From the people at NetFlix Inc. (NFLX), the company that knocked Blockbuster into virtual irrelevance with their mail-order DVD rental service, comes a free way for members with gaming consoles to download a wide array of TV shows and movies over the Internet.

While service providers are struggling mightily to come to grips with video over the Web, companies without TV networks, NetFlix first and foremost, have what it takes to make it fly ... and likely substantially grow their customer base in the process.

Lost in a nearly pitch black sky of red ink, layoffs, and corporate collapses, is a twinkling star that is NetFlix. It was clear when it launched its business that it would bring innovation to the markets it entered.

It continues to do so. Netflix and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) last week announced that one million Xbox LIVE Gold members have downloaded and activated the groundbreaking Xbox LIVE application from Netflix since the alliance launched last November. In less than three months, the Xbox LIVE community has watched 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes instantly.

Why? Because Xbox LIVE Gold members who are also Netflix unlimited members can watch movies and TV episodes streamed instantly from Netflix on Xbox LIVE for no additional fee. NetFlix already has more than 9.6 million subscribers.

You buyin’ this? The key here is if you’re a member of both. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE!

How’s that for a value proposition?

The Netflix application offers Xbox LIVE Gold members the ability to instantly watch movies and TV episodes from Netflix on a TV via the Xbox 360 video gaming system. Xbox 360 is the only gaming and entertainment console that lets viewers instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed from Netflix.

Sure, Xbox has other content partners, but NetFlix has made itself a household favorite with a loyal and happy customer base.

NetFlix claims more than 100,000 titles on DVD and 12,000 movies and TV episodes available to watch instantly.

Xbox Live, for those unfamiliar with it, is a membership-based, online network that Microsoft says connects 17 million members across 26 countries to each other and entertainment.

So what’s the next set-top box going to look like? A gaming console as we wrote about two years ago this month.

Shameless self-promotion? Nope. If you don’t believe me, check out the lowdown from the top industry experts at The Diffusion Group. They get it. Bigtime.

Service providers should too. Partner away!

If ever there was a front-and-center case to be made for the value of targeted advertising, Sunday’s Super Bowl was it, featuring countless forgettable and pricey ads that barely kept viewers connected let alone fuel any purchasing decisions.

Perhaps the biggest waste of time, money and effort was the ad for Sobe drinks that had folks grabbing 3D glasses to view it during halftime. 3D content, as in movies, is a gimmick that has been trialed and has failed every decade since the 1950s.

So 3D is supposed to be a content trend going forward, with declining theater audiences, a show or two here or there and maybe a few DVDs, we’re talking travesty, not trendy.

I really expected more interactive ads, using this great, multi-hour live sporting event, to test viewer interest in responding to ads, via SMS, hitting Web sites, anything. Didn’t happen. What a waste of a primetime, global venue.

It reminded me of car ads, with the automakers buying programs instead of profiles of viewership and mass blasting to all viewers. That’s why we at least need focused ads, if not targeted, and someday addressable, ones.

Ask yourself this, whether you are a Steelers fan or not. Why didn’t Sports Illustrated buy a spot toward the end of the very competitive and exciting game advertising the special edition books, DVDs and subscription packages it creates for winning teams? Why not strike while the iron was hot instead of later this week or so?

And with the deep seas of mobile device users across the U.S., why no cool “interactive ads?????

Instead, it was yet another case of a major broadcasting network spending roughly 25 percent of its ad breaks promoting its other properties (shows). Yawn.

When it comes to focused advertising (as in relevant spots), I have two words: Bring It!

Before the Super Bowl becomes the Stupor Bowl of advertising.

Service provider execs: Do vendors still focus on tech-based sales and marketing efforts with you?

I’m unsure and don’t want to assume anything, but I’m wary as those who advise equipment and software vendors on sales tactics tell me they still do – even when calling C-level executives!

This is especially sobering news with a crippled economy, spending cutbacks and what I had assumed was a far greater emphasis on selling companies on items based on what they can do business-wise for the carrier. But tech speeds & feeds technology talk may still be carrying the day, some say, and that scares me more than a middle-of-the night phone call.

We all love, or at least like, cool technology. It’s what enables the features, capabilities and services that bring in the bucks. But leading with technology talk in a sales pitch to CIOs and the rest of the C suite, seems to defy logic, especially nowadays.

CIOs get technology, but does a CEO, CFO, COO or CMO really care? Doubtful. I’m more than guessing, as I’m told, that they continue to be way more interested in business talk as in:

How will this help me make more money/boost revenue/create new revenue opportunities?

How will this help me gain any type of competitive edge/enhance my brands, address new markets?

And, of course: What’s the ROI time-interval for this spending?

Think about it. Would anyone buy a car from someone who could only talk about the engine and drivetrain?

Certainly the ability to talk business and tech is optimal, and often paramount wherever sales pitches start for carriers.

But if your vendor’s primary or sole skill is sales, wouldn’t learning tech and business language be the tallest of tasks?

Time to start climbing. And perhaps re-focusing.

But I still have to ask?

Do your vendors still lead or focus on tech talk in marketing and sales pitches?

How are you with that?