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Epix is still in private beta, but the plan behind it is an extremely interesting one. Three movie studios--MGM, Paramount and Lionsgate--are making their content available to a network that subscribers to partnered cable services would receive for free. At the same time, users would also gain access to EpixHD.com, where the same movies would be streaming in 720p at no cost to the user. The content would be stuff you'd normally find on pay-per-view movie networks and would come with no ads despite its non-existant price tag.

In order for a crazy scheme such as this one to truly work, they're going to need to get the cable companies on-board. After all, someone has to pay for all of that content, not to mention all the bandwidth required to shoot it across the country. They're hoping to generate that money with the cable companies. Users will only get access to the site if they have both cable and internet service from the participating provider. Many people are already in that boat, so that shouldn't be a huge hurdle.

While the idea really does have a lot of promise, we're eager to see if it can truly deliver. That's a lot of content and a lot of bandwidth to give away. But, if users were getting the content via torrent, they would be giving up both anyways and getting nothing in return. So, it might be a good deal for everyone involved.