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MGM First To Post Full-Length Features To YouTube
Lithal13 writes to tell us that MGM studios will soon be the first major movie studio to post a complete feature-length film on YouTube. Some credit commercial video site Hulu.com for the mended relationship between YouTube parent Google and Hollywood. "YouTube has developed systems that help keep pirated clips off the site and is developing video players that present clearer images than the site's standard player. When it comes to financial terms, Google has proven much more flexible than in the past, according to three studio sources. [...] The only obstacles to Google and YouTube getting more studios to post full-length movies is Google's insistence on a particular ad format, say the sources. They declined to say which ad unit Google prefers. The other hurdle is that some studios are skeptical that users will accept all the ads that need to accompany a feature film in order to make it profitable."
of course, many movies have paid product placements -- ads -- already. Isn't that the slashdot business model? Make a movie, paid for via product placement, and give it away for free?
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I'm OK with the way Hulu handles their ads in TV shows. They have about the same number of commercials-per-episode that a Network station would air. HOWEVER each commercial break consists of only 1 ad which is between 15-30 seconds.
I'm willing to put up with their ad system without a problem. Sure it breaks the flow but most TV shows end their scenes assuming that a network will air a commercial in between.
As for films, I use my NetFlix account for them. As weak as Netflix's OnDemand movie listing is, Hulu's is worse.
Given the ridiculously low bitrates YouTube employs, I can guarantee it will not be a problem for 99.999% of users.
Even HD downloads (720p, from services like Apple's iTS) tend to weigh in at around 4-6Gb at the moment (2-3Gb per hour), which would give you around 50 full-length HD movies a month if you have a Comcastic Internet connection. DVD-quality, done at H.264, tends to go for around half a gig per hour, or around one gig per movie, which gives you 250 full-length ED movies, 500 hours of video, per month, or around 16 hours of video PER DAY.
And realistically, the limits aren't going to go down either.
The golden age of IPTV, where you subscribe to the TV stations you want individually, is quite possible with the existing infrastructure and Internet services. What we need are standardized STBs to hook up to the TVs, and TV stations willing to offer subscriptions.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
If they post the right movies.
Aren't MGM (and the movies in question) owned by Sony now?
A recent slashdot article discussed AT&Ts proposed plan of tiered bandwidth usage. For the 3 mbs service that I have, a 60 GB per month cap was mentioned. At full usage a 3 mbs connection is a little less than 1.5 GB per hour and the cap would be reached in 40 hours. That's just over an hour of HD video per day. That leaves nothing available for other downloads such as software updates or demos.
Even at YouTube quality, my wife's 2-4 hours a day would add up to well over 30 GB per month. She watched Thai lakorn (soap operas) and Thai music videos. Since none of the large satellite providers offer Thai channels, YouTube was the only available option to listen to broadcasts in her native language.
I see bandwidth caps preventing greater usage of such services for things like watching full length movies. Where a few years ago we had a computer that accessed the internet, now we have multiple computers, an Ipod Touch, PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 all using Internet resources and media and all requiring updates. The bandwidth caps are being implemented at a time when more and more home devices are using the Internet, and adding to the speed that you will hit your capacity.
Most companies probably have a 200-250 GB limit on broadband. Each DVD would be 4.7 GB to 9.4 GB. That means that most likely you could download at least 20 movies that would fit onto a dual layer DVD. The streaming movies are no where near this quality, and thus you'd be able to download more. 20 movies at 10-20 bucks per DVD.... so 200-400 dollars per month. I'll stick with my cable bill.
I've watched a ton of stuff on Hulu lately, including full-length movies. That site has done a brilliant job. I don't even mind the commercials, because usually they're in quick 15 or 30 second segments, instead of the 3-4 minute grinds you get on television.
-- http://ninthagenda.com/