YouTube is relentlessly pursuing the audience held by Netflix, Apple and Blockbuster.
The latest indication of YouTube’s increased efforts is a new deal with Paramount that will deliver boatloads of fresh and familiar content to YouTube.
YouTube users will be able to rent hit flicks from the entertainment giant, like “Hugo,” “The Godfather,” and “The Adventures of Tintin.”
All told, some 500 titles from the Paramount vault will be brought to the popular video sharing platform.
Details regarding the full scope of the deal are still developing, says AdAge.
YouTube did not specify the full scope of the deal but said that it includes some new releases and some catalog films, depending in part on Paramount’s distribution agreements. It does not include “Titanic” or the later films in the “Transformers” franchise, for example. The films will be available on a pay-per-view basis for $2.99 for catalog films and $3.99 for new releases.
In almost no time at all, YouTube has become a popular platform for TV and movie rentals, as Paramount joins Sony Pictures, Universal, The Walt Disney Co., and Warner Brothers as loyal YouTube partners.
