CEO of RedBox Instant by Verizon Shawn Strickland announced at the Consumer Electronics Show that the highly-anticipated offering will launch before the end of the first quarter of 2013. The service, currently in invitation-only beta testing, was rumored to have launched at the end of December but was held up by unspecified technical issues.
"We will launch sometime later this quarter," Strickland said. "Movies are the core of the Redbox brand, and movies are underserved in this space." The beta of RedBox Instant currently has 7,500 movies for streaming and purchase today, with 3,500 available to subscribers to stream. More than 4,500 streaming titles are expected at launch.
A monthly fee of $8 per month gives users four rental-days from kiosks, as well as unlimited access to the streaming library. Customers can register up to five devices with the service, including those running iOS and Android, Samsung TVs with Smart TV capabilities, some makes of Blu-Ray players and the Xbox 360. Streaming through a browser will use Microsoft's Silverlight browser extension.