Google Video Bazaar open 24 hours

Google CEO Larry Page introduces Google Video Store at the Consumer Electronics Show 2006 in Las Vegas.



Google Video Marketplace is new Google service like Apple iTunes store that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online, including classic and contemporary CBS television shows and NBA basketball games. According to Larry, the Google video marketplace would offer free programing, low-cost rentals and outright purchases of premium entertainment and sports shows.

Google’s flexible pricing model sets its video service apart from rivals. Apple iTunes store charges $1.99 for each video download and 99 cents for each song downloaded. With Google’s marketplace, content suppliers can name their own price, from zero on up. The content owners who charge for video downloads must share 30 percent of the revenue with Google. The video providers have the option of offering content on a download-to-own or download-to-rent basis.

CBS plans to offer programs like Crime Scene Investigation for rental a day after they originally air, priced at $1.99. Also, vintage CBS episodes will be offered for download and outright ownership for the same $1.99 fee. Besides programming from CBS, the NBA and Charlie Rose, the list of other video material that will be sold through Google includes: old episodes from “I Love Lucy,” “The Twilight Zone,” and “The Brady Bunch;” music videos from Sony BMG; and historic video from Getty Images.

Google Video Store customers will make payments with a credit card through Google’s account system, as they do with the Google AdWords advertising system and other Google services. There will be no ads in the videos or on the video Web pages, though Google is looking into providing ad-based video in the future.

In another related development, DivX is working with Google to develop a Google codec that makes Google Video accessible on a variety of consumer electronics devices. The DivX video-codec video compression technology offers DVD quality at 10 times the compression of traditional MPEG2 files, enabling a full-length film to fit on one CD or eight films to fit on one DVD.

Google accepts video uploads directly from content owners. Those interested can go to Google Video Upload website and load their digital videos to Google Video. You may designate a price for playback of Your Authorized Content in the Uploading Form itself.

Google has been offering video for free over the internet for about a year. But this is the first time it will enable its users to pay for premium content. Google Video currently works only on a Windows-based PC unlike Apple iTunes that works both on a Microsoft PC and an Apple Macintosh. Google Video uses the Google Video Player, which will incorporate Google proprietory digital rights management (DRM) technology. Others like Microsoft and Yahoo are also getting involved in offering video via the web.

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