RENTAL AGREEMENT: Ezyflix users can either pay per view or 'own' the properties on its service.

Online television provider Ezyflix will launch in the New Zealand market tomorrow providing another way for people to access movies and television programmes over the internet.

The company joins fellow-Australian subscription television service Quickflix and English Premier League football rights holder Coliseum, which are also seeking to loosen Sky Television's grip on the pay-television market.

Ezyflix does not require a monthly subscription. Customers can choose to "pay per view", or to "own" the films and programmes they download so they can watch them again and again without further payment.

The service launched in Australia two weeks ago.

Chief executive and majority owner Craig White is the former Australian sales director of 20th Century Fox and has held senior position in the beer industry in the United States and Europe.

He said Ezyflix would initially provide access to a catalogue of 1500 movies and about 300 to 400 television series.

"There are about 300 films released theatrically in New Zealand each year so with 1500 films, in broad terms, we are talking about the last five year's of anything that was in a cinema - though not necessarily every independent film," he said.

The rights it had negotiated with studios such as Sony, Warner Bros, Walt Disney and Paramount generally allowed it to show feature films 120 days after their initial theatrical release, at the same time as they were made available on DVD, White said.

"Sky Box Office has a further hold-back period of another 45 days, so we will be able to offer videos-on-demand more quickly than services such as theirs."

Such "new release" films will cost $6.99 to rent and $24.99 to buy online in standard definition. HD films would cost $1 more to rent and $5 more to buy, but back-catalogue films would cost $4.99 to rent and $8.99 to download and own.

Although many DVD rental stores now hired out back-catalogue films for $2, even before any promotions, White argued that Ezyflix would "for the most part be in line with traditional rental pricing".

Buying films from Ezyflix could be better value than buying them on disk as customers could then watch them on computers, internet-connected televisions and smartphones from anywhere.

Some films could also be shared with up to five friends through online service Ultraviolet.

"That is a value proposition that is unsurpassed and where we are peerless," White said.

Ezyflix could usually offer its television programmes within 24 hours of their first showing on broadcast television, White said.

"For example, we can sell the final season of 'Breaking Bad' [a crime drama series] within 24 hours of its US broadcast."

White said Ezyflix was at "day one" of a 10-year journey and it would seek more and earlier access to content from studios. Research suggested New Zealanders spent about $120 million renting DVDs each year and a similar amount buying DVDs to own, he said.

"Eight to 12 years from now that is all going to be digital," he said.

White would not reveal how much he and a silent partner had invested in Ezyflix but said he was confident it would be profitable within a year by keeping costs low. Its content is being hosted in Australia by Amazon Web Services.

Coliseum announced today that customers who had signed up to its PremierLeaguePass.com service would be able to watch the next two World Cup Qualifiers, between Ireland and Sweden and Ukraine and England, online, without further charge.

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said it would show this year's two All White's World Cup qualifiers free-of-charge.