Reports: New deals could help YouTube's revenue model

It appears that a revenue stream might finally be heading You Tube's way - in two forms.

CNET is reporting that Google-owned YouTube will soon have some payment mechanisms built into the video-sharing sites. After Google reported first-quarter profits today, company CEO Eric Schmidt said of YouTube:

With respect to how it'll get monetized, our first priority is on the advertising side. We do expect over time to see micropayments and other forms of subscription models coming as well. We'll be announcing additional things in that area literally very, very soon.

Right around the same time, word was starting to get out about a deal between Google and Sony Pictures to offer full-length motion pictures on the site and build a section of YouTube that would be devoted to professionally made content. The announcement actually included other studios - including ZDNet parent company CBS, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Lionsgate, Starz, and the BBC - that would offer thousands of TV episodes and hundreds of films to U.S. viewers, according to a CNET report.

YouTube also said it was launching a test of Google TV Ads Online, which would enable advertisers to bid on and place commercials in the "ad breaks" within an online stream of a TV show, according to CNET.