Redbox Instant launches to the public, should complement your Netflix subscription

Redbox Instant, the streaming-movie joint venture between Redbox owner Coinstar and Verizon, is now available to the general public.

The public launch ends a three-month closed testing period for the service that saw “hundreds of thousands” of interested people sign up, CEO Shawn Strickland told GigaOM today. He also said many of those that joined Redbox Instant’s free trial stuck around to become paying customers.

The service, which launched into beta back in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, will start at $6 per month for access to a “free” catalog of over 4,500 streaming movies. For another $2 per month, users will get four Redbox credits to rent movies from the physical DVD kiosks. Those credits expire at the end of every month, so the most you’ll ever be able to watch under the plan is four physical movies.

Originally, the service was thought to directly compete with the likes of Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Instant Video, but this may not be the case. Redbox Instant will focus on newer movies and cater to customers who still value physical DVD rentals, and could fill in the gaps that Netflix can’t cover, according to Strickland.

Do you plan on signing up for Redbox Instant? Let us know why, or why not, in the comment section below.

Photo via Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat