YouTube to offer shows and movies

"Broadcast yourself" site goes corporate with new American agreements

17 April 2009 14:52 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

YouTube has announced it is to offer more studio-produced shows and even Hollywood movies in the States as it signs agreements with new partners.

The video-sharing site is moving to become more of an official online hub for video content, rather than a place for user generated clips, said to be in a bid to attract advertising.

The move has attracted criticism on the company's blog, with such comments as "Goodbye YouTube, hello CorporateTube", "Broadcast yourself? Yeah, whatever happened to that?" and "If we wanted to watch TV, we wouldn't be here".

Partners include Sony, Crackle, CBS, MGM, Lionsgate, Starz "and many others" that now offer "thousands" of television episodes and hundreds of movies for US viewers to watch online.

The site has introduced a new "Shows" tab to browse programmes by genre, network and title, as well as a "Subscriptions" tab for logged-in users to get access to new content from providers they like.

In addition, the Google-owned site is rolling out more "in-stream ads", in order to "support" the new shows and movie content.

YouTube stated in a blog post: "While shows and movies are currently limited to users in the US, we look forward to expanding to other regions as soon as possible".

Full tags

Software, Websites, YouTube, Sony, Google, Biz, Home Cinema, Online