YouTube, the video website that used to thrive mostly on user-generated content, has rolled out another part of its “major overhaul” this week with an expanded movie rental catalogue and a greater investment in original content.
On Monday, YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar announced that the site had added thousands of films to their online library for fee-based user rentals.
"Today, we're going to start adding around 3,000 new movie titles for rent available to users in the U.S. (more on this in a post later today) that will be accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras," Kamangar wrote in a post on the company's blog. "Whether it's short movie trailers, funny movie parodies or full-length blockbuster films, we encourage you to sit back and settle in to the YouTube movies experience."
In the later post Kamangar referred to, YouTube Product Managers Camille Hearst and Matt Darby explained that there was a lot more to the company’s movie rentals than the ability to watch the film.
“Many movie pages feature YouTube Movie Extras -- free behind-the-scenes videos, cast interviews, parodies, clips and remixes from YouTube’s unique community of content creators,” Hearst and Darby wrote. “Movie pages also showcase reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, so you’ll see feedback from critics before you decide what movie to get into. Over time we'll also be adding additional videos and features to YouTube Movie Extras so that you can get even more into movies on YouTube.”
Neither post specified which studios the titles belonged to, but users can start browsing titles now. Many of the films appear to be priced at $2.99.
In addition to movie rentals, YouTube is also vowing to invest more heavily in “budding filmmakers, artists and entrepreneurs,” especially those who have built up a loyal following with the company over the years. “Look out for more details on this in the coming months,” Kamangar said.
Like it or not, Google is slowly turning YouTube into a commercial product that they hope will bring in a profit.
