Netflix has added another partner to its growing “Watch Instantly” option. IFC Entertainment has signed on with the online movie rental service, giving Netflix rights to stream 53 films online including John Sayles’ “The Brother From Another Planet” and Errol Morris’ “The Thin Blue Line”.

The films will be available beginning Nov. 20.

“We’re excited to give their customers instant access to this wide-ranging collection of independent film,” said Lisa Schwartz, executive vice president for IFC Entertainment. “Our top priority is to make independent film available to a wider audience and this partnership further underscores that commitment."

Other films covered in the agreement include Christopher Nolan’s first outing “Following” and Joe Swanberg’s “Nights and Weekends”. Several foreign language titles, including “Brothers,” “Sex is Comedy” and “Solo Con Tu Pareja” will also be enabled for instant streaming.

Netflix has a hit with its streaming video service – and it may be looking to seal its dominance.

MultiChannel News, citing unnamed industry executives, reports the company plans to offer its “Watch Instantly” service on both the Apple iPhone (and iPod Touch) and Nintendo Wii. In both cases, the service would likely be streamed over local Wi-Fi connections – meaning you won’t be able to use AT&T’s 3G network to watch films on the go.

Netflix declined to comment on the story.

Netflix currently offers over 12,000 films and tv shows via the service (and will soon be adding ABC’s hit series “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy”. What began as a streaming service that only targeted computer monitors has rapidly expanded, with the company now streaming its service onto Microsoft’s Xbox, Tivo’s DVRs, Blu-Ray players from LF and Samsung, several Internet-enabled television sets and Roku’s $99 Digital Media Player.

It’s the Xbox relationship that has been working particularly well for Netflix. In the first three months of the two companies’ relationship, 1 million Xbox Live members downloaded and activated the Netflix application to their video game system. In those same three months, users watched 1.5 billion minutes of streaming movies and tv shows.

Blockbuster, meanwhile, has not found the same traction for its OnDemand streaming movie service. That company did, however, recently struck a deal with Samsung to be a part of its Web-enabled TVs and Blu-Ray players starting this fall.

As evidenced by the number of devices announced that connect directly with it at the Consumer Electronics Show, Netflix streaming is pretty much the hottest thing going in the still nascent world of Internet movie watching. Not only can you get the movies on your PC, natch, but you can stream Netflix through a number of devices that connect to your TV, like the Roku box and Xbox 360. And later this year we'll be seeing televisions that connect directly to Netflix -- no annoying and expensive box needed.

Although the Internet is in many ways troublesome for the Hollywood studios, this is one development they have to like. After all, if I'm paying Netflix the same amount of money but start watching some of my movies via my Xbox 360 (as I am indeed starting to do), those are fewer DVDs the studios need to manufacture and ship. They just deliver a digital copy to Netflix and, boom, the margins get fatter.

Which is why it will be very interesting to see how Netflix's intention to start offering streaming-only plans to consumers impact the economics of Hollywood. Speaking at the Jefferies Internet and Media conference, CFO Barry McCarthy said, "We're likely to do that in the foreseeable future" when asked if customers will be able to sign up to stream only and not get any DVDs.

So the question is... how much less will it cost? To make such a plan appealing, Netflix would likely have to charge less for the same number of movies per month. And/or emhasize that consumers can get more movies faster with no need to wait for the USPS. That could mean studios will have to accept a little bit less per movie, even if the margins stay somewhat bigger. Unless Netflix plans to eat the entire difference in cost, thinking it can make up for with the money it saves paying for bandwidth instead of postage.

If anything is going to make online movie streaming really take off in the near term, it's a plan like this from Netflix. And as that happens, Hollywood is likely going have to accept that the economics won't be as simple as just pretending digital is the same as DVDs.