YouTube took its first step towards a comprehensive movie service, reaching a deal today with a big Hollywood studio to start showing full-length television shows and films.

The video-sharing website is set to announce that it will host TV episodes and movies from the archives of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in its latest step to boost advertising revenue.

The deal is expected to be the first of many. It emerged over the weekend that the site, which is owned by Google, was in negotiations with other Hollywood studios. One report from the CNET news website suggested a YouTube movie service could be available within 90 days.

MGM will post videos from full-length action movies such as Bulletproof Monk and The Magnificent Seven, and its decades-old American Gladiators programme. They will be free to watch, with advertising running alongside the video.

Sources said, that the service will be available only in the US and that British users are unlikely to have access to the content for the foreseeable future.

In October, YouTube forged a similar partnership with CBS, the American TV network, to run full-length archived shows, including Star Trek and Beverly Hills 90210.

Many TV networks already run short clips on YouTube, which also offers millions of home videos uploaded by users.

The new partnerships put YouTube in more direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp – parent company of Times Online - and General Electric's NBC Universal.

Hulu features full-length shows from Fox (also owned by News Corporation), NBC and CBS. It also has a YouTube channel which features shorter clips from its shows.

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