YouTube launching online movie-rental service

January 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Movie rentals are coming to the Internet’s most popular video site. YouTube is making its debut as a rental outlet Friday to help promote some of the movies that will be shown at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival.

It’s part of a test that YouTube hopes will encourage more movie studios to rent movies through its site. The expansion, announced Wednesday, thrusts Google Inc.-owned YouTube into competition with more established vendors such as Apple Inc.’s iTunes store, Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Blockbuster Inc. The first batch of YouTube’s rentals will cost $3.99 for a 48-hour period.