The announcement confirms rumors from April that YouTube intended to launch an on-demand movie service with content from Sony, Warner, Universal and Lionsgate. YouTube's new roster of films will go live Monday. The video service will also be hosting movie reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras typically found in DVD and Blu-ray releases.
"You’re finding more and more of the content you love on YouTube, which is now available on 350 million devices," the head of YouTube, Salar Kamangar, wrote in a blog post. "We know this because you’re watching videos to the tune of 2 billion views a day. But you’re spending just 15 minutes a day on YouTube, and spending five hours a day watching TV. As the lines between online and offline continue to blur, we think that’s going to change."
YouTube's rise was largely fueled by amateur content and cat videos. But the site has been increasingly focused on creating higher quality content by training its rising stars and bringing in premium content such as feature-length films. It has also been rumored to be working on adding "channels" to make it feel more like a TV destination.
Today’s move marks YouTube’s biggest push yet to bring professional, magnetizable content to its platform. To see which titles are now available on YouTube, click here.