The Blog for Video 2.0
Monday, February 26, 2007
BitTorrent Goes Legit
After over a year of negotiations with Hollywood, the biggest name in piracy is going legit.
BitTorrent today is launching its digital content store, featuring movies, TV shows and videogames from partners including Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, MGM, and MTV Networks.
It also has content from several indie distributors, such as First Look, Palm Pictures and Japanese company Kadokawa, as well as TryMedia, an online vidgame distributor with titles from Activision, Ubisoft and Vivendi Games.
BitTorrent software is a peer-to-peer protocol, which is free and used by tens of millions of people around the world, primarily for piracy.
As a result, Netco has the advantage of a very well-known brand name among online downloaders and a very popular Web site, but it will go up against powerful competitors already in the market such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Wal-Mart.
Premium TV and movie content won't be well differentiated from other sites, as BitTorrent is offering the same usage rules and prices and is missing several partners, such as Disney, Universal and the big three broadcast nets, that are already working with others.
But BitTorrent has more indie partners and will try to stay true to its roots as a peer-to-peer application by including high-quality user-made videos alongside Hollywood content in its search results.
BitTorrent has been working aggressively to filter pirated content on its own site and will make users click a button to see search results from outside servers, which it doesn't control.
Movies will only be available for digital rental, not permanent downloads, based on company's observations of demand at other websites based on the DVD-equivalent prices studios offer.
"I just don't know who in marketing at the other stores thinks that $25 movie downloads are going to do it for consumers," said Navin.
This reinforces the business model of HungryFlix.com, which provides short films and video downloads at prices starting from just $0.99.
In addition to selling TV and game downloads and movie rentals, BitTorrent will start offering free ad-supported TV shows in the near future.
It's launching in the U.S. first, but company has international rights for most content and plans to hit foreign markets soon.
BitTorrent today is launching its digital content store, featuring movies, TV shows and videogames from partners including Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, MGM, and MTV Networks.
It also has content from several indie distributors, such as First Look, Palm Pictures and Japanese company Kadokawa, as well as TryMedia, an online vidgame distributor with titles from Activision, Ubisoft and Vivendi Games.
BitTorrent software is a peer-to-peer protocol, which is free and used by tens of millions of people around the world, primarily for piracy.
As a result, Netco has the advantage of a very well-known brand name among online downloaders and a very popular Web site, but it will go up against powerful competitors already in the market such as Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Wal-Mart.
Premium TV and movie content won't be well differentiated from other sites, as BitTorrent is offering the same usage rules and prices and is missing several partners, such as Disney, Universal and the big three broadcast nets, that are already working with others.
But BitTorrent has more indie partners and will try to stay true to its roots as a peer-to-peer application by including high-quality user-made videos alongside Hollywood content in its search results.
BitTorrent has been working aggressively to filter pirated content on its own site and will make users click a button to see search results from outside servers, which it doesn't control.
Movies will only be available for digital rental, not permanent downloads, based on company's observations of demand at other websites based on the DVD-equivalent prices studios offer.
"I just don't know who in marketing at the other stores thinks that $25 movie downloads are going to do it for consumers," said Navin.
This reinforces the business model of HungryFlix.com, which provides short films and video downloads at prices starting from just $0.99.
In addition to selling TV and game downloads and movie rentals, BitTorrent will start offering free ad-supported TV shows in the near future.
It's launching in the U.S. first, but company has international rights for most content and plans to hit foreign markets soon.
Labels: bittorrent, download, movies, online distribution, online video
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