YouTube diversifies into movie business - Premieres first on Internet

YouTube has announced that it is getting into the movie business, the Guardian writes.

Ordinary people's hit videos have become a phenomenon, and many creative authors earn good money from attracting a huge number of viewers. YouTube now wants to invest in feature-length movies that will be getting their premieres on YouTube rather than in cinemas.

This Google's online video service has announced a partnership with DreamWorks Animation subsidiary AwesomenessTV to make a series of films featuring YouTube stars.

- Together, we'll release several feature-length films over the next two years, all driven by YouTube stars and developed and produced by AwesomenessTV's Brian Robbins. The films will all premiere globally on YouTube before they become available elsewhere, setting what we believe will become a new distribution paradigm for years to come. We hope to release our first film this fall - wrote Alex Carloss, one of YouTube's bosses.

Aside from movies, YouTube will also produce TV shows, that is, YouTube shows, that will also be modeled after the existing videos uploaded by popular YouTube authors.