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Techradar: YouTube has announced improvements to its free on-demand movie service, after signing deals with a number of major distributors.

YouTube has tapped up the likes of Sony Pictures, Lionsgate and MGM and will be showing classic content through the site.

Although YouTube has been offering free movies for some time, the titles available have ranged from the obscure to the bizarre.

The new deal will mean that more recognisable movies like The Buena Vista Social Club will be made available.

Free films

“This is one of many efforts to ensure that people can find all the different kinds of video they want to see, from bedroom vlogs and citizen journalism reports to full-length films and TV shows,” explained YouTube head of video partnerships, Donagh O’Malley.

“We hope film lovers enjoy the range of titles in this free library, whether catching up on a mainstream hit or delving into the vast archive of classic films from decades past.”

YouTube has also announced a deal with Blinkbox, which will offer more than 150 movies of its archive for playback on the site.

This is the latest in a long line of link-ups the site has been doing, but the first for movies.

So far YouTube has been heavily investing in its TV output, signing deals with Channel 4 and Five.

Hopefully getting BlinkBox on board will be the start of something special for www.youtube.com/movies.

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Wired: Google is quietly rolling out a new minimalist design for its YouTube video-player pages, which it claims will be more appropriate for a wide range of content from the user-uploaded content that has always been a staple to feature-length films.

By muting the “voice” of the old design, YouTube hopes to make videos stand out from everything else on its pages.

The decision was driven in part by the need to create a unified tone on the site — a subtle but important move, considering that people who are viewing videos of destruction from the recent earthquake in Haiti may not be in the mood to watch skateboarding videos.

You can switch your version of YouTube to the new design now, by clicking a special link.

All YouTube users will notice the changes at some point over the next few weeks.

In the new version, search results, playlists or recommended videos follow viewers around the site depending on how they found a given video.

This makes it possible to check out a bunch of search results without using the “back” button on your browser.

YouTube hopes this will increase viewing time by reducing friction.

The stealth strategy behind YouTube’s redesign is to make the site more appropriate for feature-length films — a key aspect of its strategy to court video producers across the whole spectrum, including professional filmmakers and eventually Hollywood studios, as part of its new video rental service.

While the “Filmmakers Wanted” campaign will debut at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, YouTube told us “as we work to iterate and improve our rentals product we will invite a broader set of partners across different industries and geographies in the weeks and months to come.”

“If the user interface was too pronounced, personality-laden, or really even too noisy, it is going to distract, detract and take away from the experience of that video,” said Margaret Stewart, head of design and user experience for YouTube.

“We want the voice that people hear in the design to be the voice of the creator of the video, and not voice of the user interface itself. The palate is more subdued … the container needs to feel like a welcoming home for everything from user-generated content to feature-length films.

It’s an interesting design challenge, but one that we focused a lot on in the past couple of months.” The viewer pages are so stripped down that they no longer feature the “Broadcast Yourself” motto or the site’s familiar five-star rating system, which never made much sense in the first place. In the new system, when you give something a “like” rating, you’re also adding it to your list of favorites.

If you don’t like a video, a more sensible “thumbs down” rating simplifies the process. (Did people ever really dislike a video enough to assign it two stars, but not enough to assign it one?) Also, the comments section is no longer labeled, because “people are smart” and understand that the comments section is the comments section, according to Stewart.

The overall effect of this much cleaner interface will be to help YouTube achieve its goal of directing viewers’ attention to videos, as opposed to other page elements — an important design consideration when people are paying for video, as YouTube and film producers hope they will.

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Electronista: YouTube has announced that it will allow users to upload 1080p HD video content without limiting playback to a lower resolution.

The web-based interface will provide a choice between the current maximum, 720p, and full 1080p.

The change brings YouTube up to speed with the limited number of video portals, such as SmugMug, that support the higher resolution.

“As resolution of consumer cameras increases, we want to make sure YouTube is the best home on the web to showcase your content,” said YouTube software engineer Billy Biggs on the company’s blog.

Users can submit 1080p videos to be considered for an upcoming spotlight on the YouTube homepage. The expanded service is expected to go live in the next few weeks.

Content that was previously uploaded in 1080p resolution will be automatically re-encoded, eliminating the need to resubmit the videos.

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Engadget: Sounds like Google has found the best way to monetize YouTube yet, and it puts itself in a pretty competitive spot versus the likes of Netflix, Amazon VOD, and Apple’s iTunes movie store.

According to Wall Street Journal, the company’s currently in talks with Lions Gate, Sony, and Warner Bros. studios over putting their content on YouTube for a rental fee, likely $3.99 (€2,79) — the same price as Apple’s SD movie rentals.

Even more interesting is talk of getting some titles online day and date with the DVD releases. Some options could still be free with advertising, but as for paid content, Google’s enticing studios over to their way of thinking with a proposed minimum fee of “just under $3 per title viewed.”

A three-month beta testing is apparently scheduled to begin soon among 10,000 Google employees, and after that? Well, here’s hoping the G-Man manages to sign on some more studios and offer us the films in streaming HD.

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TGDaily: Search engine giant Google said it will pay an estimated $106.9 million in stock to buy On2 Technologies.

On2 is a company specializing in video compression technology and Google’s YouTube needs technology like this. On2 reported a loss in May and had revenues of $4 million in its last reported quarter.

The Mountain View firm’s technology was described by a Google representative today as an essential element of the Web.

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CNet: A Google employee has a working prototype of what 3D videos would look like on YouTube.

‘YouTubePete’ said in a YouTube forum thread that he’s the developer working on making a stereoscopic player during his ’20 per cent time’ at Google.

A sample video, which was dug up by Search Engine Roundtable, can be found on YouTube.

We happened to have a pair of 3D glasses lying around, having recently tested the Minoru 3D webcam, and, when we finally found the correct mode in the drop-down menu to the bottom right of the player, we did indeed see 3D. It was grainy and dark, but it worked. YouTubePete reiterated in the forum thread that the 3D player is just a side project, but he’s taking feedback if you have suggestions.

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CNet: Move over Hotforwords, Lonelygirl15, and all the other YouTube stars. The video site is bringing in more professionally made content and plans to make it a marquee product.

The Internet’s largest video site on Thursday announced that it has struck deals with a host of entertainment companies, including Sony Pictures, CBS (parent company of CNET UK), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, Starz and the BBC, to acquire “thousands” of TV episodes and hundreds of films.

The new content will only be available in the US. YouTube executives also said during a conference call that they have redesigned part of its Web site to create separate areas for professionally made content.

On the site’s front door will be two new tabs. “The ‘Shows’ tab allows you to browse shows by genre, network, title and popularity,” YouTube said in a statement. “The ‘Subscriptions’ tab will grant logged-in users one-click access to fresh content from their favourite creators.”

At this point, it appears the most significant partnership is with Sony Pictures, one of the largest Hollywood film studios. The studio has agreed to post several full-length feature films and TV shows to YouTube.

The rather long-in-the-tooth TV shows include Bewitched and Charlie’s Angels, while among the films are Blue Lagoon, Single White Female, and Nowhere to Run. CNET UK’s sister site CNET News reported earlier this month that the companies were in talks about a feature-film deal. Representatives from Sony Pictures declined to comment.

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Electronista: Google’s video site YouTube is in discussions with Sony Pictures to carry the latter’s full movies, a leak hints.

Without mentioning sources, CNET asserts that YouTube hopes for a license to play the movies on its site. Most of the terms of the deal aren’t specified, though expectations would likely see YouTube pressing for free, ad-sponsored versions of the movies.

Neither company has agreed to comment on the slip. The expansion would signal further efforts by YouTube to start generating money through professionally-made, long form content.

It already carries music videos and short clips from multiple producers, including a recent deal with Disney for segments of ABC, Disney and ESPN shows, but has been limited to just a small group of MGM titles that include some movies and TV shows.

A formal agreement for Sony would give owners of mobile devices with full YouTube clients, like the iPhone and multiple HTC Touch series phones, access to whole movies for free or near-free as long as the movies themselves aren’t deliberately excluded from non-web visitors.

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BBC: A higher percentage of 15-24 year olds in the UK have watched a music video on YouTube than on dedicated music channels, according to a new study.

The report found that 57% of 15-24 year olds watched music on YouTube, compared to 56% watching them on TV. However, TV still has a commanding lead when it comes to adults as a whole.

The survey also found that half of all adults who watched a YouTube music video went on to buy music released by that artist. The study, by market research firm Ipsos MediaCT, looked at the viewing habits of more than 1500 people, across the United Kingdom, in March 2009. It found that double the number of 15-24 year olds were using YouTube to watch music videos, compared to other age groups.

This percentage rose even more for those still in education, with 69% using the music channels on YouTube. Television still has the edge when it comes to children. Or at least, families with children aged 10-15. 48% of these families have watched a music video on TV compared with 39% having watched music videos on YouTube.

Speaking to the BBC, Ipsos’ head of entertainment research, Ian Bramley, said that TV music channels may have to rethink their position. “There is a significant shift in the way the youngest adult age group watches its music videos. One would think this age group would stick with watching music videos online as they get older. “TV music channels are doing very well, but they need to look at exactly who is actually watching their channel. It’s probably not who they think their target market is. “There may be a case, when we do this again, that the market starts to fragment and that TV music channels will need to reposition themselves for an older market,” added Mr Bramley.

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Electronista: Toshiba is developing technology to integrate into its future TVs and DVD players that would boost the quality of YouTube videos, says Pocket-Lint.

The Friday news comes from Toshiba UK head Andy Bass, who got a sneak peek at the technology on a Toshiba TV while in Japan and spoke to a group of journalists at the company’s spring launch event in Weybridge.

Bass has been critical of Toshiba products in the past, calling them “good old fashioned,” but is now saying a stronger lineup is in the cards from the manufacturer in 2009.

Exactly how much better YouTube video quality would become is not clear, nor when the technology will make its debut in the company’s products.

Earlier this year, LG introduced a pair of DVD players that can directly playback YouTube videos, although they do not boost the quality of the videos.

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TGDaily: With the US presidential inauguration, major awards shows, X-Games and other major events occurring recently it is no shock that users took to YouTube to catch up on things missed and to check out the videos they want to see again.

It’s even less surprising that YouTube has much to be excited about, as the company surpassed the 100 million viewer mark in the United States alone, making them the #3 most visited website on the the Internet (and also #3 in U.S.), and #3 in most traffic, accounting for around 17% of all Internet traffic world-wide.

This gives an idea as to the demand and growth of the online video industry. When Google acquired the video site in 2006, they obviously made a great decision as the site now ranks as the most popular provider of online video in the United States.

In January alone about 6.4 billion videos were viewed, this is the equivalent of 43 percent of the video market in the United States.

The figures released from comScore reveal that web surfers in the United States alone sat down to watch over 15 billion videos each month over many different video sites, however YouTube is the site drawing the most attention and the majority of users.  At one point, YouTube accounted for over 20% of all Internet traffic (May/June, 2008).

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NewLaunches.com: Philips has unveiled its internet based TV service, NET TV, for the customers in the United Kingdom.

Initially it will be targeting the high-end TV lineups enabling partnered internet contents to be displayed and browsed through a user-friendly and a simplified web-TV layout.

Currently it includes, You Tube, Tom Tom, eBay, MetreoGroup, Funspot, MyAlbum and Netlog.

Contents from these are optimized with Philips-friendly web-TV app and are accessible via remote control on a home-network wired LAN (8000 series) or a wireless connectivity (9000 series).

The Net TV is said to be live from April.

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