At Sundance this year, YouTube announced that they were starting rentals of full feature films. Given the popularity of the site, this could be huge for DIY filmmakers. Already, a number of features in the NEXT section of Sundance (basically the ultra-low budget films in the festival) have signed on.
Right now, it appears to only be for US films for viewing in the US, but hopefully that will change. I'm particularly excited about (future) worldwide geo-targeting in regions where we have not sold VOD/online rights -- effectively giving a film credible global distribution.
The rental pricing (and length of rental period) is set by the filmmaker and includes the option of ad-supported (i.e. free to the viewer).
Details on how to get into the YouTube rental program.
Eager to get a bite of the action, a start-up named Dynamo was announced at SxSW this year, which will go much further than YouTube in allowing a customized, embeddable viewing experience (YouTube rentals cannot be embedded like normal YouTube videos -- which is crazy).
These are the new kids on the block, but offering a great service, at a great price (free set-up, 70% revenue share). Good luck to them and if it at least it makes YouTube wake up and smell the features, then so much the better for all us.
The Dynamo site is in closed beta right now, but you can sign up to join their beta list when they open it wider.
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