Redbox Instant by Verizon coming to iOS, Android, Xbox 360 on December 17th?

Rumored to cost less than Netflix at only $6 per month, Verizon might be launching its streaming movie service in partnership with Redbox. The unlimited streaming service undercuts Netflix by $2 per month and will be available for iOS, Android, Xbox 360 and certain Samsung televisions and Blu-ray players. Up to five devices per subscription can be registered.

One byproduct of the lower price is likely to be a leaner selection. Part of that is also due to the licensing model that Verizon and Redbox have reportedly taken with this venture. Unlike its competitor, Netflix, who pays a licensing fee for a period of time, Redbox Instant by Verizon will pay rights on a per subscriber basis. It minimizes the initial overhead of the new offering, but because that means less dollars flowing to the rights-holders initially, there will not be quite as many movies to select from.

Now if you are the type of person who likes to see newer titles sooner, Redbox Instant by Verizon will also offer, for an additional $2 per month, you will get four credits each month to redeem at Redbox DVD kiosks. You will be able to reserve DVDs from the website and mobile app. For $0.99, you can rent newer titles which can be downloaded for offline viewing, but we imagine some titles would cost more on a per-case basis.

For users of the service on the web, streamed content uses Silverlight. The guys at GigaOM were able to get some screen shots of the service on the web, and a couple views from the iOS and Android versions of the app for Redbox Instant by Verizon.

How does that sound? Obviously we would like to see more about the movie choices, but it does appear that it is positioned well to take on Netflix when it comes to movies. From the images below we do not see any references to TV shows, but there is always room for growth. Up to now, Verizon has been testing the service with about 500 employees, so we hope they were able to get the bugs worked out and build a competitive offering.

source: GigaOM