Soon, we won't need these pesky discs anymore...

The New York Times reports Nintendo and Netflix will officially announce Wednesday, Jan. 13, that the two companies plan to bring the Netflix Watch Instantly service to the Nintendo Wii.

With the new service, Wii owners with a broadband Internet connection, and who have an active monthly subscription of at least a $9-a-month (for Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service), will be able to use Netflix's Watch Instantly service on their Wiis at no additional cost. Users will be able to browse the thousands of movies that Netflix makes available via Watch Instantly, and will be able to watch any movies added to that service for an unlimited amount of time.

This partnership with Netflix allows Nintendo to keep even with the Xbox 360 and the PS3 -- both of which already have Netflix integration with their consoles. However, the Wii will not be able to stream movies in high definition, which the other two console systems are able to do.

With the thousands of potential subscribers Netflix can bring in with this partnership, it is believed Netflix will attempt to spend the extra capital on acquiring more movies to watch via its online streaming service. The reason for this is economical; according to the article in The New York Times, it costs Netflix around $0.05 to stream a movie to a customer, versus $0.60 to ship the DVD to-and-from the customer's home.

For more information about this partnership, check out the full article at The New York Times' official website. Look for the official word to come out later today from Netflix and Nintendo, who will no doubt give the standard boilerplate announcements.

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[Ed. note: And with this, Netflix makes the home console hat trick. Since I already have Netflix for my Xbox 360 and PS3 (with better quality on both), there's not much reason for myself or the core gaming audience to get excited by this news. However, Netflix stands to make a boatload of money from the casual market via this partnership (as it has with the other two consoles), and Nintendo adds another service for its flagship product. Everyone wins... unless you're Blockbuster.]