YouTube quietly enters movie rental business with indie flicks

Posted by Daniel Shain

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YouTube has launched a small movie rentals offering, which is available for the first time starting today. The list of films is small and just independent films from the Sundance Film Festival for now.

Starting today and running until the end of Sundance (January 31st), 5 films featured in either the 2009 or 2010 Sundance Film Festival will be available for rental on YouTube for the low, low price of $3.99. What you get for your four dollars is a 48 hour license to stream the full movie on any PC, but no downloads.

Ars raises an interesting point from a business perspective when they say that the model for online streaming is that, quite simply, people won't pay for it, but will accept ads. If they're paying for it, they want not only an ad free experience, but the freedom to take it to their TVs and to their friend's TVs at will - a physical copy or at least a download.

YouTube may be able to corner a small market with indie producers, for whom it may be hard to find as convenient an alternate source for, but will they be able to turn this into a real money maker on a bigger scale? For now it's a beta, so we'll just have to wait and see.

Read more - Ars take and the official YouTube blog

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Comments

  • By: Nillson Fabiana Feb 24, 2010 12:31 PM

    At all costs, do not miss out on any outstanding payments. If you are suffering with the credit cards for bad credit communicate with the bank/money defender as soon as possible.

  • By: high blood pressure causes Feb 01, 2010 9:58 PM

    I think we should be happy as we have an option of watching free movies in youtube.....

    harish@ high blood pressure causes

  • By: Daniel Jan 28, 2010 2:12 PM

    I have a feeling a lot of people are going to think that Alicia - I wonder if this will bring in a lot of new revenue for independent film makers though. I bet more people would support it if that was the case.

  • By: Alicia Jan 26, 2010 10:18 PM

    yes, there are a lot of free movie at youtube, I myself won't pay for it, it is not that convenience and cannot watch after that time. Alicia @ Lamaze Musical Inchworm

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