In what the Associated Press is painting as a preemptive strike against Apple, Netflix is ditching its quota/hours system for streaming movies online. As of today, all subscribers except those on the most basic two DVDs per-month plan will be given unlimited access to the 6,000+ movies available as part of Netflix’s Internet streaming option, dubbed “Watch Instantly”. Previously, subscribers were offered a limited number of Internet viewing hours based on which DVD rental plan they were on.

During tomorrow’s Macworld keynote speech, Steve Jobs is expected to announce that Apple will also begin offering online movie rentals, through the company’s iTunes Store. Rather than being priced via a monthly “eat-all-you-want” subscription plan, it’s thought that rentals will cost $3.99 per film and will be viewable for up to 24 hours after being downloaded.

Netflix vs Apple

Content

The biggest issue facing any online movie rental service is securing content from the major film studios, under terms which will allow them to compete with traditional DVD rentals (release windows and territorial rights). This is where Netflix appears to have an advantage over Apple.

So what are you doing during the Hollywood writer’s strike?

Are you watching more online video? Are you spending more time at video-sharing sites such as YouTube or Veoh?

Are you watching past seasons of TV shows on DVD, shows you’ve seen before like “House” or “Lost” or are you watching something new like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” or “The Wire?”

Have you given up on TV for now and are watching movies on DVD? Maybe you’re going to the movies again?

Are you reading more books?

Recent reports suggest that, yes, you are watching more online video because of the writer’s strike (a claim disputed by some) and that you are watching more online video in general (no one doubts this).

The BBC heavily promoted its iPlayer, an online TV catchup service, on TV, in the press, and online during the holiday season. The effort seems to have paid off. Sort of.

UK Internet traffic to the iPlayer Website increased “14-fold between the week ending 8 December 2007 and the week ending 5 January,” according to Hitwise, and the service ranked as the 80th most visited Website in the U.K., having peaked at No. 62 on New Year’s Day.

It appears that the BBC has recovered from its rocky online TV start. When the initial iPlayer was launched, it was not without controversy. The BBC was accused of being corrupt due to the player’s reliance on Microsoft technology and lack of Mac/Linux support. UK ISPs were also critical of the iPlayer’s use of peer-to-peer technology and potentially high bandwidth costs.

We at last100 love our set-top boxes. Or at least we love the idea of getting digital video content off the Web and onto our televisions in the living room. But here’s a device we didn’t anticipate.

FyreTV has developed a nondescript set-top box dedicated solely to porn. Nothing else. For $10 a month, you can stream as much adult content as you can possibly watch. Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired’s gadget lab did some snooping this week and found FyreTV, not at the Consumer Electronics Show but at the Adult Entertainment Expo, which runs parallel to CES.

Buskirk notes that the design of the FyreTV is innocuous looking, simply a little black box — like a plain brown wrapper — that can stream more than 20,000 titles from leading adult studios right into your living room or, dare we say, the boudoir.

Viacom’s MTV Networks Group is expanding its online video reach and asserting better control over its content — and the advertising that goes with it — by signing deals to make its video available on five well-known social media sites and video portals, as well as Comcast’s broadband site.

Through the agreement with Dailymotion, GoFish, iMeem, MeeVee, and Veoh Networks, video fans will be able to view both short- and long-form content provided by MTV Network and embed the clips on blogs and social networking sites.

Although this year’s Consumer Electronics Show only officially kicked off yesterday, we’ve already seen a flurry of announcements relating to products that bridge the gap between the PC and TV or bring Internet content directly to a television. Here’s a roundup of some of the more interesting devices and services announced.

SlingCatcher (Sling Media)

The long-delayed SlingCatcher from Sling Media is being given its first public demo at CES. The device serves three purposes: getting content from a SlingBox (the company’s place-shifting device) onto a TV, playing back media stored on an attached USB hard drive on a TV, and viewing Internet content via a PC on a television. To achieve all of this, the SlingCatcher comes bundled with three applications. SlingPlayer for TV, SlingSync and SlingProjector.