Sunday, LG Electronics and Netflix announced that LG would be launching TV sets capable of streaming Netflix movies directly from the Web, without needing an external box.

Last year, the two companies rolled out set-top boxes and Blu-ray DVD players that featured the same Netflix software. The latter company, in the attempt to fit all home-entertainment screens with an instant movie-viewing tool, has informed about plans to close other partnerships, including one with Microsoft’s Xbox 360, which would entail embedding the streaming software into the gaming machines.

Consequently, Netflix subscribers who own such devices would be enabled to connect them to their TVs and afterwards watch movies that they would be able to download from the Internet instantly, a feature to be aggregated into their monthly rental plan.

In 2007, Netflix introduced the instant viewing feature, which allows subscribers to choose from approximately 12,000 movie titles and television episodes, while the company’s entire library comprises over 100,000 titles.

LG Electronics plans to unveil the new high-definition televisions at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11, aiming to attract customers that want to indulge themselves in Internet-to-TV movies, without being hindered by a set-top box or an additional DVD player.

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey revealed that the company was in the process of clinching other deals with gadget manufacturers, but refused to disclose their names, adding that Netflix’s goal was to become ubiquitous on any device that connected a TV to the Web. 

LG Electronics USA’s director of product development Tim Alessi stated that the company would begin marketing the TVs this spring and that they would come in four models, LCDs with 42-inch and 47-inch screens and plasma TVs with 50-inch and 60-inch screens.

A price for the Netflix-enabled TVs has yet to be announced.