Video-sharing site YouTube owned by Google Inc. (GOOG) has reportedly signed deals with a host of entertainment companies to feature movies and TV episodes. The new content is currently limited to users in the United States, the report said.
YouTube is said to have signed deals with Sony Pictures, CBS, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, Starz, Discovery Communications and National Geographic, and are to share advertising revenue on the sites.
Simultaneously, Google also announced the launch of Google TV Ads Online, which allows advertisers to place commercials into the ad breaks of television shows being watched online, the reports added.
The move by YouTube comes close on the heels of last week's announcement that Google and Universal were teaming to create a standalone music video site called Vevo.com. YouTube's move to premium content comes after it started facing stiff competition from sites such as Hulu.com, a joint venture of NBC Universal and the News Corporation, which freely streamlines movies and TV shows for viewing. In recent weeks, Google was rumoured to be interested in purchasing the increasingly popular micro-blogging service Twitter.
Recently, Internet data tracking firm comScore Inc, while disclosing U.S. web search engine rankings said Google sites' share of the U.S. core search market during March was 63.7% of the total searches conducted. During March, Americans conducted approximately 14.3 billion searches at the core search engines, up 9% from February. Of this total, Google sites accounted for 9.1 billion core searches.
GOOG is currently trading at $394.65, up $5.91 or 1.52%, on a volume of 4.28 million shares on the Nasdaq.
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.