YouTube Edging Closer to Hollywood

Site to offer authorized Hollywood content, may start charging
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 16, 2009 8:00 PM CDT
YouTube Edging Closer to Hollywood
In this image provided by YouTube, full episodes of the sitcom "Alf" are shown listed on the YouTube Web site.    (AP Photo/YouTube)

YouTube's latest move to add Sony as a partner highlights the delicate balance it's trying to strike between Hollywood and its own roots in "homegrown video," writes Chris Snyder in Wired. The deals with Sony and others authorize the site—under pressure to curb unauthorized uploads—to show full-length movies and thousands of TV episodes in a new section of the site dubbed YouTube Shows.

YouTube—which denies it plans to abandon its user-submitted video roots— will insert ads in the middle using new technology called Google TV Ads Online. YouTube isn't charging fees for premium content, although execs haven't ruled out doing so in future. "We do expect over time to see micropayments and other forms of subscription models coming," said Google CEO Eric Schmidt .
(More YouTube stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X