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It's billed at Canada's first "legit" online film and TV shows streaming service, and the firm offering it – Ottawa-based Zip.ca – is relying on certain factors to make it a resounding success.

These include a "recommendation algorithm", a large customer base and a huge selection of titles. (The recommendation algorithm helps customers to decide which movie to watch. Based on the person's profile and a list of previously rented titles, the system provides a list of other movies that might appeal to the customer's tastes).

Through its alliance with Sonic Solutions – a Novato, Calif.-based digital media content publishing outfit – Zip.ca hopes to offer Canadian patrons the kinds of services Netflix provides in the U.S.

"Pushing movies through the Internet is a natural evolution of the home entertainment market," said Curt Millar, chief operations officer at Zip.ca. "From on air broadcast, the future is getting video data into your living room."

He said by fall of this year consumers would be able to download to their PCs, movie and TV episodes offered by Zip.ca's streaming service.

The Ottawa-based DVD movie rental firm already provides Canadians with more than 72,000 DVD titles, which they can order online and have delivered to their homes via regular mail.

"Now instead of having to wait for one to four days, viewers can start enjoying shows and movies quickly on their PCs, or hopefully pretty soon, on any Internet-enabled device," said Millar.

Many Canadians already download movies and other video content to their computers.

But a lot of these are obtained via peer-to-peer file sharing sites that circumvent digital rights management tools set up by content producers.

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