YouTube hosting week-long Ghostbusters screening

14 August 2009 12:31 GMT / By Duncan Geere

To comemmorate the 25th anniversary of the legendary Ghostbusters movie, YouTube has signed a deal with Sony to show the movie on its site for a week. However, UK users aren't able to watch it. Instead, they get a message saying "This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions".

Also, notably, the movie isn't playing in YouTube's normal video player - it's playing in Sony's "Crackle" player instead, embedded in the site where the regular player usually is. That seems an odd move from the site, which has become the de-facto standard for video on the web.

The film is being screened at 16:9 in "high quality" resolution. It has commercials in it, and the revenue will be shared between Sony and YouTube. Has Google finally found a way to start making big bucks from the site? Or is this more likely a one-off?

We'll keep you posted.

Via: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Full tags

Biz, Software, YouTube, Online, Google, Sony, Ghostbusters