Finally the start of Pay-Per-View films on-line
Currently if you like me, don’t own a television, since most of the content rubbish, and you want to see a film at home you have two chooses, either you buy/rent a DVD (assuming you have a laptop with a DVD drive) or download a poor quality pirated film. Since it’s a hassle going to the DVD shop and you can’t get the latest film, most people tend to download pirated versions.
However hopefully this is about to change.
Google has announced that starting this weekend, YouTube will start charging around $5 to watch one of five films.
The films include The Cove, an underwater adventure about dolphin capturing in Japan; Bass Ackwards, which chronicles an improvised road trip; Children of Invention, about two Bostonian orphans; One Too Many Mornings, a "coming of age comedy about two guys who are too old to be coming of age"; and Homewrecker, a comedy about a locksmith. The filmmakers will determine the exact asking price for viewing each movie, but all will be in the range of $5.
Once of the major barriers to entry any legit company faces if they want to show films on-line is that of the distribution company, the people who get films in cinemas, won’t distribute films to cinemas unless they get exclusive rights for a six or so months (that’s why new releases take a long time to come out on DVD) at that point, the rights get sold to DVD produces, then after a chunk of time, to the TV companies.
This makes the move by Sundance Film Festival and filmmakers a very brave move and a very welcome one, it effectively means that it is unlikely you will see any of them at a cinema.
YouTube execs told USA Today the move is helping independent filmmakers find distribution avenues for their films. The movies will be shown without ads, which would be an aesthetic disaster for any director who chose to put his creation online.