While Netflix isn't all the way back to highs pre-The Worst Price Hike of All Time, they pretty much got all those people back by the end of the year .

Continuing the trend of screen convergence, Boxee has released the USB Live TV dongle for its Boxee boxes along with version 1.5 today. For those that don't want a full-on premium TV subscription, but do want local channels, can now get that along with your online video entertainment without the need to buy an all new television.

This week on the Reel Web we cover a lot of new stories surrounding SOPA, PIPA, and especially Vimeo's stance on them.

In a move that appears to be a response to Netflix and their foray into original programming, Hulu has announced three original series for this year.

This week's online video news was dominated by web series talk. For instance, we have a retrospective on the BMW web series, The Hire, which was way ahead of its time. We also have some articles about a new Tom Hanks web series, the future of branded video content from Coke, and a story about a YouTube star signing a big new deal.

Fantastic news for films that played at the Sundance Film Festival and never got a distribution deal.

Along with talking to people about online video advertising in 2011, I also asked around about how many thought the year went for online video in general.

It must be a Roku kind of day, I guess. In addition to the new Showtime content we wrote about earlier today, Roku is looking to capture a new revenue stream with a product they're calling the Roku Streaming Stick . Essentially, it's a little stick the size of a USB drive that plugs into your non-smart TV's HDMI port.

Way back a long time ago-- something around 9 months ago --we learned that Netflix had outbid everyone for the rights to a new series called House Of Cards. Starring Kevin Spacy, House Of Cards is an American remake of a successful British show. Nearly every major suitor was involved in the bidding--if HBO wants to buy a show then you know it's a promising show.

Maybe Netflix was right after all.