In an effort to make it's YouTube service more profitable, Google is venturing into online movie rental business. Google today announced that it is partnering with Sundance Film Festival to make five films from the 2009 and 2010 film festivals available in YouTube for rent for US users. These movies will be available from Jan 22 through Jan 31. In addition to these five films, Google announced that they will be partnering with companies to make small collection of videos available for rent in the areas of health and education. Pricing and other details are not disclosed for this rental service yet.
Google partnered with Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment to provide it's YouTube services to Vevo - a popular online music video website, which debuted on Dec 08 last year. Google's venture into movie rental business through YouTube places it in direct competition with services from Netflix, Apple and Amazon.
Offering independent films for rental seems a right step for YouTube to test the waters and eventually make friends with big Hollywood studios. In order to compete with existing players, Google has to make sure it has decent collection of titles available for rent and provide an option to stream the content in 1080p (HD), wherever possible. With so many independent films and documentaries available free for streaming from services like Netflix, Google would also need to have an affordable pricing structure for online rentals to attract more customers.
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