Overstock.com, the large online retailer, is jumping into the video-on-demand arena.

The site, which averages some 30 million visitors every month, is planning on launching a content service – TV shows and movies – this year.

According to CEO Patrick Byrne, the service will come in two stages. The first, coming by mid-year, is the ability for Overstock users to purchase and rent titles. And by the end of the year, Overstock.com will offer a streaming service, complete with around 30,000 titles. Overstock won’t handle the licensing itself.

From Variety:

Byrne said the company is in the midst of setting a partnership with an outside company that already has rights to content from the major networks and studios though he would not disclose specifics. He said the initial service would have about 30,000 titles at the start, more weighted to film than TV at the start.

In order to access said titles, you’ll have to be a subscriber to Overstock’s “Club O”, the company’s $20-per-month loyalty program. Using streaming video as an incentive for subscribing to an online retailer’s upper-tier program? Sounds familiar…

“We will be a competitor to Amazon,” said Byrne. “We think our loyalty program is better than Amazon’s. We give you five to 25 percent back on what you spend. So we pay people back for their digital downloads.”

So, when it Overstock getting into film production?

Image via Overstock, Facebook