Just a day before Apple is expected to announce its own movie-rental business, the popular online movie rental company Netflix said it decided to lift time limits on movies and TV shows watched over the Web. Netflix also announced that this new feature would be available with no extra charge to all subscribers already on one of its unlimited monthly video rental plans.

Until the recent decision the rental company had limited the numbers of hours of movies and television shows accessed over Internet connections that it made available to users under regular subscription plans, priced $8.99 and above.

Netflix launched its service of streaming movies and TV shows over the Internet about one year ago; through this brand new feature, Watch Now, as the service is called, is likely to become even more popular among movie fans and Internet users. According to Netflix, its customers will have unlimited access to a library containing no less than 6,000 titles. The rental company claims it currently has about seven million subscribers, but this number is likely to grow in the future thanks to the new feature Netflix announced today.

"Unlimited has always been a very powerful selling point with our subscribers and a large part of what set us apart in the marketplace. […] In talking with members about our streaming feature during the past year, it became clear that, as with DVDs, the idea of streaming unlimited movies and TV episodes on a PC resonated quite strongly. And we're now in a good position to offer that," said Netflix chief executive, Leslie Kilgore.