The anticipated pre-Christmas launch of the Redbox Instant by Verizon online entertainment joint venture formed between US telco Verizon and retail solutions specialist Coinstar is looking one step closer, with the appearance of a customer site in beta.

Eric Bruno, Verizon’s vice president of strategy and planning for consumer and mass business markets, stated late September that the service would offer subscription streaming, movie sales and rentals by Christmas, along with DVDs from the local kiosk.

The service announced it was commencing alpha testing late July, and the appearance of the beta site ties in with Bruno’s comments that the site would launch after a short period of initial public testing.

For $6 a month, subscribers will be able to access to the service’s video catalogue, and for a further $2 a month, subscribers will get four Redbox credits that can be redeemed for DVD rentals in addition to the streaming content.

The service will initially be available on the web, Android and iOS devices, the Xbox 360 and select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players, with customers wable to register up to five devices to access the service. Redbox Instant is using Silverlight for web streaming.

Beta testers are being told that they won’t be able to pick up DVDs ordered through the service at Redbox kiosks until December 17, which indicates a December launch.

Although the company was unwilling to confirm the details, obtained initially by gigaom.com, CEO Shawn Strickland said in an e-mail: “We appreciate the enthusiasm for Redbox Instant by Verizon and we look forward to sharing the full details of the service soon.”

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