Coming out of a story by NYTimes.com, MGM is apparently interested in seeing its own home movies, ghost riding clips, vandalization videos and musical tributes to Neil Diamond on YouTube. Well not in so many words, but it is planning to start showing its library of movies an TV shows on the video site.
With Hulu, an online video collaboration between NBC and Fox, stealing the thunder of the once indomitable YouTube, the erstwhile online video king is having to change a bit and join the new trend of TV shows playing online. YouTube used to just allow 10-minute video clips, posted by individual users. However, there are apparently only so many clips of skateboarders taking headers off of urban structures and people lip syncing their favortie ’80s hair metal power ballads.
The plan is to start with a limited amount of MGM titles from their cavernous library, such as the original American Gladiators, Bulletproof Monk, The Magnificent Seven and others. Ads will run concurrently or in commerical intermissions.
I’m all for this. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that people are catching their favorite shows online, and studios have been slow on the uptake. I myself have been watching Lost on a similar site and it sure as hell beats catching the four episodes-a-week spoon feeding on Sci Fi channel. And now to honor this wonderful news, a choice clip from YouTube: