YouTube, the Google-owned highly popular video site, on Thursday unveiled the fact that it added TV shows to its video offer, a major shift from the site’s traditional offer of short videos, most of them made by users. YouTube inked deals with major Hollywood studios, including Sony, CBS, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, to post their shows online. 

 

The list of YouTube partners on this new project also includes independent film studio Lions Gate Entertainment and Liberty Media, owner of Starz movie channel. The deals are a sing that the tension between YouTube and the studios is slowly fading away. Major studios have harshly criticized YouTube for enabling users to post copyrighted material and not doing enough to prevent it. YouTube’s policy was to ban a video only when it is notified by the holder of the copyright. 

 

With this move, YouTube is trying to copy some of the success Hulu had. However, there is a major difference between the two: unlike Hulu, which offers most of the current prime-time lineup from NBC and Fox which includes the cool TV shows, YouTube has only one major network prime-time TV Show, CBS' Harper's Island. 

 

"This is a significant step forward for YouTube, but also a consolation prize," said Phil Leigh, an analyst at Inside Digital Media, USA Today reported. "The studios are more comfortable elsewhere and won't give YouTube their best content."

 

However, considering the fact that YouTube has about 89.4 million visitors per month (in March) and Hulu only has about 8.8 million, advertisers might be happy with the deals they signed with YouTube.