14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube is firing on all cylinders, unsurprising for a site its size perhaps, and pumping out new features and updates at a strong rate. One area that has seen a lot of focus in the recent months, though not with the greatest of results, is video rentals. The video site began to ramp up the program and now offers a decent selection of movies for paid streaming. What’s more, it plans to open up the platform to anyone, enabling users to charge for the videos they upload.
According to MediaPost, which cites Hunter Walk, product management lead at YouTube, the upload section of the site has been seeing a lot of updates with the aim of streamlining the process. The uploader is also about to get an interesting, new option, the possibility to put one’s videos behind a pay wall. The move is part of YouTube’s larger monetization scheme, which may finally be paying off this year. The video site has struggled to reach profitability since its creation, but 2010 is said to be the year that will bring it.
There are few details at this point about the self-serve rental program, it’s unclear if everyone will be able to do this or just YouTube partners and the terms of the rental service are also unknown. Traditionally, YouTube partners have a significant leeway when it comes to monetization. Some content creators may feel more comfortable charging for their videos, a more traditional approach, rather than hoping that the ad-money make up for the investment.
However, YouTube’s rental program has been less than successful up to this point. Its initial foray was met with little enthusiasm and things haven’t changed much since. It was hoped that a wider catalogue, which now includes mainstream or popular titles like Precious, which took home two Oscars this year, would spur interest, but it seems that most users aren’t even aware of the rental service’s existence. Some numbers obtained by NewTeeVee show that even pretty well-known titles only get a few hundred or little over 1,000 rentals per week.