YouTube has implemented something new!
They are the proud sponsors of the 2010 Sundance festival. YouTube feels that indie films aren’t getting enough attention and exposure, and according to the official blog, they are doing something about it:
While YouTube has offered an easy and economical way for filmmakers — as well as content creators of all kinds — to instantaneously connect with fans around the world, many of them have told us that the ad-supported business model doesn’t always meet their distribution and monetization needs. And so, we are excited today to announce our partnership with the Sundance Film Festival to make five films from the 2010 and 2009 festivals available for rent for U.S. users on YouTube starting this Friday and running through Sunday, January 31. In addition to these five films, a small collection of rental videos from other U.S. partners across different industries, including health and education, will be made available in the weeks ahead. We’re also excited to put out the call for more independent filmmakers to join the rental program as part of our “Filmmakers Wanted” campaign at the festival.
Bloomberg’s reports further action is expected:
YouTube is talking with major Hollywood studios about providing movies for an online rental service that started today with five independent films from the Sundance Film Festival.
The discussions reflect Google’s interest in expanding the fledging service, which offers the Sundance movies for 24-hour to 48-hours for $3.99, David Eun, Google’s vice president for content partnerships, said today in an interview.
YouTube, the world’s most popular video-sharing site, is seeking new ways to generate revenue. Record labels led by Universal Music Group started the advertising-supported Vevo site with YouTube in December. With movie rentals, filmmakers can decide how much to charge and retain all movie rights.
The talks range from “big-media studios to new-media startups, individual filmmakers,” said Eun, who declined to elaborate on the discussions. “We don’t want to own content. We want to be a neutral platform.”
In addition, in an apparent attempt to compete with ‘build your own radio station’ sites like Jango and Pandora, YouTube has started a build a playlist channel specifically for music buffs.
One more bennie for YouTube addicts – a beta version of a HTML5-based video player:
HTML5 is a new web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your web experience. 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 plugin.
Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are some limitations. HTML5 on YouTube doesn’t support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video (currently that means Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer). We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come.
Looks like YouTube is still moving into areas where they hope monetization will follow (YouTube has been a major money and bandwidth suck for years.)