YouTube Logs Film, TV Deals, Co. Pacts with Major Hollywood Studios

[Zoneboy]

Link

YouTube’s vast lineup of programming just got a lot more interesting.
Company has brokered content deals with Sony, Lionsgate, TBS, Starz, Discovery and National Geographic to offer up full-length movies and TV shows for free on the site. Other partners include Anime Network, Cinetic Rights Management, Current TV, Documentary Channel, First Look Studios and IndieFlix.

Deals are considered a way for YouTube to compete with rival video sites like Hulu that offer premium programming with which advertisers like to be associated while simultaneously providing studios and TV networks with a way to lure millions of viewers to their own websites.

Google-owned YouTube is the most visited site for viewing video on the Internet, attracting 41% of the online audience in February, according to comScore.

Pact isn’t considered a traditional content licensing deal because in order to watch the videos, users will be directed to separate destinations operated by the partners.

For example, Sony will offer a selection of movies to YouTube. But when users click on the pics, they’ll be sent to Crackle.com, the studio’s branded destination for movies and TV shows, which are free to view. Site makes its money from selling ads.

Sony has 60 movies currently on Crackle but will provide YouTube with only a dozen pics.

"It’s all about driving traffic to Crackle," said a source close to the deal.

Content from other partners will similarly send viewers to their owners’ proprietary websites.

Pics will include "Casino Royale," "Super Size Me," "Single White Female," "Drugstore Cowboy," and "Slacker." TV shows will include "Star Trek," "Charlie’s Angels." "MacGyver" and "Jericho."

Partnerships are the first of several that YouTube is pursuing with Hollywood to make the Internet vid behemoth more appealing to consumers and especially advertisers.

It already brokered content deals with MGM and CBS for movies and TV shows and recently inked a deal with the Mouse House to offer clips of TV shows from ABC and ESPN as well as other Disney-owned properties.

[JamesG]

I'm sort of against this.

YouTube is supposed to be a place for "regular people" to upload videos and share them with one another. For people who have no other outlet to express their work/ideas on video YouTube was known as the place to do it.

Now, a lot of these major corporations are "taking over" YouTube. Now all of the featured videos on the site will be from the "big boys" and not the little people. They also have the ratings disabled for videos released by major corps. because I guess they don't want people rating them 2 stars and look bad on the site.


I don't mind movies/tv shows on YouTube and I think that it is great but it should be something done on the side and not take away the attention of those not famous.

I noticed this when Oprah officially joined YouTube and she became one of the high rankers on YouTube right away; I think the term is a partner or something like that. While others have earned the right to get that far Oprah just got it right away.

[TJL]

Great! I can't wait for the feature length version of "Kid from Indiana Trying To Jump A Picnic Table On His Skateboard."

[TKMetal]

These are not even content deals, they're just going to host redirects masked as regular youtube videos. It's basically advertising.

[Sal]

Originally Posted by TJL

Great! I can't wait for the feature length version of "Kid from Indiana Trying To Jump A Picnic Table On His Skateboard."

Followed by the world premiere of "Farting Babies From Outer Space!".



But seriously folks.....


I really like what YouTube has done with this as long as they stick with their current plan and don't try to get too caught up with what the marketing geniuses are telling them, which might turn them into another Nick At Nite, TV Land, or even worse, Hulu. If you are a TV fan, especially a classic/vintage TV fan like myself, this is a site which potentially could turn out to be a goldmine for whatever series you happen to like. It's the only video site I've seen so far, and I hope there will be more to follow, which has not only most of the great "Public Domain" episodes that are on in many other sites but also the 'official' episodes from classic series like Dick Van Dyke and Bewitched and others that were first seen on AOL/Hulu/Fancast/Joost etc. but without the painfully obligatory "US Only" restrictions. This means you can now watch a full episode of the Addams Family if you want to anytime, anywhere and no one will bug you about your ID or your nationality. This to me is just wonderful! For more details, check out these links:

Sitcoms Online News Blog - April 21

YouTube Classic TV Page

Now let's see....I wonder if they take requests. In that case, here's what I'd like:

Bewitched
Gilligan's Island
Brady Bunch
Partridge Family
Make Room For Daddy (any season)
The Donna Reed Show
Father Knows Best
McHale's Navy

I wonder how often the episodes will be updated and changed. I'd love to see more blogs on the subject whenever something new comes up. But no question it's a great start and I'm very happy about it.