Zip.ca to Offer Legal Streaming Video to Canadians

Online DVD streaming is coming to Canada; that is, legal online DVD streaming. Ottawa-based website Zip.ca already handles online DVD rentals, the kind where you make your selection online and wait a couple of days for the DVD to be delivered to your front door, but who does that? Renting a DVD is far too idle an activity for this blogger to plan several days ahead, especially when it takes the same amount of time or less for him to search for an illegal download (not that he would ever dream of it).

Following the success of websites such as Netflix and hulu, Zip.ca is billing itself as Canada’s first ‘legit’ online film and television streaming service. The site will feature a huge selection of titles, obtained through an alliance with Sonic Solutions -- a California-based digital media content publising outfit -- and a smart ‘recommendation algorithm’ to help you decide what you'd like to watch based on your user profile and past rentals, when the rain outside stops your brain from working.

"Pushing movies through the Internet is a natural evolution of the home entertainment market," said Curt Millar, chief operations officer at Zip.ca. "From on air broadcast, the future is getting video data into your living room."

Finally, a legitimate solution to one of this modern man’s laziest catch twenty-twos: the ability to legally rent any DVD title in a comfortable, incidental fashion when it’s too wet to go outside, without going outside.