Google and Paramount Pictures have reportedly struck a deal that promises to bring approximately 500 new movies to YouTube and the Google Play Store — as rentals.

Once these are added Google will have around 9,000 titles that they can rent to anyone who’s willing to fork over the money to rent the them.

Notice how I keep pointing out the term “rent”. With services like Netflix and Amazon Prime, one has to wonder if “renting” movies is something that infers physical media in-hand.

One of the major advantages to companies like Red Box is the ability to have the disc — which lets you watch the movie however many times you want, and wherever you want, even if you don’t have a data connection.

Google’s plan let’s you “rent” a digital copy, which requires you to have an internet connection of sufficient speed to be able to watch, and it expires after a short time.

Sure, Google now has deals with 5 out of the 6 biggest movie studios in the country (not to mention another 10 independent studios), so it’s got a whole lot of titles, but it begs the question: which subscription model will win? “Rentals” at US$4 per show, or streaming services like Netflix which cost roughly twice that and allow unlimited streaming?

Source: YouTube Blog