YouTube’s most recent venture involves dabbling in the pay-per-view business, and as part of their Filmmakers Wanted campaign, the free Internet video kingpin has partnered up with the Sundance Film Festival. Five independent movies taken from this and last year’s Sundance Film Festivals will be available to rent for $3.99. The Cove and Children of Invention, both from the 2009 festival, as well as Homewrecker, Bass Ackwards, and One Too Many Mornings from this year, will be available starting this Friday up until Jan. 31. While The Cove, winner in the documentary category, is only a one-day rental, the other four can be rented for up to 48 hours.

What might seem as a feeble attempt at breaking into the film rental industry might be, well, just that. The concept was pawned as an attempt to accumulate revenues that aren’t accrued from advertising, but there’s a minor flaw. The online streaming of pay-per-view films has long been conquered by big brand names like Netflix, Apple, Blockbuster, and even Amazon. At the same time, only 1% of total film rental revenue in 2009 came from the Internet. That being said, YouTube garners more than a billion views per day. With that kind of traffic, it’s not impossible. William Morrison, a ThinkEquity analyst, had this to say about it: “If Google is able to offer access to newer movie titles to its roughly 400 million users globally, we believe that it could become a billion-dollar business for the company within a few years.”

Nearly all of YouTube’s entertainment ventures last year were executed inside the independent circle, which tells us Warner Bros. and Lionsgate are playing a waiting game to see how Google’s new endeavor plays out. It will be interesting to see how YouTube handles an entirely new sector of business, and also how online rental giants Netflix and Blockbuster react to a rising contender in their playing field.