YouTube is abandoning its 10-minute video limit to show movies and full-length TV episodes, starting with Star Trek, MacGyver, and Beverly Hills, 90210. The Google-owned juggernaut is responding to competition from Hulu and other sites, reports USA Today. It’s also adding “pre-roll” advertisements that play before a video rather than embedded links that allowed users uninterrupted viewing.
Although Google says YouTube is profitable, one analyst says advertisers prefer network-owned sites. “If you're an advertiser, where will you put your money?” he says. “In front of content you're not sure about, or behind a series like 30 Rock, a known brand?” Still, YouTube remains by far the most popular video site, with 5.3 billion views in September to second-place Yahoo’s 264,266. (More television stories.)