• Bits Blog, Tuesday, February 2, 2010 3:17 PM

YouTube's first attempt to charge for full-length feature films was no blockbuster, according to initial projections. For ten days last month, the video-sharing site offered up five independent films from the Sundance Film Festival, which received a combined 2,684 views. At $3.99 per rental, YouTube netted $10,709.16, The Times' Bits blog calculates.

"Those are not numbers that should have executives at Netflix, Apple's iTunes or Amazon's video on demand worried." YouTube, for its part, couldn't be happier with the results. "It definitely exceeded our expectations given all the barriers," Chris Dale, a YouTube spokesman, tells Bits. "The odds are always stacked against independent film makers."

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