Many Netflix subscribers already enjoy online streaming access to some 12,000 movies and TV shows, but they may also eventually be able to stream premium movies and original series' from cable channels like HBO. The company revealed that it's at least entertaining such an idea through a question on a recent consumer survey, though customers would have to pay another $10 per month to get access to the premium content.

The survey was sent to a handful of Netflix customers, and it asked whether they would be interested in such a service (a screenshot is available at Hacking Netflix). Specifically, the page says that customers would pay an additional $9.99 on top of their normal Netflix subscriptions and that they could watch the premium content on their computers and on a number of other Netflix-capable devices, like the Roku, Xbox 360, and TiVo. The number of DVDs available as part of the subscription would not change, and customers would still have access to all the currently available online content.

Some of the HBO original series listed in the survey include The Wire, Rome, Curb Your Enthusiasim, and Flight of the Concords, and the movies include Children of Men, I Am Legend, and Jumper. The survey question also asks customers if they would continue to watch HBO content on DVD if they did not choose to pay extra to instantly watch the videos online. Clearly, Netflix is trying to weigh the pros and cons of whether adding such a service (and paying the corresponding licensing fees) would entice new customers to start paying extra, or whether people would rather continue watching HBO content the old-fashioned way.

Netflix first started offering streaming content to subscribers in 2007, and over the past two years, the company's already-popular subscriptions have skyrocketed. Most recently, Netflix noted that subscribers who watch TV and movie content online tend to rent fewer DVDs than those who only use the service for the by-mail rentals, indicating that online video does indeed compete for the same piece of the pie as physical media. Though the cannibalization is no skin off Netflix's back, since subscribers have to pay the same rates in order to get access to both, the company is undoubtedly looking for different ways to expand its online offerings and, as Zatz Not Funny points out, a premium tier of online access could help usher in better movie deals from a plethora of studios.