Mammoth video website YouTube has access to new programming that will give consumers one more reason to go somewhere besides their television set to view quality video content. It has a deal to provide some 20K high-quality movie clips – provided without copyright problems.
The clips are the result of a deal with Movieclips.com, which says it is home to the largest collection of licensed movie clips available anywhere on the internet.
Google-owned YouTube will make the clips available to users of its movie rental service, and will also create a special section for them on the YouTube website, www.youtube.com/movieclips.
According to the San Jose Mercury News, there is no lack of movie content on YouTube at the moment, but much of it has been posted by users of the service and is not of high quality.
The idea, according to a Movieclips executive, is to use the clips to spur the purchase and rental of the movies. The site will also include trailers, games and other movie-related content.
RBR-TVBR observation: Hmmmmm – provide content for free to spur consumer spending! The content is its own promotion, and it’s far cheaper than mounting an advertising campaign! It just might work! Now where have we seen that model before? For some reason, putting songs on the radio comes to mind…
