YouTube dishes up online movie rentals - at a price

It's not you, it's me

YouTube has opened an online film rental store in the US, after it trialled the service in January.

The Google-owned company is charging 99 cents to $3.99 a pop for its range of film rentals. YouTube gives customers between 24 and 72 hours to rent a movie from its store (US only).

The ad broker tentatively tested out the YouTube service earlier this year with just five Sundance films offered during a 10-day run, which the New York Times said at the time pulled in $10,709 for Google during that period.

Now YouTube has ramped up its store and is offering more titles to customers in the US. However, it’s not clear how the firm plans to beat rivals such as Amazon and Netflix with its current biz strategy for the site, which launched quietly this week.

“When we announced YouTube Rentals in January we said we would be creating a destination after more partners joined the program. To date, we have nearly 500 partners that have joined our Rental program,” a YouTube spokesman told NewTeeVee. ®