Wow. Apparently YouTube is feeling the heat from online video hub Hulu, while MGM is struggling to stay afloat. The intial line-up leaves much to be desired, of course: Bulletproof Monk (2003) and The Magnificent Seven (1960) are reported to be amonst the first to be available. Those don’t exactly scream “excitement” in the internet age.

Now YouTube is trying harder to make friends with Hollywood — and emulate the appeal of Hulu, a joint venture of NBC and Fox. Along with its MGM relationship, YouTube has recently forged ties with the independent studio Lionsgate and with CBS, which this month started posting to YouTube full-length episodes of older shows like “Star Trek” and “Beverly Hills 90210.”

“We believe in comprehensiveness, and we want to have deals with everybody,” said Jordan Hoffner, the director of content partnerships for YouTube. “We want to be able to give users the most content possible.”

Unsurprisingly, studio executives aren’t exactly cannon-balling into the pool. YouTube’s interface is quite cluttered and its name brings memories of copyright infringement (not to mention hosting pro-terrorism videos).

Jim Packer, MGM’s co-president, said his studio was starting slowly on YouTube, with action films intended to promote the studio’s video-on-demand channel, Impact, on Comcast. He said other MGM material would move to YouTube soon, including films like “Moonstruck” that appeal to women. But he did not see putting a significant part of the studio’s catalog on the site anytime soon.

“We will have some long-form videos up on YouTube, but I don’t think that’s the platform to have 30 or 40 movies up at once,” Mr. Packer said. “I feel much more comfortable doing that on a site like Hulu.”

Lionsgate has also recently entered into an agreement with the Google-owned video-sharing site.