Google works to launch pay-per-view films

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Google's YouTube officials are negotiating with Hollywood movie studios to start a global pay-per-view video service at the end of 2010, executives said.

Google would use its search technology and YouTube to steer viewers to the new service, likely to be introduced in the United States, with other countries coming on board over time, sources knowledgeable about the negotiations told The Financial Times Monday.

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., has been pitching for months the international appeal of a streaming, on-demand movie service attached to the popular search engine and YouTube, company executives said.

"Google and YouTube are a global phenomenon with a hell of a lot of eyeballs -- more than any cable or satellite service," one executive told the Times. "They've talked about how many people they could steer to this -- it's a huge number."

Apple is expected to unveil improvements to its TV device that links televisions to the Internet this week, industry observers said. Netflix, the "red box" movie subscription company, is acquiring digital rights to movies for its streaming service, while Hulu, the online video site owned by Walt Disney, News Corp. and NBC Universal, is planning a $2 billion initial public offering.