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YouTube Now Streams Free Ad-Supported Movies -- Including 'The Terminator' and 'Hackers' (techcrunch.com)

YouTube's "Movies & Shows" page added a "Free to Watch" section last month. They're trying to compete with free ad-supported online movie offerings from Roku, Walmart, and Tubi, while "Amazon is rumored to be working on something similar," reports TechCrunch: Before, YouTube had only offered consumers the ability to purchase movies and TV shows, similar to how you can rent or buy content from Apple's iTunes or Amazon Video.... Currently, YouTube is serving ads on these free movies, but the report said the company is open to working out other deals with advertisers -- like sponsorships or exclusive screenings.

YouTube's advantage in this space, compared with some others, is its sizable user base of 1.9 billion monthly active users and its ability to target ads using data from Google.

The 99 free movies include the first five Rocky movies, and four movies in the Pink Panther series (all from the post-Peter Sellers era, including the forgotten 1993 film in which the title theme is sung by Bobby McFerrin), as well as Pauly Shore's dreadful 1996 comedy Bio-Dome (which received a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes). Also available is James Cameron's original 1984 film The Terminator, the 2010 documentary With Great Power: The Stan Lee Story and the 1995 film "Hackers" starring Angelina Jolie.

"In this cyberpunk thriller, a renegade group of elite teenage computer hackers rollerblade through New York City by day and ride the information highway by night. After hacking into a high-stakes industrial conspiracy, they become prime suspects and must recruit the best of the cybernet underground to help clear their names."

5 of 86 comments (clear)

  1. Makes cord cutting that much easier by Crashmarik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Content with adds is most of what you pay the cable company twice for.

  2. Not available in your country by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Seems Google didn't make these available after all.

    1. Re:Not available in your country by j-beda · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Seems Google didn't make these available after all.

      I wonder if this is likely to increase piracy of the movies in question that are "video blocked in country".

      "Hey, that Stan Lee thing seems interesting."

      "Oh, not available. :-("

      "I wonder if there is a torrent...."

  3. Video not available. by Hamsterdan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And content producers are probably still wondering why people download stuff

    --
    I've got better things to do tonight than die.
  4. ...by country by Tom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not everyone gets to watch. They are all blocked in my country. Maybe some of the 99 aren't but I didn't try them all. Those I checked are all marked as "not available in your country".

    *sigh*... ok, here comes the VPN. Why they do such nonsense to us?

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org