YouTube To Allow Video Rentals 215
poopdeville writes "Starting Friday, Google and YouTube will allow movie rentals. The first five films available to rent through YouTube will cost $3.99 for a 48-hour viewing period. Movie studios will be able to set their own prices, with rental viewing windows ranging from one to 90 days. YouTube will get an unspecified commission from each rental. Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuch expects YouTube to generate about $700 million in revenue this year, an estimated 55 percent increase from 2009. If YouTube hits that target, it likely will turn profitable, helping to justify the $1.76 billion in stock that Google paid for the site more than three years ago."
International Viewing? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:$2-$5 ? (Score:4, Informative)
The largest supermarket chain here rents most DVD's for $1.
Not everywhere. To rent a first run movie is about $8 AUD overnight for me, and I have to walk to the video library where it might be out. An older movie is $5 AUD for one week.
Flash makes this a no go (Score:1, Informative)
Not just purely from a "flash sucks, it's not open, OSS for ever!" point of view. Lack of decent hardware decoding make full screen HD 1080p videos totally unwatchable on my 6 month old macbook pro, I dread to think how older hardware handles it. Even 720p is enough to make flash choke some times.
If Google to make to the move to HTML 5 this might be viable, but even then, the price needs to offer better value (compare it to the PSN store, which lets you keep videos for far longer, for about the same amount)
Re:$2-$5 ? (Score:1, Informative)
Wow ... the entertainment industry in Australia sure know how to bleed people dry. Reminds me never to move there ... that and the hot weather ;)
Re:No thanks (Score:5, Informative)
Depends on the culture where you live. In many countries a tip is for exceptional service. It isn't part of the wages.
Re:$2-$5 ? (Score:5, Informative)
Which is nice for you, but everybody lives in a different market. It seems unlikely that I will be able to use this service as I use a non-windows O/S in a non-US country, but if they do offer this properly then I have three choices :
1. Walk 100m to a video store, rent a dvd for 2 euro a night. As a bonus I get to cache a rip of the dvd in case I want to watch it again.
2. Download a CD sized compression of the dvd. That takes about an hour on my connection on a popular torrent. The disadvantage of this is the illegality - and I don't really care about the legal/civil distinction as the odds of being busted for this are a million to one where I live. What does bother me is that the people who made the movie don't get any payment for their work.
3. So now there is (maybe) an online rental option. So it will be more expensive (2.66 euro is unlikely so we will end up with either 3 or 4 euro). Like option one some money is going to flow back to the makers so I get a warm fuzzy feeling inside while I watch the movie. Like option two the codec is probably going to piss me off while I watch the film.
So which will win? It's not a total ordering because cost is not the only criteria. Option two wins on cost and picture quality. Option three wins on getting revenue back to the creators. For now option one is my preferred compromise, but if the codec on option three is acceptable and it works here then I'll probably switch.
(The option of keeping a copy for a longer viewing window is irrelevant for me - I rarely watch a film more than once).
Re:No thanks (Score:5, Informative)
Unless you're a total tool you've still got to tip the dude delivering the food if you get it delivered...
Tipping is a US cultural thing I believe, it's not quite as common in other parts of the world where workers actually have to get paid a proper wage. In fact in some cases it's quite rude to tip, although I can't imagine a delivery guy being offended under any circumstances :)
First five films (Score:4, Informative)
Bit more info on the first five films, taken from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8471635.stm [bbc.co.uk]
Summary: The first five films come from the Sundance Film Festival. The service will go live on 22 january, for US citizens only. The first five films available for rent are "The Cove," "Bass Ackwards," "One Too Many Mornings," "Homewrecker" and "Children of Invention."
Interesting excerpt from the BBC article: "Content providers will be able to set their own prices, with YouTube taking a cut of the revenue. All but one of the Sundance films is being offered for $3.99 (£2.50) each for users to watch over a 48-hour viewing period."
Re:This will get interesting... (Score:5, Informative)
Not at all.
Youtube = watching on my laptop in low res (even their "hd" is low res.
Netflix = 720p HD on my Big TV.
it's no contest. Netflix wins. plus I can watch 60 movies for the price of 4 on Youtube.