After three months of testing, Coinstar (OUTR) and Verizon (VZ 2.85%) last night threw open the doors on their jointly owned and developed streaming service: Redbox Instant.
The partners refer to the site as in "open beta," meaning that there may still be kinks to work out even if the service is fully functional in every other sense. Visitors can sign up for a 1-month free trial, after which Redbox charges $8 per month for streaming plus four DVD rental nights. An extra $1 monthly buys access to Blu-ray disc rentals.
Redbox Instant has been in active development since December. Its release comes on the heels of Hulu naming an interim chief to replace founding CEO Jason Kilar, who leaves by the end of the quarter. Both services compete with Netflix and Amazon.com's Instant Video, the industry's top two names in streamed entertainment.
