After a brief, and limited, trial that launched in January, YouTube has opened up a more substantial streaming rental service that will be adding a bit of urgency to the battle for users as the movie-rental industry establishes yet another beach head online and YouTube continues its osmotic expansion into yet another segment of the online video market.
The Google-owned company is renting TV episodes and movies for 24 to 72 hours for 99 cents to $3.99. So far, the depth of its offering is a tad shallow, mostly films from indies and Bollywood, but that may just be temporary as YouTube builds its business model. Its January toe-in-the-water was based on a handful of movies from the Sundance Film Festival priced at $4.99.
Reports say YouTube has lined up some 500 content partners, and that the site now had hundreds of titles available.
For more:
- check out the YouTube store
- see this PCWorld report
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