Google Now Rents Paramount Flicks, as It Fights Apple and Amazon

Google managed to convince another big time movie studio to allow it to rent its movies. Paramount flicks, such as the Transformers series or The Godfather, will be available for rent on YouTube but also on Google Play, making them available on Android devices.

"When it comes to movie rentals, we’ve been focused on adding as many of your favorite movies as possible," YouTube announced.

"Today we’re pleased to announce a new licensing agreement with Paramount Pictures which will bring nearly 500 new movie titles to YouTube and Google Play over the next few weeks to people in the U.S. and Canada," it added.

With this latest addition, Google can now boast 9,000 movie titles for rent in the US from five of the six major movie studios and several independent ones. That's a decent selection, but most if not all of the titles are already available on iTunes or Amazon.

At best, Google is catching up to the competition. Having the titles available in the default store may make people more open to the idea of owning an Android device, but it's not going to persuade anyone to switch from an iPhone or iPad or even from the Kindle Fire.

Even though the movies are available on YouTube, the big focus is on Android and the ecosystem of services Google can build around it. It's got the basics down, music, movies, apps and ebooks, but it's still in third place, at best, in a world dominated by Apple and Amazon.

But Google has decided that it needs to compete with these two companies, which have a lot more experience than it, in the "digital entertainment" market, so you can expect to hear about more deals like this.

The market has a huge potential, but it's unclear what Google brings new to the table, if anything. So far, it's been catching up and it doesn't seem like it's going to take the lead in any aspect any time soon.