Frozen out of most of mainstream full length content, YouTube’s repository is beginning to thaw a bit, as traction among competitors such as Hulu and TV networks’ own sites begins to grow: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) is tying up with the Google-owned video site, and will start posting episodes of its decade-old “American Gladiators” program to YouTube, along with full-length action films like “Bulletproof Monk” and “The Magnificent Seven” and clips from popular movies like “Legally Blonde,” the NYT reports. Some would point out that the financially troubled MGM has nothing to lose from these experiments, unlike other studios still sitting on the sidelines.

As part of its deal, MGM will monitor its copyrighted clips uploaded by general users, and will have the option of pulling them down, or letting them be and sharing the ad revenue, something that YouTube is encouraging its content partners to do more. Jim Packer, MGM’s co-president, said the movies upload were intended to promote the studio’s VOD channel, Impact, on Comcast, but he did not see putting a significant part of the studio’s catalog on the site anytime soon.

Last week a report said that the site is working on tying up with other studios, though that is a bit far off. YouTube has a deal with independent studio Lionsgate, but that’s mainly for movie clips. It has built a “Screening Room” recently, as a place to showcase indie movies. That could feasibly be expanded to include major studio content as well.

One aside in the NYT story that I have to point out: “With critical plaudits and advertising dollars flowing to Hulu...”. I am a heavy consumer of TV shows on Hulu, and I see more Ad Council PSA ads than anything else on it, and this has especially been true in the last few weeks, so I am not sure how much online ad dollars are flowing into Hulu, despite their claims. It is a privately held entity, so no public way to know its revenues till now., but we’ll try and find out….