It looks like YouTube,  are ready to start selling tv streams and movies online for a fee and start competing with the likes of Apple and Amazon.

You can already watch a selection of shows and movies for free on Youtube complete with advertising, but what Google are now proposing is an ad free streaming experience for a one off fee of $1.99. The shows will be available the day after broadcast a la Hulu. Of course Hulu may not be providing their free service for much longer.

Although the negotiations with the tv networks and studios are still at the discussion stage, both sides seem optimistic, since models for such deals already exist. The only issue could be that Youtube want to allow users to stream the shows with no download option, howevere the networks and studios, who control pricing, will want to sell the streamed shows at the same price as downloads because offering them at a different price will force them to go back and rework their existing deals.

Executives at YouTube and TV insist this is merely a perception problem and cite studies showing that most people who download TV episodes only watch them once, anyway. However selling a ‘watch once’ only option to viewers used to a ‘download to your harddrive and watch ehenever you want option’ may not be so easy without a drop in price.

YouTube could get around the issue by launching a TV rental business without the big shows on offer from Apple and Amazon. They may even only show content not available elsewhere so they don’t have to match existing price structures.

If the deal goes ahead YouTube will be joining a list of companies trying to sell content online to the viewer next year. Apple, Hulu and Comcast are all looking to hit you between the eyes whilst picking your pocket.

TV executives are generally enthusiastic about all of the above, since they are meant to create additional revenue streams without threatening the industry’s existing business. That is, they’re supposed to protect existing business from the digital disruption that has ravaged music, newspapers, etc.

Its looking like the online tv market will be shifting next year into a ‘you dont get to watch anything for free’, but of course the viewing public may still need convincing that paying to watch online tv is a good idea.

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