YouTube tosses 10-minute limit to show full TV episodes
SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- YouTube, the world's most popular video-sharing site, grew to dominate the field with a collection of funny amateur videos, political gotchas and unauthorized TV and movie content.
The new YouTube, more popular than ever, has a different look. Much, but not all, unlicensed content is gone, replaced by approved material from such producers as CBS, HBO, Showtime, Sony Television and Lionsgate.
Google-owned YouTube also has tossed aside its 10-minute-video limit rule. It is running full-length episodes of TV shows, starting with a test of three CBS-owned shows: Star Trek, MacGyver and Beverly Hills, 90210. The moves are a response to competition from sites offering full-length videos including Hulu, Veoh and blip.tv, which are gaining traction with viewers.
"YouTube is a clip culture," says Jordan Hoffner, YouTube's director of content partnerships. "But we saw that there was a demand for longer form, and a market that's growing, so we decided to try it."
Film fest spotlight
YouTube last week showed its first full-length Hollywood "studio" film on its Screening Room channel for independent filmmakers. Director Wayne Wang's (The Joy Luck Club) two-hour The Princess of Nebraska, from Magnolia Pictures, has attracted over 150,000 views already.
Screening Room launched in June to feature film festival offerings, mostly short films. For non-pros, YouTube has a 10-minute limit on uploaded videos, but Hoffner says he hopes to have more longer films showing by the end of the year outside of Screening Room.
YouTube so rules online video that it showed 5.3 billion videos in September, according to measurement firm Nielsen Online. The closest runner-up was Yahoo, with 264,266 video streams.
But as YouTube has grown even more popular, Hollywood has gone to great lengths to create and nurture video alternatives, says Phil Leigh, an analyst at Inside Digital Media.
Hulu, launched to the general public by NBC Universal and News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox in March, was the sixth-most-popular site for video in September, according to Nielsen, with 142,261 streamed videos.
