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YouTube’s foray into movie rental is failure: analyst
MUMBAI: The foray of YouTube into movie rental streaming featuring five independent films from last weekend‘s Sundance Film Festival have resulted in the exercise being termed a failure.
The titles, from the 2009 festival and also this year‘s edition, include The Cove, One Too Many Mornings, Homewrecker, Children of Invention and Bass Ackwards are available as standard-definition and high-definition downloads for $3.99 each for a 48-hour viewing window.
Only 72-hours after launch, 1,422 viewers had totally paid $5,673.78 to rent the five titles including 303 views of The Cove, 301 of Children of Invention, 298 of Bass Ackwards, 279 of Homewrecker and 241 of One Too Many Mornings, according to MotleyFool.com analyst Rick Munarriz.
The analyst said that the social network behemoth is discovering the challenges Apple, Blockbuster and Amazon have encountered in attempting to deliver movie rental streams and compete with Netflix.
The online DVD rental pioneer, which claims that 50 per cent of its 11 million subscribers watch at least 15 minutes of streaming per month, offers streams of select catalog titles as a value-added feature to new and existing monthly subscribers.
Said Google spokesperson Chris Dale, “it would be a mistake to compare the performance of five independent films on YouTube to Hollywood blockbusters on opening weekend.”
He said that of the 9,000 films submitted to Sundance in 2009, about 53 titles found some form of distribution. He said the initial focus of YouTube movie rental streams is the independent filmmaker who creates “amazing works” on a micro-budget without any assurance their project will be picked up and distributed.
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With 57 per cent single new users, Ashley Madison rebrands as discreet dating platform
Platform says majority of new members now identify as single
INDIA: Ashley Madison is shedding the “married-dating” label that defined it for two decades, repositioning itself as a platform for discreet dating in what it calls the post-social media age.
The rebrand, unveiled in India on 27 February, 2026, marks a structural shift in business model and identity. Once synonymous with married dating, the company now describes itself as the “premier destination for discreet dating” under a new tagline: Where Desire Meets Discretion.
The pivot is data-driven. Internal figures show that 57 per cent of global sign-ups between 1 January and 31 December, 2025 identified as single: a notable departure from the platform’s married core. The company argues that its community has already evolved beyond its original positioning.
“In an age where our lives have been constantly put on public display, privacy has become the new luxury,” said Ashley Madison chief strategy officer Paul Keable. He framed the platform’s offering as “ethical discretion” for singles, separated, divorced and non-monogamous users seeking private connections.
The shift also taps into wider digital fatigue. A global survey conducted by YouGov for Ashley Madison, covering 13,071 adults across Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, found mounting discomfort with hyper-public online lives.
Among dating app users, 30 per cent cited constant swiping and messaging as a source of fatigue, while 24 per cent pointed to pressure to curate public-facing profiles and early personal disclosure. Some 27 per cent said fears of screenshots or information being shared contributed to exhaustion; an equal share cited unwanted attention.
The retreat from oversharing appears broader. According to the survey, 46 per cent of adults actively try to keep most aspects of their life private online. Only 8 per cent feel comfortable sharing most aspects publicly, while 35 per cent say they are becoming more selective about what they disclose.
Ashley Madison is betting that this cultural recalibration towards controlled visibility can be monetised. By doubling down on privacy infrastructure and reframing itself around discretion rather than infidelity, the company is attempting to convert reputational baggage into a premium proposition.
