LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Shares in Netflix Inc neared their all-time high on Thursday, after Apple Inc said that the company’s streaming video service would be added to a new version of Apple TV.

The tie-in with Apple TV, a smaller, cheaper version of Apple’s earlier web-to-TV product, could cement Netflix’s dominance in the online movie rental business.

Netflix’s 15 million subscribers already stream many movies online over dozens of devices, including Web-connected televisions and Blu-ray players, as well as game consoles.

Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson estimates that Apple will sell 1.5 million units of Apple TV in 2011, on top of the 65 million or so Netflix-enabled devices already in consumers’ hands.

"By far, they are the leading streaming company so everybody’s gunning for them," said Edward Woo, an analyst with Wedbush Securities. "Everyone sees what Netflix has with their subscription model, and it’s only a matter of time until everyone starts to copy them."

Netflix shares rose 3 percent to $137.93 on Nasdaq on Thursday, near its all-time high of $140.90 hit last month.

AMAZON CHALLENGE

Amazon.com Inc also offers streaming of movies and TV shows over a number of devices, but the online retailer has been slow to create its streaming business.

Amazon has 118 million customers that it could use to build its streaming business, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said in a research note, but Netflix has an advantage with its core business of mailing out DVDs.

"We don’t believe any competitor at this point would ‘go backwards’ and build out a DVD-by-mail business, even though it has been a significant factor in subsidizing and enabling Netflix’s shift to streaming," Anmuth said.

Netflix subscribers pay a minimum of $8.99 a month, and 61 percent of them are streaming content online, the company said.

"Ultimately (the business) will be only streaming, but that is several years away, and we’ll still be delivering DVDs for 15 or 20 more years," Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said.

Critics once knocked Netflix’s streaming service for lacking popular movies, but the company said a deal reached last month with the Epix pay TV channel would bolster its content.

The five-year Epix deal, worth almost $1 billion, makes Netflix the exclusive Web-only distributor of films from Viacom Inc’s Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp, including new releases 90 days after their premium pay TV and on-demand debuts.

Analysts say the cost of acquiring content could cut into Netflix’s margins and those of other companies that try to expand into streaming. Meanwhile, Netflix will continue to grow, they said.

"Netflix has a very solid early position," said Marianne Wolk, senior analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group. "Their service is compelling. The advantage is that they have an excellent recommendation engine, and it’s one of the best user interfaces for finding films that you like."

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba, Editing by Ilaina Jonas)

(Reuters) - Internet firm Yahoo Inc said it has completed the transition of its U.S. and Canadian English-language search capabilities to Microsoft Corp’s Bing platform.

"Yahoo web, image, and video search experiences on both desktop and mobile devices are now powered by the Microsoft platform in the U.S. and Canada, with more markets to come," Shashi Seth, senior vice president of Yahoo search products, said in a blog post.

Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services Division, said the company is now working on the migration to adCenter — a pay-per-click advertising platform — and is optimistic about completing this phase later this year.

Both Bing and Yahoo lag behind market leader Google Inc in the Internet search business. They have formed a partnership to increase their combined market share to win more ad search dollars.

In July 2009, Yahoo and Microsoft signed a 10-year deal that calls for Microsoft to provide the back-end technology powering search on Yahoo’s websites, in a bid to create a strong Number 2 search entity to compete with Google.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Dhara Ranasinghe)

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(Ho/MCAFEE, INC.) - This handout image shows the logo for McAfee. Intel announced on Thursday it will acquire the Internet security firm for 7.68 billion dollars, as the computer chip giant seeks to expand its operations in the online market.(Ho/MCAFEE, INC./HO)

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS Corp, the No.1 U.S. broadcaster, is in talks to bring some of its TV shows to popular Web video service Hulu, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said in an interview on Monday.

Moonves said talks were with Hulu Plus, a paid for subscription service which the online video company launched in June charging users $9.

CBS, home to top shows such as ‘CSI’ and ‘Two and a Half Men,’ is the only major broadcaster whose shows are not available on Hulu. Hulu is one of the fastest growing TV sites since its launch in 2007 with around 43.5 million viewers in May, according to data from analytics firm comScore.

Moonves said CBS shied away from Hulu in the early stages to ensure flexibility, but the introduction of a subscription business has encouraged CBS to explore its options with Hulu.

"Are we having discussions with the Hulu subscription service? Yes we are," Moonves said.

"Our goal is to get paid for our content in as many different ways as we can without hurting the mother ship. The key here is flexibility."

CBS said on Monday it signed a 10-year programing deal with Comcast Corp, which includes range of on-demand and Web video features.

Executives at CBS have long argued that a key issue with Hulu was one of control and exclusivity. CBS has also wanted to have more control over how its shows are distributed and shunned the idea of featuring its programs exclusively on Hulu, preferring a wide range of partners across the Web.

Hulu is jointly owned by the other networks General Electric Co’s NBC, Walt Disney Co’s ABC and News Corp’s Fox Networks. The vast majority of the programing on the site has been available for free, usually a short time after first being broadcast for free on air.

But as Hulu aims to expand its TV offering, it has developed a paid-for service to encourage other partners such as cable networks owners such as Viacom Inc and Time Warner Inc. Cable networks typically rely on a dual business model of affiliate fees from TV distributors and advertising revenue.

Hulu Plus is hoping to lure consumers to pay a monthly fee for the convenience of watching shows whenever they want. It said in June it is making its service available on Apple Inc’s iPad and iPhone, Sony Corp’s PlayStation 3 and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd television sets.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba; writing by Yinka Adegoke; editing by Andre Grenon)

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