Lately, Google has been trying to make the most of the popularity of its YouTube videos portal, which the search engine giant acquired in 2006, and in what seems to be a step towards the same goal; Google has entered into "preliminary discussions" on the subject of charging users who want to stream full episodes of television sitcoms.

Google has recently won a deal with Channel 4 to offer "full shows from some of its back catalogue", and now the company is looking to benefit as much as it can out of the deal. Also, the move is being viewed as YouTube and Google's answer to Apple's iTunes and soon to be launched in the UK Hulu.

It seems that the idea would be to charge users a nominal amount to stream full length television shows, without any commercials, or the viewers could choose to pay a bit more and "rent" the show for a few days.

Although not a lot of information has been shared yet, Google has said that the possible price of one full length episode would be $1.99, and it would be available for streaming a day after the original broadcast.