YouTube is trying to make nice with major studios so they can offer feature films on their site. CNet announced the news yesterday that the Google-owned company is in negotiations to launch an ad-supported, streaming movie service (perhaps expanding their Screening Room section?).
"It’s not imminent," one of the executives told CNet. "But it’s going to happen. I would say you can expect to see it, if all goes well, sometime within the next 30 to 90 days."
You know what this means? YouTube vs. Hulu fight to the digital death!
Here’s more from CNet:
A showdown between Hulu and the 3-year-old YouTube was inevitable. Consider that Hulu, the joint video venture formed by NBC Universal and News Corp., attracts only a fraction of the 80 million people who visit YouTube each month, but Hulu still managed to generate nearly the same revenue in its first year in business, according to reports.
Over the past year, Hulu’s advantages over YouTube have become clear. Hulu attracts more ad revenue because advertisers are more comfortable with full-length TV shows and films more than they are with user-generated fare. Something else Hulu has going for it is a superior viewing experience. Hulu’s player offers some of the clearest images found on the Web.
YouTube’s new wide-screen player presents video in a less pixilated 16:9 format than the site’s standard player, but it falls short of providing Hulu-esque quality.
But here’s what YouTube offers that Hulu can’t: 80 million monthly visitors. No other video site comes close to reaching an audience of that size.
"We’d love to have our long-form content in front of that audience," said an executive with a studio close to reaching an agreement with YouTube.
