Netflix Inc., take a hike. Not so long ago video rentals via snail mail were all the rage, eliminating a trip to Blockbuster or some other retail outlet. But now who needs to deal with the hassle?

On Wednesday Movie Gallery Inc., a bricks-and-mortar video rental company, with 4,600 stores nationwide, said it had acquired MovieBeam Inc., a company that provides on-demand movie viewing to your television.

The service works much like a wireless router in the home — pick your movie, press the button and voila! The movie is sent to your television via a wireless connection, or technically "MovieBeam's patented digital signal and the sleek MovieBeam Player," according to the company's Web site. Of course, not everyone wants yet another piece of tech equipment ("ugly" according to some tech blogs) sitting on top of the TV. After all, how wired can one be before it gets overwhelming? Nonetheless, the on-demand concept seems to be the wave of the movie rental future.

MovieBeam was spun off from Walt Disney Co. last year after receiving a $48.5 million cash infusion from Disney, Cisco Systems Inc., Intel Corp. and three venture capital firms. Wednesday's deal is part of the hungry consumer appetite for downloading services, such as Apple Inc.'s iTunes, so it seems there's no turning back.

Whether the MovieBeam concept truly takes off remains to be seen, but one can only bet that Netflix is stirring anxiously in its theater seat because Blockbuster Inc., one of Movie Gallery's main retail competitors, is set to complete its due diligence of video download service Movielink LLC, which it supposedly will acquire for about $50 million, according to TheDeal.com.

Movielink allows online users a legal means to obtain download-to-burn DVD movies, and the company is backed by heavyweights General Electric Co.'s Universal Studios, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. Entertainment, Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment. To make matters worse for Netflix, Amazon Inc. and TiVo Inc., a digital video recorder maker, together recently launched their movie download service.—Cheryl Meyer