Google is planning a significant revamp of its YouTube website to include new movies and television shows that would be offered at low rental rates and, unlike similar streaming sites, include commercials, Home Media magazine reported on its website Monday. The service seemingly intends to emulate the cable model of dual revenue sources -- subscribers and advertisers. According to the magazine Google is spending "upwards of $200 million" to obtain rights from studios to a "myriad" of movies and TV shows for the subscription video-on-demand service that will become an integral part of YouTube. Ralph Schackart, a media analyst with the Chicago-based investment firm William Blair & Co.. as predicting that Google could shake up the current video-on-demand market with lower-priced rentals featuring ads, helping what he estimates will be a $65 billion premium video market.

13/09/2011