Voices

YouTube to Test Video Rental

Google Inc.’s YouTube said it will begin testing a new video-rental service on Friday, starting with movies from the Sundance Film Festival. YouTube, which announced the move in a blog post, also plans to allow people to begin renting videos in the health, education and fitness categories in the coming weeks.

YouTube Preps Its (Sort of) Hulu Answer: Movies, TV Shows From Sony, Others

Here’s Google’s sort-of answer to Hulu: A newly designed page to showcase TV shows and movies, along with new players and a new ad strategy. What’s not included: almost any first-run TV show or newly released movie. That’s the content that’s made Hulu successful and what’s also driven traffic to offerings from CBS and Disney’s ABC. You can’t accuse the Google guys of overselling this: In a press conference today, they described it as a “first step, a baby step.”
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Voices

Hulu’s Library Obsession

Is more always better? Hulu has expanded its content library considerably since its launch a year ago. The Internet video site has grown from 50 content partners to more than 130 and has nearly 40,000 pieces of video.