Because you can’t have enough services that offer movie streaming or rentals, Paramount Pictures has struck up a deal to offer around 500 of its movies for rental on YouTube and Google Play. The offer will be available for U.S. and Canada residents. The movies on offer aren’t exactly fluff either, as hit films like The Godfather and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off are ready to roll.
YouTube notes that with the addition of Paramount, the service now has over 9,000 (lucky coincidence?) movies available for rent from six major and ten independent studios.
Though it’s nice that both YouTube and Google Play will be offering Paramount movies soon, one can’t help but wonder exactly why properties as big as YouTube and Google would be pursuing one-shot rentals rather than some sort of streaming service. A quick gander at YouTube’s The Godfather rental shows that a 48-hour pass will set a viewer back $2.99, while an HD 48-hour pass will cost $1 more. Now, Netflix doesn’t offer The Godfather on streaming, but if you have the combo streaming and one DVD-by-mail plan, you can grab The Godfather through the mail without a time constraint, as well as any other movie Netflix has on offer via streaming and DVD-by-mail, and that only costs $15.98 per month. One rental of The Godfather on the YouTube service, though honorable in its offering, is already one-fifth the cost of unlimited Netflix streaming and DVDs through the mail as fast as you can watch and send them back. It’s also worth noting that some of the newer movies found on the service cost around a buck more than the $2.99 and $3.99 older movies.
Though beaming cheapish rentals right to the comfort of your own home — as well as to your Android phone or tablet via Google Play — is a pretty honorable endeavor that should benefit potential customers, in this day and age of Netflix and even less popular services like Amazon Prime Streaming, a singular rental for more than a buck doesn’t seem like height of a good deal. However, it is worth keeping in mind that, for instance, you can rent The Godfather via YouTube for $2.99, but you can’t stream it on Netflix at this time and have to wait a couple days to get it via DVD-by-mail.
(via Official YouTube Blog)
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