Media company Stuff, formerly known as Fairfax Media, has today launched a new online movie streaming platform.

Photo: RNZ/ Brad White

The website, named Stuff Pix, lets people hire movies for a one-off fee, rather than the monthly subscription charged by companies like Netflix and Lightbox.

Initially it will offer a repertoire of about 600 movies, including old classics, new releases, and a strong emphasis on New Zealand-made movies.

The project's chair, Sam Morse, said they were not looking to compete with Netflix and Lightbox, but were looking to fill the space once occupied by brick-and-mortar DVD stores.

"We were thinking that the market was a bit underserved in ... latest release, blockbuster movie content.

"It was becoming increasingly difficult for consumers to go and find the latest release movies straight out of Hollywood, like Star Wars."

The movies' prices will vary between $1 for the least exclusive fare, and $6.95 for new releases.

Last year, Stuff's profit plunged by nearly a quarter to $21 million from declining advertising revenues.

Those declines have prompted the company to expand into businesses beyond its core media offering.

It now owns stakes in the broadband provider Stuff Fibre, as well as the health insurance company, Done.

Mr Morse said Stuff Pix was not another step down that path - rather, it was a fairly organic move for the media arm of the business.

"This is certainly a very specific and comfortable space for Stuff to head into ... increasingly, consumers and viewers are using the Stuff website to get entertainment news and the like, so I don't think it's a huge leap for consumers and users of the Stuff website to consider Stuff can deliver them high-quality premium content as well."

Mr Morse said the new platform could also be used to host video content created by Stuff itself, such as long-form documentaries.