Discuss: Would You Rent Movies from YouTube?

Posted by Dr. Cole Abaius (cole.abaius@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 3, 2009 Share

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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?

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  • Phoghat
    I watch a lot of Netflix streaming on a Roku and my HDTV. There's not a tremendous amount of films I couldn't do without but there are some gems. IF YouTube were using Roku, IF they offered a subscription instead of a price per view, then Maybe.
    BTW, If you want to see a good, seriously demented movie, catch "Ink" on Netflix. It's an indie that couldn't get some serious distribution but after this I think they'll be able to.
  • mola4everyourz
    Renting a car can be a viable solution if you're on a trip to a foreign country and you hate driving all the way there. I believe (although prices are fluctuating) that you shouldn't need that much money to rent a car but it really depends on what you want to drive. You can't rent a mercedes for 20 $ a day that's for sure but i don't get people who are renting a car for 6 months when they can buy it :))
  • Adrasteia
    In a word, no
    In a phrase, No way Jose
  • Phoghat
    My Daddy once to me to buy only what appreciates in value, rent or lease everything else
  • Phoghat
    I've got a Roku box attached to my HDTV and stream videos from NetFlix. I also have a Media center desktop attached to it (with a BluRay Burner) so that I can play Blu Ray disks (from NetFlix) all for only $20 a month. The Roku box has the ability to rent or buy films from Amazon and after watching a free movie (part of the deal with Roku) if they think I'm going to rent an HD movie for $3.99 a pop, they are frakking nuts.
    I watch a bunch of movies because I'm not much into TV (and rerun season is still with us) so I've got good value for the bucks.
  • !_!
    nope i buy the physical copies for a reason, cuz of the directors cut or somethine like a special edition kind of like the nite owl ship or the dark knight batcycle, im pretty sure most of us watch the special features or sometimes the commentarys on the films but a digital copy is a no for me. it automaticaly plays just like a VHS tape but with higher quality. plus iam all for special features
  • baby spinach
    I think it would work great for portable devices.. mobile phones etc..
  • Anrkist
    Only if it had a lot of movies... I'm not going to rent Batman. Even though I have it, I'd want to rent something more along the lines of Zombi 2. But, if YouTube were to do this... I would lay a bet that it would become larger than NetFlix. I tried an online rent service years ago and it kinda sucked... but YouTube would undoubtedly do a pretty impressive job of it if they were able to gain the rights for such an endeavor and they are one of the few companies that could afford it.

    Of course a big hurdle is, how do you stop people from capturing those movies?
  • adamcharles
    If we're talking about renting or streaming movies that have a dvd release then probably not. However, if we're talking about possibly streaming or renting films that have yet to land a distributor (like films that were on the festival circuit that were never picked up by anyone) then I can see the appeal in that. If they'd offer that I would.
  • i'd consider it. my computer practically is my tv now, especially with Hulu and the ease in which i can borrow HD movies from my 'peers'. i have a pretty big (25") monitor, so the televizzle only gets love from me for NFL, Top Chef, and the occasional random vegout. if there is no bandwidth cap coming up, i'd throw down a couple bucks to stream some movies and even shows. but, what streams and high quality downloads lack are the choice DVD extras. when i was heavily into renting/buying DVDs it was for the extras!
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