YouTube Teases 3,000 New Movies For Rent

YouTube chief Salar Kamanger teased in a company blog post this morning that YouTube's movie rental service will soon be adding 3,000 new movie titles. The post mainly expressed their desire to become a destination for not only home-made videos, or those of your favorite YouTube stars, but also a place where you can now find big Hollywood movies. Kamanger said that more details on the new movies will be revealed in a post later today.

The online video platform has been around for six years now and is fast becoming a place where its original made-for-web and personal videos can co-exist with the content of traditional media partners. The platform is now available on 350 million devices and folks are tuning in 2 billion views per day. But on average people are spending just 15 minutes per day on the platform and spending five hours a day on watching TV. YouTube wants to change this.

YouTube's movie rental service has been around for over a year now, but has gained little traction and consists of a meager selection of mainly independent flicks. The 3,000 new movie titles for rent could mean a huge step forward and indicates that the company must have successfully struck deals with the big movie studios.

This development could pit YouTube against other major movie streaming platforms such as iTunes and Netflix. But the additional home-grown original content that YouTube offers, could give them a unique edge. They intend to also increase their support and investment in the content created by its over 20,000 channel partners that include several YouTube stars that command TV-size audiences.

[via TechCrunch]