YouTube announced it would begin testing an online video rental service during a busy period in which the video-sharing Website also began to support HTML5 video and underwent a substantial aesthetic revamp. In addition to streamlining many features and simplifying its overall look, YouTube now lets users select between SD, HD or 1080p when viewing clips. While popular, YouTube faces competition in its rental endeavor from Netflix, Apple and other streaming media options.
YouTube announced that it would begin testing an online video rental service
starting Jan. 22. As the site, having undergone a substantial aesthetic
revision, gears up to compete against Netflix, Apple and other companies
offering streaming video rentals, research suggests that YouTube is the sixth
most visited among all Websites in the United States.
Instructions for how to
rent movies on YouTube can be found
here; users will need to sign up for Google Checkout in order to pay for
the service.
The new rental feature marks a busy period for YouTube, which has rolled out
HTML5-supported videos along with its revamped look. Originally acquired by
Google in October 2006, YouTube has more content uploaded onto it in 60 days
than three major U.S.
networks, ABC, CBS and NBC, have broadcast
in 60 years. With that amount of traffic comes substantial overhead, though, and
the question remains of
when
YouTube's ad revenue will translate into substantial profits for Google.
"We've spent a lot of time over the last 10 months asking ourselves
some tough questions about this page and posing some of those questions to you
in blog posts, roundtable discussions, one-on-one conversations with the
community and even on forums," User Experience Designer Julian Frumar and Software
Engineer Igor Kofman wrote in a Jan. 21 post on
Broadcasting
Ourselves, the official YouTube blog. "We're excited to unveil the
first major example of our efforts to simplify and streamline the video page to
offer the best possible watching experience for you."
As part of that redesign, the site's main page has been stripped down, and
features such as the action bar have been streamlined or grouped together for
faster access. In place of the five-star rating system, users can now give a
particular video clip either a "Like" or "Don't Like."
Users have more control over video quality, with the ability to select whether
a particular clip is displayed in standard definition, high definition or
1080p.
Google also announced on Jan. 20
YouTube support for HTML5 video, albeit limited to
nonmonetized and nonannotated videos for the moment. That may change as YouTube
builds out the feature in months to come.
"HTML5 is a new Web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and
adds many new features to your Web experience," noted
the YouTube team blog on Jan. 20. "Most notably for YouTube users,
HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback. This means that users with
an HTML5-compatible browser and support for the proper audio and video codecs
can watch a video without needing to download a browser plug-in."
Around the time of YouTube's revamping, research company Experian Hitwise
published data showing that the video-sharing site ranked sixth among all
Websites in the United States,
with users spending an average of 25 minutes and 25 seconds on the site per
session.
Although YouTube could expect its popularity to help its new video rental
service succeed, Experian Hitwise analyst Heather Dougherty noted Jan. 21, it
faces substantial competition in that particular area from the likes of
Netflix, Amazon.com and Apple. "In general, Netflix has become synonymous
with movie rentals online and appeared three times in the top 10 search term
variations of 'movie rentals' for the 12 weeks ending Jan. 16, 2010,"
Dougherty
wrote in a research note.
YouTube's rental-movie test will start with five films from the Sundance
Film Festival, but YouTube will likely have to expand its offerings in order to
gain appreciable market share in that segment against the other companies.
"For any of the players in this space, video quality, breadth of
selection and ease of use will be the key drivers of success," Dougherty
added.
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