Along with tapping celebrities to develop content specifically for YouTube, the Google-based company is looking to expand their movie rental service as well. In fact, they have added 3,000 new titles for rental in the U.S., accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scene extras.
It will be interesting to see if YouTube sticks to their current a la carte rental price offering, if they move to a monthly subscription (e.g. NetFlix) or if they stick to their ad-based monetization, which they currently incorporate on popular user-developed videos.
My only fear about this expanding into a true Netflix competitor is that they’re starting late to the game. Netflix has done a simply incredible job of securing production studio partnerships, and securing the rights to more and more content. If YouTube just gets the leftovers, there’s not going to be much reason to switch.