YouTube to stream free MGM films online
Video sharing site YouTube will stream full-length TV shows and films from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s archives, in a bid to boost ad revenues for its parent company Google.
All films and TV shows will be free to watch, with ads running alongside the video. The deal will see MGM set up a number of content channels within YouTube.
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One channel will begin by showing full-length action films like “Bulletproof Monk” and “The Magnificent Seven” alongside clips from popular movies like “Legally Blonde.”
Last month, YouTube struck a similar partnership with CBS to run full-length archived shows, including “Star Trek,” “Young and the Restless” and “Beverly Hills 90210.”
 Until recently, YouTube videos were predominantly short clips of ten minutes or less.
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The company has been experimenting with full-length shows for some months with Time Warner’s HBO and CBS’s Showtime cable networks, as well as the BBC in the UK.
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The new partnerships put YouTube in more direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp and General Electric’s NBC Universal.
Hulu features up-to-date full-length shows from News Corp’s Fox networks, NBC and CBS.
