14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube may be the biggest video site in the world but its mostly associated with the user-generated content that helped it become the giant it is today. The site has been trying to shed off that label for a while now but without too much success. This week it's having another go at it by streaming the full-length 1984 classic Ghostbusters, which is also prominently displayed on the homepage.
“This summer marks the 25th anniversary of the film that put "crossing the streams," Gozer the Gozerian, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man on the map. An instant quotable classic, Ghostbusters – and its memorable theme song – has maintained a multi-generational following ever since its release in 1984. To celebrate the anniversary, we'll be showing Ghostbusters on YouTube with a special spotlight on the homepage starting tonight at 6pm PT. Or, you can find it by searching in our movies section,” Nate Weinstein wrote on the YouTube blog.
YouTube is of course hailing it as a tribute to the 25th anniversary of the movie but anyone who's been keeping an eye on the video site will know that it's really a way to remind users, and especially big media content owners, that the site has matured and is more than just kitty videos and crying Britney fans. And it does have a growing catalogue of TV shows and feature films and other “premium” content but it just seems like nobody cares or at least not the vast majority of users.
Hulu on the other hand has been doing much better in this sector. Backed by three of the four big TV networks, the video site features a large number of TV shows available for free streaming in the US. The site has seen a surge in popularity and, while still nowhere near YouTube in terms of traffic, it is now one of the biggest in the country.
Still YouTube is hammering on and is slowly gaining more big name partners for its premium content program. But to get them the site has had to make some concessions, like the fact that Ghostbusters will actually run on Sony's Crackle media player embedded in YouTube not the site's native player. The movie will also be available only for one week and only in the US.