YouTube to test movie rental service
YouTube announced it will begin testing an online movie rental service on Friday to kick off the Sundance Film Festival in the US.
Five independent films from the 2009 and 2010 Sundance festivals will be part of a “small collection of rental videos” to be available to US users of the popular video-sharing website in “the weeks ahead”, according to YouTube.
Launching into rentals instantly puts YouTube into competition, albeit on a minor scale, with other video content providers such as its one-time closest partner Apple as well as Amazon VOD, Zune Marketplace and others. YouTube has steadily been working towards more lucrative content by incorporating ads and giving professional outlets special portals such as the music video hub Vevo, but without paid content many full-length commercial videos have remained out of bounds.
YouTube will also be stepping in as a potentially formidable contender in the growing market of online distribution of films that includes videogame consoles, Apple’s iTunes shop and US DVD rental giant Netflix.
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