Google is planning to launch a YouTube pay-per-view services for users in India. The move is likely to help the film industry cope with the piracy and give consumers a wider range for viewing movies or other videos. Google's pay-per-view services are already available in multiple countries such as Australia, Korea and Japan.
“Our pay-per-view services or ‘rental’ model is a natural step here in India for the partners that we are working with. For instance, Eros Entertainment who has been with us for a long time already has a lot of content up on YouTube,” The Hindu quotes Gautam Anand, Director Content Partnerships, Google Asia Pacific as saying.
“Once we have the functionality in, it will be done. There are many Indian media companies which are interested,” he added.
YouTube's rental model includes a one-time fee to stream the movie for a limited period of time. Google, however, pointed out its main concern is the payment mechanism. “The major roadblock, which we are working on, is the payment mechanism – enabling carrier billing for example. We want to be able to ensure a seamless experience. Once this is done it will happen.”
Google's official also hinted at the company's growing focus on the regional content. According to Mr. Anand, regional channels in India have the potential to be converted into YouTube content, considering the fact that about 33 per cent of television content broadcast in regional languages.
Google has already its YouTube Box Office services in India. The YouTube BoxOffice features various Indian movies which users can watch for free.
In India, there are very few options for online video rental services right now such as BigFlix. Telecom operator Airtel in coordination with Bigflix last year launched Airtel Movies for computers/laptops and other devices over ethernet/Wi-Fi.
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