Google continued to disrupt the Online Streaming market with an announcement yesterday that it had signed with MGM Studios to begin offering its movies for rent on YouTube and Google Play in the coming weeks. Some of the MGM titles included in the deal are classics like West Side Story, Moonstruck, Rocky and the Terminator.
The MGM deal falls on the heals of the Paramount Pictures deal Google announced just few weeks back and of course the Disney, Pixar and DreamWorks deal back in November.
All in, YouTube has signed five of the six major studios (Fox is still the holdout) which puts it on pace to bring my prediction to fruition that YouTube will soon make NetFlix irrelevant in the long-term, at least in regards to its online streaming business. Especially when you consider all that free Nigerian Porn YouTube offers from 10+ independent film makers (just kidding…).
Seriously however, with YouTube’s 800 million users vs. Netflix’s 46 million users, there’s no doubt that YouTube is a force to be reckoned with and it will be interesting to see how the online streaming business adapts to this massive disruptor.
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Adam
April 17, 2012 at 11:25 am
So good call on the prediction however… I don’t see NetFlix going away anytime soon. My post office actually has a separate BIN which is labeled NETFLIX so that should tell you how popular it is even with the explosion of Redbox and other online stuff.
That said I do agree – Youtube is a monster and I see it taking market share away from Netflix in the long-run. I think this will create a pricing war which i’m all for so this is BAD for the netflix margins and stock holder however I think it’s good for the consumer and will just keep NetFlix honest and low margin vs. putting them out of biz.
Steph
April 18, 2012 at 12:00 am
Well, I just looked at the listings available now and I noticed that the cost for viewing some of these movies are outrageous! Why would I pay 9.99 for a movie I could rent for $1 at Blockbuster Kiosk or Red Box? I certainly wouldn’t buy them because I just don’t buy movies. At least with NetFlix it is a flat rate per month to view movies on your computer. Much better deal in my opinion. Same with the mail service. I hated that NetFlix increased their rates but it is STILL a better deal than paying per movie at You Tube. Nope, not impressed.
G
April 18, 2012 at 6:31 am
In some countries, internet is expensive, too. I pay about US$7 for 500MB of data.