Sony Pictures may be in talks with YouTube to license some of its films—in their full-length glory—to the popular video sharing site. If so, it could be among the first studios to do so on YouTube. YouTube certainly needs the help, too, because it's reportedly on track to lose nearly half a billion dollars this year alone.
In its ongoing quest to do something that will help it make money, YouTube is reportedly in talks to license full-length films from Sony Pictures. If true, the move will allow YouTube to better compete with the content NBC-owned Hulu, which already streams a wide variety of full-length movies and TV shows. The talks with Sony come as YouTube is poised to lose almost $500 million this year, according to two analysts, highlighting the company's need to tweak its business model—and fast.
With MGM on board with a few of its films and a deal with Sony possibly in the works, YouTube is taking baby steps in the right direction. Hulu's carefully-sandboxed approach to online video has been very attractive to content owners as of late, but YouTube is still the far more popular site.
YouTube needs all the help it can get when it comes to marketing premium content to its users, because the company is on track to lose around $470 million in 2009, according to Credit Suisse analysts Spencer Wang and Kenneth Sena. In a report sent out last week (seen by Multichannel News), the analysts said that YouTube would generate about $240 million in revenue—up about 20 percent year-over-year—but that the costs of bandwidth, licensing, revenue shares, and other expenses would top $711 million.
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In its ongoing quest to do something that will help it make money, YouTube is reportedly in talks to license full-length films from Sony Pictures. If true, the move will allow YouTube to better compete with the content NBC-owned Hulu, which already streams a wide variety of full-length movies and TV shows. The talks with Sony come as YouTube is poised to lose almost $500 million this year, according to two analysts, highlighting the company's need to tweak its business model—and fast.
With MGM on board with a few of its films and a deal with Sony possibly in the works, YouTube is taking baby steps in the right direction. Hulu's carefully-sandboxed approach to online video has been very attractive to content owners as of late, but YouTube is still the far more popular site.
YouTube needs all the help it can get when it comes to marketing premium content to its users, because the company is on track to lose around $470 million in 2009, according to Credit Suisse analysts Spencer Wang and Kenneth Sena. In a report sent out last week (seen by Multichannel News), the analysts said that YouTube would generate about $240 million in revenue—up about 20 percent year-over-year—but that the costs of bandwidth, licensing, revenue shares, and other expenses would top $711 million.
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