YouTube To Partner With Fox In Movie Rental Expansion [Update: Not Yet]

Alexia Tsotsis

Alexia Tsotsis is the co-editor of TechCrunch. She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Writing and Art, and moved to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the media industry. After four years of living in New York and attending courses at New York University, she returned to Los Angeles in... → Learn More

Tuesday, April 26th, 2011

As yesterday’s reports of YouTube’s expanded Hollywood partnerships are still making waves, we’re hearing that Twentieth Century Fox will also be making a deal with YouTube to license its movies for YouTube Movies.

Fox will be joining Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Brothers and Universal in the initiative, as well as independent studios Lionsgate and Kino Lorber. While there’s still no word on Paramount and Disney, the service will have enough critical mass to launch with Fox’s participation.

Fox notably blocked Google TV back in November, so this deal would be a change of tune for the studio in its dealings with Google. Having as many major studios on board for this initiative is crucial, as it means the difference between having inventory that people want to watch and being stuck with Ronald Reagan: An American Journey.

Update: We’re hearing that the plan was to launch next week but there was a clause in the partnership deal that Google could not launch without Fox. According to one source, Google is sending out a release draft of the announcement that has no studio names in it. But if the service is going to launch, that means Fox is on board so it is a process of elimination.

Update 2: According to another source, Fox has not yet signed a deal with YouTube. It’s possible that our original source was misinformed as there is a lot of spin going on around this. The leaks today may have been an effort by other studios to get Fox on board. The plan is still to officially announce next week.

Company: YouTube
Website: youtube.com
Launch Date: February 2005
Funding: $11.5M

YouTube provides a platform for you to create, connect and discover the world’s videos. The company recently redesigned the site around its hundreds of millions of channels. Partners from major movie studios, record labels, web original creators, viral stars, and millions more all have channels on YouTube. YouTube is predominantly an ad-supported platform, but also offers rental options for a growing number of movie titles. YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, who...

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Company: Google
Website: google.com
Launch Date: September 7, 1998
IPO: NASDAQ:GOOG

Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...

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