Netflix “almost On-Demand” coming to a TV near you

We’ve been hearing about the possibility of an upcoming Netflix On-Demand service for over a year now. Variety reports that according to Eric Besner, a Netflix VP, the company is planning on releasing a proprietary set-top box, that will download movies overnight via a broadband connection.

Users would add movies they want to watch to their rental queue online as they do now, and those movies would then be downloaded to the boxes overnight rather than shipped through the mail.

Now, we wouldn’t exactly call this service “On-Demand”, as it appears that you’ll have to wait for the whole movie to be downloaded before you can watch it. It’s more like On-Demand Lite. Regardless, it’s a step in the right direction for Netflix.

The business model is still being worked out, however the new Netflix service could launch by the end of the year.