YouTube film streaming speculated

YouTube is reportedly planning to take on Netflix and Amazon with the introduction of its own movie streaming service, writes Business and Leadership.

The publication says Google-owned YouTube will unveil the unlimited subscription service for movies in Europe, starting with the UK, in order to “cut down on the competition,” according to reports.

Netflix is only available in the US and Canada. Amazon, meanwhile, recently bought LoveFilm, which offers video and game streaming in the UK and several other European countries. Last week, Amazon introduced free video streaming to its Prime customers, it says.

According to The New York Post, if Google moves ahead with the plan, it would put YouTube in direct competition with Amazon.

Google has set aside $100 million for striking content deals with studios and other premium content providers in its quest to expand its offerings beyond the home-made videos that dominate the site.

"Google is going to be launching channels in Europe and will launch a subscription video-on-demand service," a Hollywood executive said.

However, the story that it was about to go into competition with Amazon-owned LoveFilm came as something of a surprise to YouTube UK, reports Metro.co.uk.

A spokesman for the video-sharing Web site says: “YouTube is focused on building out and improving its current US-based rental offering. While we aim to always push all of our products out globally to our community, we have no plans to launch a European rentals service in the near future.”

YouTube operates a small-scale movie streaming product in the US, but has struggled to convince major Hollywood studios to make their content available.