Boxee, company behind the eponymous free media center software, has announced plans to begin offering premium for-pay content. The system should be in place by this summer.

Boxee's great as a way to shake loose the reins of hefty monthly cable/satellite bills and keep yourself entertained with free streaming content available over the internet; we covered some of your options when writing about ditching the cable box. What the team behind Boxee is realizing now, is that just because some of its users have rejected paying $75 a month for hundreds of channels (most they don't even watch) doesn't mean that they don't want the option to pay something more reasonable for content that they just can't get for free online.

The company is currently looking for media owners to partner up with, and plans to support all sorts of payment models, from pay-per-view to subscription systems. While Boxee will take a cut of the profits, it promises to keep that figure low to encourage as much content to be available as possible. We expect to hear about any big-name partners it signs up with as summer approaches.

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