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In an attempt to steal some of Apple's (AAPL) thunder, Netflix (NFLX) announced it would start offering an unlimited online movie service starting Monday, a day before Steve Jobs talks about Apple's entry into the digital movie download market on Tuesday.

Starting on Monday, Netflix users will be able to watch as many money as they want. The caveat is users at the lowest tier of $4.99 a month won't be included in the program. Only those above it get unlimited access. Most of their subscribers pay more than that so it won't affect too many people.

In the beginning the service will offer over 6,000 movie or TV titles, although small in comparison to the approximate 90,000 in its DVD selection.

Some of the immediate problems faced by Netflix are users streaming the video content are limited to viewing it on the PCs, and must use the Windows operating system, which excludes the majority of MAC users.

This will probably take off more when they release their Netlix-LG  set-top box later in the year, which will allow users to view content on their TVs.

As far as how this will impact the bottom line of Netflix, it'll be interesting to see how long they can continue to offer the service at no extra charge. The streaming charges will eventually affect their bottom line.

What we'll probably see happen is the company will keep it free until they see how quickly it's adopted. Once people decide how well they like it on their TVs, from there the decision will be made on how much extra to charge for it. Of course the competition from Apple and others will determine their response as well.

This is something they have to do but how they'll use it to make more money is a big question that will have to be answered.