Having launched a pay-for movie channel in the US in May and in
Canada last month, YouTube has now made the service available to
users in the UK. Over 1,000 movies can be rented for immediate
online viewing.
The official YouTube blurb on the company's blog site tries to
drum up as much enthusiasm as possible ("We've got some cracking
films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter
months...") but looking at the site itself, you can't help but feel
a little disappointed for 3 main reasons:
1. Lack of Content:Yes, there are some
blockbusters but many of them are fairly old. 'The Dark Knight',
for example, had its cinematic release as far back as 2008. And
'Reservoir Dogs' (which is the only other 'blockbuster' that
YouTube cites on its blog) came out in 1992.
2. Quality of Content: This is largely a
subjective judgment but will you ever want to watch a movie called
'Mogolian Death Worm' which has a 3.6 out of 10 quality score
from 343 users on IMDB? Or 'The Skulls', a movie 'starring' Joshua
Jackson from 'Dawson's Creek'? Admittedly, a lot of the best
content will already have been signed off by studios and
distributors to companies like Sky and Lovefilm but still, this is
the all-powerful YouTube we're talking about here - backed by the
mega wealth of Google. Could do better.
3. Price: 'Mongolian Death Worm' costs £3.49 to
rent. Even 'The Dark Knight' - a movie which is available on Amazon
to buy (not rent) for £3.50 costs £2.49. Yes, you don't have to
wait for the DVD to be delivered but are you willing to pay a
premium just because you're desperate to watch 'The Skulls'?
Here's YouTube's blog post in full:
http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/10/youtube-now-has-movies-in-uk.html and
the movie channel itself can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/movies