This is exactly what I've been waiting for:

Netflix Bumpy Introduction of Streaming Video

I've absolutely loved using the Yahoo Music Engine and their subscription model for music. I haven't bought a CD in half a year (except for one Helmet and one Melvins CD - each of which I must have in my car away from the computer), and I've been able to listen to a ridiculous amount of new and old music that I would never have heard in the past because I wouldn't risk buying a CD to hear it. And maybe best of all - services like Yahoo and Rhapsody allow you to stream music all day without DRM.

I would love this kind of service for movies. To be able to start a movie, stop it, and switch to something else would be great. Netflix is awesome because of their DVD-in-the-mail service, but if I end up getting three DVDs in the mail that I hate, I have to wait a few days to get new ones in my queue. With a streaming, pay-by-subscription service, I'd be able to stop a bad movie and start up another one immediately [1].

It's going to take a little more time for me to buy into this kind of service though. Right now, I'd only be able to watch movies on a computer, which is lame. I want to watch movies on my TV - or a big monitor. I don't have all the tech required to make this happen. I'd need to invest in a small amount of hardware to display my laptop screen on a TV, or run Media Center, or something. I'd also want the kinks to get worked out in these services. Sounds like Netflix has some smoothing out to do. I'd hate to subscribe and end up being frustrated with trying to get movies to work while talking to customer support.

[1] I assume there'd be some waiting time while the video stream is buffering.