Google aiming at Pay-per-View at the end of this year

written by: Gianluigi Cuccureddu

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Published on Monday, 30 August 2010 08:03

The Financial Times reports that Google's Youtube is in negotiations with Hollywood’s leading movie studios to launch a global pay-per-view video service by the end of 2010.

An executive with knowledge of the plans said:

“Google and YouTube are a global phenomenon with a hell of a lot of eyeballs – more than any cable or satellite service. They’ve talked about how many people they could steer to this . . . it’s a huge number.”

Google will use its search technology and Youtube to direct viewers to the new service.
Curious to understand better what is meant by using search technology to direct viewers?
Is that search advertising or using organic results to push the new service?

Viewers of the service will stream rather than download the films and pay about $5 for newer titles.

Negotiations have been intensified over the last weeks, due to the competition in this area.
Think of Apple that will announce iTV at their September event and other competitors like Hulu, Netflix and others being in the news with applications and such to create and retain customers.

The latter remains the big question.
It's good to see an increased interest by content creators in new revenue- and distribution models.
But if customers aren't buying it, the incremental value (from the content creators point of view) remains small.

Content creators are still in charge, but the distribution / delivery of their content is key. And that's where companies like Goole, Hulu and Netflix can play the differentiated part.
That is what will be influence the 'buying reasons' of customers.