YouTube Goes Long

YouTube has recently formatted all of its video's into wide screen (granting side bars for 4:3 aspect videos... aka most videos) when viewed on YouTube's site. With the flurry of recent changes to the YouTube overall goals this change is not a huge surprise, however the timing of it is.

The recent cooperation with MGM for delivering full length films obviously pits itself against primary competitor Hulu, MGM has stated that we can expected for hits such as the Bond franchise to steer clear of these sites while DVD sales are still doing well.

In short, this basically means that we can expect to be offered poop on a platter (C list films) until the model of digital distribution no longer poses a real "threat" to physical media and that the advertising revenue is there to support such delivery.
However in my own personal opinion, delivering hit movies on YouTube at their "high quality" setting, but not HD and offering affiliate based links to purchasing their physical media through the major sources could prove as an amazing way of natural promotion for already hit titles.