YouTube Partners With Hollywood, Declares War on Hulu

After Google’s aquisition of YouTube a few years ago, the site’s video repository was stripped of all user-upload content viewed as infringing on copyrights, leaving those that sought movies and television programming to seek greener pastures–pastures such as Hulu. But YouTube has made moves to legally re-up on Hollywood content by partnering with Sony Pictures and other entertainment bigwigs to bring a wide array of content back to its catalog.

Late Thursday, Youtube.com/shows went live and with it came content from BBC Worldwide, CBS, Discovery Networks, Lionsgate, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, National Geographic, PBS, Sony’s Crackle, Starz, and more.  Youtube.com/movies features flicks from Lionsgate, MGM, Starz, and others.

Right now, the movie selection is a bit skimpy in terms of well-recognized flicks (you can find Carrie and St. Elmo’s Fire), but the TV section is far more stacked with classics like Barney Miller, I Dream of Jeannie,  and Star Trek: The Original Series.  A cursory search, however, revealed that it looks as though current hits like 30 Rock and The Office aren’t available.

The partnerships will be the testing grounds for Google TV Ads Online, which will allow advertisers to drop commercials into programing. While watching The Tick, short ads were dropped in during what appeared to be the original commercial breaks. Unlike Hulu, there doesn’t appear to be an option to let users select if they want to watch all the ads beforehand for an uninterrupted viewing experience.

Audio/video playback was silky smooth, and we look forward to delving deeper into YouTube’s new library. Is there any specific  programming that you’d like to see?