YouTube expands its movie rentals

From CNET News.com: As part of an effort to get YouTube visitors using the site for things besides user-made videos, YouTube is expanding its professionally produced offerings as well as increasing investments in its own programs, confirming reports from last month suggesting that the company wanted to add to its exclusive programming.

In a blog post, the video site announced today that it's adding some 3,000 new movies from studios like NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros.

"Today, we're going to start adding around 3,000 new movie titles for rent available to users in the U.S. (more on this in a post later today) that will be accompanied by reviews and behind-the-scenes movie extras," said Salar Kamangar, head of YouTube, in a post on the company's blog. "Whether it's short movie trailers, funny movie parodies or full-length blockbuster films, we encourage you to sit back and settle in to the YouTube movies experience."

All told, the new wave of content doubles YouTube's rental library, pushing it to more than 6,000 titles. A YouTube representative told CNET that the first wave of that expansion will go live on the site later today.

Along with the rentals announcement, Kamangar noted that the company is "bolstering" its investments in original content.

"Our 20,000+ partners--folks like Machinima, Annoying Orange and Ryan Higa--are producing original content for the web and commanding TV-size audiences for their own brand of programming," Kamangar wrote. "In the coming year, we'll bring even more content to YouTube. Building on the success of Partner Grants and YouTube NextUp, we're providing even more resources to creators who you'll know from TV or Hollywood, and to existing YouTube partners who have already built loyal audiences on the site."

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