YouTube has announced that they will launch a movie rental service with immediate effect based on a catalog of 3,000 movies, including many Hollywood movies. The service is available in the US now (although people outside of US can see the free movies), but the announcement seems to be the first step towards integration into TVs with Smart TV functionality.
YouTube movie rental
Brick and mortar stores such as Blockbuster are struggling to keep up with the new trends of online rental services. Netflix is very popular in the US and now YouTube wants to take part of the action.
YouTube starts movie rental service in the US
YouTube has launched a movie rental service, now online in the US with major blockbusters such as Harry Potter, The King's Speech, The Green Hornet and many more. YouTube has managed to get Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Universal and NBC on the bandwagon. So far people outside of the US are not allowed to rent movies but can see the free ones.
First step towards Smart TVs?
Movies can be rented via PC or Google TV. However, these first steps look like a push into the Smart TV environments and it is expected that YouTube will find its way into connected TVs to allow users to rent movies over the internet.
YouTube starts movie rental service in the US
YouTube is already integrated in most TVs with Smart TV functionality and the expansion to a rental layer seems like a relatively painless process.
The price for rentals is around 3-4 US dollars per movie and around 3000 movies are available from the database. YouTube claims that they support up to 4K (four times higher than full HD) resolution, but most movies are streaming in SD resolution.
Try the service yourself here: YouTube Movies
YouTube starts movie rental service with 3000 movies
