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My favorite thing about the Variety story regarding the possible deal being brokered by several movie studios and YouTube is that they list the site as “Google’s online video streaming service” instead of “that thing that everyone on the planet watches cute kitten videos on.”

Because you just know Variety would end a sentence with a preposition.

My second favorite thing is the concept of YouTube selling movie rentals. I have to admit that I’m not the kind of person that streams movies online – not even through netflix – although, occasionally I’ll check an indie out if online is the only place I’m able to see it. I don’t really understand the appeal.The portability makes sense to me, but I remember watching DVDs on my laptop out in Los Angeles when I was starving and couldn’t afford cable so actively choosing to watch movies on my laptop screen instead of on the decently sized HD television in the Reject HQ office.

So I can’t exactly imagine renting movies from YouTube, but millions of other people can.

Talks have been ongoing with the most traction coming from Lionsgate, Sony, Warners, and MGM (who is owned by Sony), but my question is whether YouTube can find a market in doing so since there are already a serious amount of movie rental options out there. YouTube is far more well-known for launching the internet stardom of that Chocolate Rain guy than for providing quality content. It’s the America’s Funniest Videos of the internet. We laugh every time, but we’re not handing out Oscars.

Would you rent movies from YouTube? What movie rental service do you already use? Is it online or mail-only? Don’t you have a perfectly good television that misses you when you cheat on it with your laptop?

What do you think?