14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, YouTube announced that it would try out movie rentals on the site by putting up five movies from the Sundance Festival online and asking for $3.99 per streaming. This could be a major revenue avenue for YouTube, which has been struggling to become profitable ever since Google acquired it for a hefty sum.
There are even rumors that the site is in talks with major Hollywood studios for a similar move, so it's clearly taking the option seriously. Turns out though that it may very well be a major flop for the site as the first movies that were made available were watched a combined 1,500 times, not exactly blockbuster numbers.
As NewTeeVee points out, the full-length films that were made available last week ahead of the festival managed to attract meager viewership, actual paying users, despite YouTube making quite a bit of fuss over the move. Bass Ackwards got 308 paying viewers, Homewrecker also 308, The Cove 303, Children of Invention 301 and One Too Many Mornings 250.
YouTube may be looking at all options to generate revenue but with about $6,000 being made by the movies, of which the site would get an unspecified cut, it's probably not going to the nudge that pushes YouTube towards profitability. This may be just a hiccup and not a sign of a wider lack of interest in paying for stuff on YouTube.
But it's clear that the site has its work cut out ahead of it as the event was rather well publicized, the news was picked by many news outlets covering the market and the movies were featured on the YouTube homepage. Obviously, people aren't accustomed to having to pay to watch anything on YouTube, so maybe it just takes some time for them to warm up to the idea. And the lure of more popular Hollywood movies may be enough to get more people to pay, but we'll have to wait and see when or if that happens.