YouTube has quietly begun offering a variety of movies and TV episodes available for rental at youtube.com/store. After experimenting with $5 rentals of Sundance Film Festival movies this January, the site is now offering 48 hour rentals mostly between 99 cents and $3.99. Rental fees are paid through Google Check-out. (Available only in US for now)

Gigaom’s video industry blog NewTeeVee reported that YouTube expanded its rental program in February beyond the Sundance films, but didn’t make a whole lot of money on early experiments with paid viewing. Video rentals have been available in iTunes for two years now. Microsoft has also seen some success in renting videos for more than 3 years through its XBox Video Marketplace.

Mirco Pasqualini
Published June 26, 2011
Category: Cheap News, Entertainement, TV2.0, Web

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