SAN BRUNO, CALIF.: Google is courting TV networks to run shows on YouTube for a fee, according to All Things D. YouTube is also in talks with the movie industry about renting full-length films, and the user-generated video Web site recently cut a deal with Univision to stream that network’s Spanish-language content. Content under the Univision deal is free to users. YouTube is floating the Apple/Amazon model of a small fee per show, ATD said. The difference would be that YouTube would stream the programs as opposed to offering them for download.
One obstacle is the networks’ concerns that streaming might undermine the download business, so YouTube might develop a business based on less popular programs that don’t appear anywhere else.
YouTube would also have to compete with Hulu, the free content site run by News Corp., NBC Universal and Disney, which is expected to launch a subscription service. Comcast is also building TV Everywhere to make shows available online and on demand.
Peter Kafka of All Things D has more here.
More on YouTube:
November 17, 2009: “Unvision Will Post Full-Length Shows on YouTube”
The deal represents Univision’s first online foray outside if its own Web sites, and one of the first major broadcast networks to provide long-form programming to YouTube.
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