YouTube adds movie rentals
Google Inc-owned YouTube signed deals with major studios including Time Warner Inc’s Warner Bros, Sony Corp’sJ Sony Pictures, Comcast Corp’s Universal Pictures and Lions Gate Entertainment and with this deal, YouTube adds movie rentals to their arsenal. Many of the movies will be available the same time the DVDs are released.
YouTube adds movie rentals that are both current and classic, ranging from films like ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Goodfellas’, ‘Caddy Shack’, ‘Fletch’, and ‘Scarface’ (can you tell a guy is writing this article?) to Oscar winners like ‘Kings Speech’ and ‘Inception’. Another valuable benefit is YouTube Movie Extras, which is similar to DVD extras and gives viewers the behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, parodies and remixes made by YouTube users. Finally, hundreds of movies, including some offered before the latest launch, are available for free viewing as with other clips.
YouTube Adds Movie Rentals | How to get it
YouTube adds movie rentals, and you can get them by going to http://www.youtube.com/movies.
Once users have upgraded their YouTube accounts they can pay to watch a movie, which they have 30 days to begin viewing. Once users begin watching the movie, they typically have 24 hours to finish.
Some 27 million Internet-connected TVs were shipped worldwide last year, and the number is expected to grow to 49.2 million by the end of 2011, according to researcher ISuppli Corp.
YouTube’s goal is to drive more views of its videos in order to compete against the likes of Hulu, Netflix Inc and websites CBS, Walt Disney Co’s ABC and other broadcasters. While Netflix offers a fixed, low monthly rate, their movie selection is poor and it takes them a long time to get new releases. I’m curious to see if Netflix improves its service to compete with YouTube.
Ultimately, their aggressive goal is to have their average viewers spend 6 hours per day on line! As YouTube adds movie rentals to their site, you can bet their average viewer time will increase from its current 15 minute span.
YouTube adds movie rentals to its arsenal…are you more likely to use YouTube, Netflix, or go to the video store?