As CNET points out, YouTube has had a dicey relationship with the movie studios since inception – much of their early success was based on the ability to view TV and movie clips that had been posted illegally, and Viacom sued the company for $1 billion in damages.
But, with Google’s considerable financial muscle behind it, they are now looking to make nice with the studios – largely so they can get more easily monetizable content on the site. While YouTube enjoys a considerable advantage in terms of traffic over its competitors, user-generated video has proven difficult to sell ads against, despite a number of new ad formats introduced by Google recently.
My question about full-length movies – especially those that are ad-supported –is will anyone watch? The law of large numbers says that of course a few people will, but looking at the movie selection on Hulu or Joost – which contain nothing but professionally produced TV shows and films - it’s hardly like walking into Blockbuster (think TBS, but way worse). While Hulu's online TV selection has proved popular by quickly re-purposing timely content like the Sarah Palin-Tina Fey SNL skits, how many embeds have you come across for "Dude, Where's My Car?"