03 Sep 10

Movies - now available on YouTube

By Jonathan Sepulchre

2010 has been an exciting year for the Video on Demand market and developments continue with YouTube's recent launch of a Movies section. This new section comes via a partnership with the video rental site Blinkbox, YouTube now offering full length films to its users. Currently, there are around 400 movies available but none of them are big blockbusters (yet).

This is the second major VOD launch for YouTube in 2010 after the opening of the TV Shows section last year. YouTube is now competing directly with companies like Lovefilms, Sky, Channel 4 and SeeSaw as it will be able to offer pre-roll advertising as part of its newly available film content. The quality of the content available will be key to attracting a significant number of unique users and the budget from the advertisers in the coming months.