Netflix has  just signed a deal with NBC, and they’re looking to further tier their viewing options. The movie and TV show rental service is considering offering a new subscription type for customers. This subscription would be Streaming-Only, and would be priced lower than all subscription schemes offered now. Already being offered in Canada for $7.99/mo., the U.S. market can look for it in the coming months. The news was reported on PCmag that:

On Friday, Netflix also expand its licensing agreement with NBC Universal to allow members to watch select NBC content via its “Watch Instantly” streaming library for the first time. The U.S. streaming-only option would allow users to sign up for access to “Watch Instantly,” but not its DVD delivery service. All Netflix subscriptions currently provide access to its streaming library, but the cheapest option in the U.S. is now $8.99 per month, which allows users to check out 1 DVD at a time.

This move might be part of the long-term, strategy but it came out as a PR effort to mend the damage from a comment by CEO Reed Hastings. The news was disclosed in an apology blog post. The streaming only option, when it gets over the PR fix, will have to offer great content to gain popularity. The on-demand offerings now certainly need improvement to make the offer worth the money. The content rights deal with NBC will help solve this problem.

Getting a content deal with NBC shows that Netflix is looking to remain dominant in the space, through partnerships and other means.  NBC has picky about their content distribution deals, wanting to ensure viewing quality and format compatibility across devices.  The big question here is for the cable companies, and how they will deal with the changes in media pricing and distribution methods?