LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - YouTube is offering streaming video movies, ranging from 99 cents to $3.99 per download. Customers can watch the video within 48 hours of purchase.

Most of the films offered by YouTube are the work of small, independent filmmakers or musical comedies from India - dubbed "Bollywood" pictures, there are several films from Lionsgate offered as well. A search by PC World's Ed Oswald uncovered some major motion pictures as well, such as the critically acclaimed "Precious" and "3:10 to Yuma."

"Television show content does not appear to come from any major American network. YouTube has not officially announced this service as of yet, and it may just be that the weak offering here could be a result of this merely not being ready for prime time," Oswald writes.

YouTube had previously experimented with $5 rentals of Sundance titles, but was apparently unsuccessful. Oswald estimates that the experiment likely only generated about $10,000 in rental fees.

Oswald says that YouTube will need to offer more in order to stay in the curve of other web sites offering streaming videos. "As I mentioned earlier, any offering from YouTube runs into the reality of a small yet increasingly crowded market. If the service wants to be successful, it's going to have to ramp up its offerings quickly, as Netflix is currently king in this space. That said, the extreme popularity of YouTube itself works in the service's favor."

In conclusion, Oswald states that in spite of these new services being offered, very few people will watch movies on a computer monitor. "We'll have to watch this in the coming months to see the site's next moves, and if it begins to strike hardware deals to bring the service off the computer screen and into the living room."