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YouTube Introduces Movie Rentals, Beginning With Sundance Films

by Amar Toor on January 21, 2010 at 11:05 AM

Could it be true? Is YouTube finally shedding its viral training wheels and pedaling its way up to the paid-content big kids' table? Sure seems like it.

According to USA Today, YouTube plans to begin offering online movie rentals this week, in an attempt both to help independent filmmakers gain more exposure, and to test the waters of the paid-content market. Starting on Friday, YouTube will offer five films from the upcoming Sundance Film Festival at a rental charge of about $5 each. On its blog, the company further announced that it'll introduce "a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries... in the weeks to come."

According to YouTube product manager Sara Pollack, the move comes primarily in response to the enormous volume of films being produced, and the comparatively few venues in which independent directors can screen them. At last year's Sundance, for example, 9,000 films were shown, but only 53 were eventually picked up for distribution. She also specified that although the films will be priced in the neighborhood of $5, it will ultimately be up to each individual filmmaker to decide on the retail price. The majority of the revenues, Pollack said, would be appropriated to the director.

Rumors of such a move have been circulating since last year, when it was reported that YouTube was courting movie studios with hopes of renting out bigger films. Since then, it's been taking baby steps toward offering feature-length motion pictures, with its introductions of both HD and big-screen capability.

For now, this latest news isn't likely to keep Netflix awake at night worrying. But we think it's a pretty seismic change in YouTube's ethos, and a move in the right direction. YouTube and its myriad video-sharing descendants have already revolutionized the Internet by providing a global forum for anyone with an idea and a camera. It only makes sense that the site would now start to creep its way up the supply chain, offering an endogenous "next step" for filmmakers seeking a platform from which they can distribute their works. The big question, of course, is how consumers will react to a site that has defined itself, from the very beginning, by its credo of free-range file sharing. [From: USA Today and Mashable]

Tags: film, movies, online video, OnlineVideo, sundance, top, youtube

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