YouTube Brings Over 1K Full-length Rental Movies to the U.K.
Starting today, YouTube is good for more than just short clips for residents of the United Kingdom. Following a move that already took place in the United States and Canada, YouTube has brought full-length rentals to U.K. viewers.
At launch, YouTube is offering over 1,000 feature films from Hollywood and British studios. Available titles include The Dark Knight, Reservoir Dogs, Hanna, Fast Five, and Red Riding Hood. Viewers will find plenty of British favorites, such as Monty Python's The Meaning of Life and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The Google-owned site has signed U.K. licensing deals with Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., Universal, and Lionsgate in the U.S., and Revolver Entertainment and Metrodome in the U.K.
New releases will rent for £3.49, and older titles will go for between £2.49 and £3.49. Viewers will get a 30-day window to watch a film, after renting it. Once they've started playback, they'll have 48 hours to finish. Movies can be viewed on a computer, Android mobile device, or Google TV set-top box.
Rentals can be found at www.youtube.com/movies.
In a blog post, Matteo Vallone, YouTube's business product manager, noted that many movie pages feature extras, such as behind-the-scenes interviews, parodies, and remixes from YouTube contributors.
Related Articles
YouTube's European engineering director Oliver Heckmann will keynote Streaming Media Europe in London in October, and he offered us a preview of his behind-the-scenes talk
11 Oct 2011
"YouTube is like a TV" statement may bode ill for user-generated content sites that operate in Italy
12 Jan 2011