BitTorrent was founded in 2004 with a “file-swarming” technology that allows users to download large files quickly without burdening the originating server. Maintaining that digital-distribution model, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network is launching today with more than 35 content partners and a thick catalog that offers more than 5,000 movie titles.
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 After securing $20 million in venture capital in December and striking content deals with major Hollywood studios, BitTorrent is ready for prime time. The makers of the once controversial peer-to-peer file sharing service are finding favor in the digital age with a strategy they hope will thwart piracy: low-cost digital media.The BitTorrent Entertainment Network launched on Monday with a full roster of blockbuster films and hit television shows from Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate.That makes movies such as “Mission: Impossible III” and television shows such as “24” and “South Park” available from the BitTorrent marketplace, where users can rent movies, purchase TV shows and music videos, or publish and share their own content.Competing with Price BitTorrent boasts 13 million users today, but in the past its reputation had been sullied by rampant piracy. BitTorrent moved to change that perception last year when it struck an agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to prevent film piracy and promote innovation in online distribution of digital content. The MPAA agreement led to a content deal with Warner Bros. last summer, followed by video-licensing deals with entertainment distributors.Today, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network is launching with more than 35 content partners and a thick catalog that offers more than 5,000 movie titles, TV shows, computer games, and songs, as well as over 40 hours of high-definition programming. Consumers can rent new release movies for $3.99, or $2.99 for older titles. Music videos and TV shows will cost $1.99 each to rent, or $2.99 for the HD versions.”The cost per download with BitTorrent should be much lower than traditional download services, whether it’s Amazon or Wal-Mart or Apple or Microsoft or others. If BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer technology keeps that cost half or lower than traditional services, then they could be the big winners in 2007,” said Richard Doherty, a senior analyst at the Envisioneering Group. Technology Focus BitTorrent was founded in 2004 with a “file-swarming” technology that allows users to download large files quickly without burdening the originating server. Doherty said BitTorrent’s technology could give it the edge over other download sites because BitTorrent’s peer-to-peer model is a more efficient way to distribute content in that it does not overload the servers where the files originate.”When you have a high sudden surge for videos, maybe it’s Anna Nicole Smith or the Academy Awards, you can’t rely on a server or a half dozen servers, you need to take advantage of the Internet and peer-to-peer technology and no one knows it better on the scale that they have it than BitTorrent,” Doherty said. |
