Further details have emerged of the Redbox Instant by Verizon online entertainment joint venture formed between US telco Verizon and retail solutions specialist Coinstar. Eric Bruno, Verizon’s vice president of strategy and planning for consumer and mass business markets, told Bloomberg that the service would offer subscription streaming, movie sales and rentals by Christmas, along with DVDs from the local kiosk.

The JV partners are focused on a streaming network “that can stand on its own against Netflix, against Amazon,” according to Bruno. Bruno revealed that in addition to a monthly subscription and an allocation of DVDs from Coinstar’s some 40,000 kiosks, it would offer à la carte movie rentals online and purchases for download. Customers will be able to download titles to mobile devices, game consoles and set-top boxes through an application that will be available at Apple’s app store, Google’s Android store and other outlets.

Although no specific launch date was forthcoming, a start to the service between late November and mid-December is being targeted, after a short period of initial public testing. The service announced it was commencing alpha testing late July.

In terms of business model, Coinstar and Verizon will pay content providers based on the number of subscribers, similar to traditional cable-TV systems, rather than a set payment, Bruno said.

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