The Wall Street Journal states that YouTube is very close to releasing a movie service that will offer rental of the biggest movies from Hollywood. According to reports, the film companies Sony Pictures, Time Warner, Universal Pictures and Lion Gate will be involved right from the start.
A launch date has not yet been nailed down according to the sources the Wall Street Journal spoke to, but it could happen soon. Unlike similar services such as Netflix, YouTube will offer newer films, the newspaper writes.
Since January 2010, YouTube has been testing a film rental service on a small scale. However, it has not achieved any major success as the range has not been particularly interesting.
According to the Wall Street Journal’s sources, YouTube has been in talks with all the major film companies for several years, and now it’s time to get down to business.
It is not clear whether YouTube’s movie service will initially be offered internationally or only in the US.