Give Microsoft credit: It’s willing to help companies ditch its own Silverlight video streaming platform for superior alternatives. The Next Web reports that Netflix is switching out Silverlight for HTML5 and it has Microsoft to thank for making it possible. Specifically, the report says that Netflix “has been working closely with the Internet Explorer team to implement its proposed ‘Premium Video Extensions’ in IE11 on Windows 8.1, meaning if you install the operating system preview released today, you can watch Netflix content using HTML5 right now.” Netflix is hoping that the switch to HTML5 away from the proprietary Silverlight will make it easier to stream content across many different browsers, including Firefox and Chrome.

Prior to joining BGR as News Editor, Brad Reed spent five years covering the wireless industry for Network World. His first smartphone was a BlackBerry but he has since become a loyal Android user.