Google set to push play on Video Store

Google announced a service on Friday that will let people rent or buy downloadable videos online.

The online behemoth said Google Video Store will be "available soon" at video.google.com.

Consumers will be able to pay $1.99 to download and view for an unlimited time episodes from TV programmes from last season or older, according to Peter Chane, senior business product manager for Google Video. The announcement was made in conjunction with a keynote address by Google co-founder Larry Page at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Also for $1.99, people will be able to rent, for 24 hours, recent episodes of popular TV series from CBS, such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Chane said. National Basketball Association games shown on TV can be downloaded for permanent purchase within one day of broadcast for $3.95, he said. Classic NBA games will also be available.

Other content comes from independent film provider Greencine, TV network ITN and the producers of The Charlie Rose Show, which is offering older shows for 99 cents each. The Charlie Rose content is not copy protected and can be moved to portable devices and Google Video Player for offline viewing. All the other available content is copy protected and users will not be able to share it with other devices, according to Chane.

Google Video Store customers will make payments with a credit card through Google's account system, as they do with the Google AdWords advertising system and other Google services, said Chane. There will be no ads in the videos or on the video web pages, though Google is looking into providing ad-based video in the future, he added.

Major content providers will get more than half the amount from each transaction, Chane said.

He said: "We think this is an historic move for video. It's the first time content providers can distribute to a broad audience online."

Google has avoided the stumbling blocks that have kept video-on-demand from the PC, including developing a monetisation model and methods that protect copyrights and prevent piracy, Chane said.

Also on Friday, Google announced Google Pack: a software package that includes homegrown programs such as Google Talk, the Google Toolbar, the Google Desktop, Google Alerts and the Google Video Player, as well as third-party software including the Firefox browser, anti-spyware from LavaSoft, Adobe PDF Reader 7, Norton's antivirus program, Trillian Instant Messenger and RealPlayer.

The Google Pack will be available for free download and is designed to be easy to install, maintain and automatically update. The auto-update feature doesn't work on the Mac but Apple offers a similar auto-update service.

Elinor Mills writes for CNET News.com