Residence hall residents will have access to a Netflix-like movie streaming service next semester to replace the Channel 17 movie service that was implemented in 2000.

As students move into their residence halls in August they will have access to 32 movies on demand that have been hand picked by a committee of students who will be chosen over the summer. These movies will have recently been taken out of theaters including “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and “Divergent.”

Every month following 16 movies will be added to the list totaling to 96 titles by the end of the semester when the number of movies will reset to 32 for the next semester.

Residents will access this on-demand service online on the Resident Select website. This address will be IP range specific meaning residents will only be able to access the website within a residence hall IP address.

Mark Hudson, the director of Housing and Dining Services, said the service would not be accessed through the Internet, which will negate use of bandwidth. It is an Intranet service meaning the movies are coming off servers within the campus.

Hudson said the Housing staff has been looking at this new option for a while, but did not choose to use this until it equaled the current movie channel service. Both services now cost $10 per resident per year, which was the reason they looked to switch to the online option. The price had already been built in to the room and board prices and no additional cost will be added to the residence.

He said the only hang up when deciding if they were to switch to the streaming service was if people would miss the scheduled movie times.

“The pretty easy outcome there was ‘no,’” Hudson said. “If they want to watch it at 7 they will go there and click it and watch it at 7.”

Jarad Jarmon can be reached at 581-2812 or jsjarmon@eiu.edu.