBO.

Just last week Hastings stated at an investor conference that it is “in the natural direction for [Netflix] in the long term [to work with the] many (cable service providers) [that] would like to have a competitor to HBO, and they would bid us off of HBO.”

Times are tough for consumers and when the economy makes wallets light, the viewers often have to choose what best fits their entertainment needs and cut out other expenses (like HBO and other premium TV channel packages) to save money.

And regardless of how many pay-TV customers have actually axed cable lines due to a satisfactory Netflix subscription, the possibility still haunts cable companies.

In light of this, it would appear that the traditional cable companies are currently sleeping with the enemy – Netflix – in hopes of coming to an agreement on offering a Netflix channel or similar experience for their cable subscribers.

One source has told Reuters that at least one cable operator could experiment with offering Netflix by the end of the year.

If cable does get a Netflix channel, will we still be flipping through the programs with nothing to watch?