While YouTube has experimented with film rental in the past, its success has been limited to say the least. Undeterred, it appears that the Google-owned company is now in negotiations to launch a pay-per-view movie-rental service to rival Apple’s iTunes.
According to the Financial Times (subscription required), the search-giant is currently talking to major Hollywood studios in an effort to bring new films to the service at the same time that the DVDs are released. This would put it in direct competition with iTunes and Amazon VOD, as well as the digital arms of rental-services like Netflix in the US and LoveFilm in the UK.
The report goes on to point out that Hollywood is very keen on supporting Google’s ambitions. With sales of physical-media decreasing and digital-distribution pegged as the format of future, the studios are trying to make content available on as many platforms as possible. Moreover, the massive popularity of both Google and YouTube would mean that the new service would have a global reach.
While negotiations have been ongoing for several months, the pace has apparently quickened in recent weeks. This is partly due to Apple’s widely rumoured plans to unveil an update to iTV (née Apple TV) in the coming weeks.
A YouTube film-streaming service would seem to benefit all parties involved. While the studios would gain access to an additional revenue stream, Google could finally find a way to make YouTube into a profitable business – a proposition that it has struggled with since purchasing the company in 2006.
If the source is correct, the service could roll-out before the end of this year in the US, with a global launch planned for sometime in 2011.
