Chicago (IL) - In the most recent attempt to squeeze money out of YouTube traffic, Google unveiled full-length episodes of some fan favorite TV shows. "We are starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you," the YouTube blog announced.

The full-length episodes will be available in traditional view as well as YouTube’s new “theatre view,” which seems to play upon the belief that people want fake curtains (and a ‘lights off’ gimmick) framing their online video watching. In addition, Google is playing around with a new advertising method, playing 15-second ads at the beginning of the video. Ads also roll in during playback and after.

Lights out, theater view on. MacGyver now in full-length on YouTube.

“As we test this new format, we also want to ensure that our partners have more options when it comes to advertising on their full-length TV shows,” YouTube said. "You may see in-stream video ads embedded in some of these episodes; this advertising format will only appear on premium content where you are most comfortable seeing such ads."

However, the full-length videos are not available for viewing outside the U.S. Non-U.S. users trying to access the videos are greeted with a note saying that “This video is not available in your country.”

It is somewhat surprising to us that it took Google and YouTube so long to integrate full-length videos, while other services, foremost Hulu.com, have positioned themselves as leading services in this segment. Can Google and YouTube turn the new service into a goldmine? Time will tell.

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