Walt Disney Studios has struck a deal with Google that will bring a slew of Disney movies to YouTube, starting Wednesday. Movies are available to rent starting at $1.99. The deal will include films from Disney, Disney-Pixar and DreamWorks Studios.
Some of the Disney movies available on YouTube right now include Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Cars, Cars 2, and Winnie the Pooh. The older films like Alice in Wonderland seem to be skewing to the $1.99 price point while newer films, like Cars 2, are carrying the $3.99 price.
All the movies provide a 48 hour pass for the rental price. You have 30 days from when you rent the movie to start watching it. Once you start you have 48 hours of time with the film before you can no longer access it. You can watch the rentals directly from the YouTube site, on an Android phone or tablet, or via Google TV (if you live in the U.S. or Canada).
Other companies have also teamed up with YouTube to offer films in the newly relaunched movie store including Sony, Universal, and Warner Brothers.
Disney and YouTube have also partnered up previously to bring "family friendly" originally programming to a YouTube channel. Reports indicate that content will include “video drawn from relevant family-friendly content currently available across YouTube, original video produced by Disney, as well as a blend of current Disney Interactive original series, select Disney Channel programming and Disney user created content.”
It's nice to see even more competition in the online video rental market. For the most part YouTube's prices seem to be in line with other services. Hopefully they can get more studios on board. Do you pay to rent movies online? If you do what service do you use and why? Let us know in the comments.
