AP Sources: YouTube to offer online movie rentals

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) is set to make a mark in Hollywood. Its founder Jack Ma is planning a visit to the US in order to meet with various studios and strike an online-content deal, reported Bloomberg.

According to reports that surfaced on Sunday, Google Inc. (GOOG) is looking to acquire live-game video streaming site, Twitch, to integrate it with its online video streaming service Youtube. However, the development has not yet been confirmed as official sources from both companies refrained from commenting on the news.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) has made significant leaps into the media-content market recently. The Chinese e-commerce giant’s latest advancement comes in the shape of talks with top Hollywood studio heads.

YouTube on Friday began letting people in Britain rent movies for viewing online at the Google-owned video-sharing website."We've got some cracking films to keep everyone entertained through the upcoming winter months and beyond," YouTube business product manager Matteo Vallone said in a blog post announcing the launch in Britain.More than a thousand full-length films from studios in Hollywood or Britain are available for streaming online as rentals at youtube.com/movies, according to Vallone.

TORONTO — Canadians who would like to own the films they’ve just seen at the theatre will soon have a chance to double-up at the box-office, as part of an agreement between Cineplex Inc. (TSX:CGX) and several major Hollywood studios. The country’s largest theatre chain is about the launch SuperTicket, a hybrid of both a movie admission and a digital download of the same film. Here’s how it works:

(catastrophegirl)

YouTube gets Sony Pictures Entertainment, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Lionsgate and other studios to offer their movies on its website the same day they are available on other on-demand services.Google Inc.'s YouTube dramatically expanded its movie rental service with the addition of 3,000 titles from major Hollywood studios, positioning the dominant online video service to capitalize on the growing number of Internet-connected televisions and portable devices.