Last month at Google's ThinkMovie event in Hollywood, I nearly got booted out of the last two sessions because the YouTube guys wanted to preview features that were not ready for the few
members of the press attending the event to view. After I convinced them I should remain, YouTube's execs removed the "sensitive" news from their presentation and allowed the media to stay.
It
appears that some of those channels came to life on Monday through the Android Marketplace, while others remain in the works. Whether through Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft or Amazon, consumers
will begin to see movies move online faster than consumers had anticipated as content producers and distributors continue to look for channels to sell and rent movies through cloud-based services. In
Google's case, it will provide content for Google TV and mobile phones and tablets running the Android operating system.
That sensitive news might have been released at the Google I/O
conference Tuesday, when the tech company said it would offer streaming movies from the Android Marketplace for $1.99. The service is available online, tablets and on phones. As people begin to view
more content online as well as on mobile devices and tablets, the definition of content will continue to change. Content will move between what people typically think of as low-budget studio and
YouTube-produced, according to one source who calls the space "an interesting place to be." YouTube will likely take budding stars and produce content for distribution, forming partnerships for a
series of shows to augment movie rentals from NBC Universal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros.
On Monday, Google said its video subsidiary YouTube in the United States added about 3,000 new
titles from Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., NBC Universal, Lionsgate Films, Starz, The Weinstein Co., Magnolia Pictures and many other independent studios. This brings the total number of available movie
rental titles to more than 6,000, such as "The King's Speech" and "Despicable Me."
The streaming service accepts most major credit cards. Typically, viewers will have 30 days to begin
watching their rental, which will cost about $3. Once they start watching the movie they usually have 24 hours to finish.
Google said users can embed movies on other sites. If a user who has
not rented the movie views the embedded video, the embedded player will show the movie's trailer along with an overlay that users can click on to rent the full movie.
Moviemakers want the
widest channel possible to distribute and monetize quality content. They may have found it through YouTube, as it taps into Google's distribution and ad network.