Get ready for full-length movies on YouTube


by Cyril Kowaliski — 9:50 AM on November 6, 2008

Google is in for a direct collision course with Hulu, according to CNet News. The news site has learned from an "executive with a major entertainment company" that YouTube will start offering full-length movies from at least one major Hollywood studio "possibly as early as next month." This executive said his company's movies were already "consumed frequently and for long periods of time on the net."

Not many people would want to watch The Fellowship of the Ring or No Country for Old Men in a dinky YouTube player, of course, but Google already introduced a larger, wide-screen "theater mode" when it began offering full-length CBS TV shows last month. The new high-quality option YouTube offers for regular videos doesn't look half bad in full-screen mode, either.

CNet News nonetheless questions whether Google will be able to rival Hulu on the video quality front. However, considering the sheer volume of users that visit YouTube (80 million a month, by CNet's count), Google could be able to get considerably more traction than its rival—and more revenue.

   
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