Movie studios look to YouTube for internet video rentals
September 3, 2009
Hollywood movie studios are reportedly in talks with Google about offering movie rentals on the free internet video service YouTube. Cable companies and other content producers are increasingly worried about losing viewers to the growing audience for free online sites like YouTube and Hulu.
Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Lionsgate are among the companies in talks with Google about about streaming movies on YouTube when the DVDs become available in rental stores and kiosks, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
The threat to content producers of free TV and movie content streamed over broadband internet connections is apparent in a report by the Silicon Alley Insider, which used comScore data and estimates of cable subscribers to suggest that Hulu had more viewers in July (38 million) than Time Warner Cable had subscribers (34 million).
Time Warner Cable recently reached its own agreement with YouTube to post video clips from its cable programming on the site.
"Our agreement with YouTube helps us expand the amount of our promotional content, animation and news that we already make available online," Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner chairman and CEO, said last month.
In 2007, Viacom initiated a $1 billion lawsuit against YouTube accusing the video service of violating copyrights in running video clips from its programs.
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