Posted on 02/26/2007 5:16:39 PM PST by xcamel
BitTorrent: 2 Legit 2 Quit with 5,000 titles for just $3-4 each
BitTorrent today announced the launch of the BitTorrent Entertainment Network, featuring a comprehensive library of downloadable digital entertainment content from 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros. and, the latest studio on the bandwagon, MGM. The BitTorrent community can rent movies, purchase television shows and music videos, and even publish and share their own content to be displayed alongside titles from the world’s largest studios.
“BitTorrent has the infrastructure, technology and established user base to significantly move the needle on digital distribution with quick, easy and affordable delivery,” said Thomas Lesinski, President, Paramount Pictures Digital Entertainment. “The final piece of the puzzle is a wide array of content and Paramount is very pleased to be providing a vast selection of filmed entertainment to the site.”
At launch, the BitTorrent Entertainment Network will feature over 5,000 titles of movies, TV shows, PC games and music content. Consumers will be able to enjoy both new releases and catalog movie titles such as “Superman Returns,” “Mission: Impossible III,” “World Trade Center,” and “Napoleon Dynamite.” TV programming will include hits such as “24,” “Prison Break,” and “South Park.”
At this time, the majority of content is available only in standard definition. BitTorrent confirmed that about 40 hours of its content is encoded for high definition, and plans to increase that count in the near future.
Despite the buzz and support from major Hollywood studios, BitTorrent President and Co-founder Ashwin Navin said that the new network can also be utilized as a distribution platform for independent content creators. “We’re leveling the playing field for independent artists who have been turned away by publishers who are traditionally bound by scarce distribution alternatives and limited shelf space. Our entertainment network is a true marketplace that embraces and welcomes contribution from the independents, allowing them to reach a vast user base with their high-quality creative expression,” said Navin.
The site offers content for free, for rent and for purchase. Movie rentals are $3.99 and $2.99 for new release and catalog titles, respectively. TV shows and music videos are download-to-own at $1.99 each.
“We're really hammering the studios to say, 'Go easy on this audience.' We need to give them a price that feels like a good value relative to what they were getting for free,” said Navin. “The last thing we could afford to do was launch another sterile retail site.”
The video will be protected using Microsoft's Windows Media DRM and will only be available for playback on Windows-based machines -- Mac and Linux users need not apply. The files are also limited to a single PC so don't plan on trying to share your downloads with your friends. A wide variety of entertainment content, however, will be offered for free and without digital rights management (DRM) and designed to be distributed across all platforms.
The launch of the network today is the latest in a string of BitTorrent deals with major media companies. BitTorrent gained legitimacy mid-last year when it first signed Warner Bros. and Image Entertainment. The company then made great strides when it announced it had secured deals with Fox, Lions Gate, Paramount, MTV and others, along with an additional $20 million in funding. BitTorrent joins an expanding group of players in the market including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Wal-Mart.
I have the same problem.
You have to know what 'torrent' you want,and then type it in the 'search' bar.
Problem is, there is no listing that I can find to download.
Glad to see the movie industry is finally waking up to the new technology.
The prices don't seem too bad, either, considering that a DVD download is $10-20.
Several TV networks had to surrender in the last year: Fox, some CBS, some ABC, some CW programs are now broadcast (the day after network broadcast) over the Internet.
It reminds me of the phone industry which balked at upgrading their lines in the mid-90s to accommodate Internet traffic -- they though the Internet was just a passing fancy and didn't want to go out on a limb by putting dollars into upgrades.
Up until now, the movie companies haven't had near the problems that music people have because they've been much better at setting a price on their content. If you go into a music store, a collection of thirty year old songs is still $12-$15. OTOH, I picked up Animal House for $5 at Walmart.
They're also saying that you can rent the movies, which means the DRM will turn them off after so many plays.
I think there's a cash cow out there in movie downloads once the DRM is thrown out.
Also, many linux distros come as torrents.
I have Bit Torrent for Mac and haven't had a bit of problem. I only download programs from a UK website though, which may be the reason I haven't run into problems. I usually only download archaeology programs, history documentaries, and from time to time...drama and crime programs. I burn a bunch of programs to a DVD and can watch them on my computer using MPlayer, or on my digital video recorder. I'm not all that computer literate, but it was easy to figure the program out, and I've been enjoying UK programming for well over a year now.
BitTorrent stopped working for me a while back
(after an upgrade)
Now, when using other BT clients, ex: Azerus or uTorrent, there are never any BitTorrent clients in my peer list.
I suspect the other clients now shun BitTorrent clients.
Me thinks they have already jumped the shark.
To me, this seems like a scam to get the customers and their ISP's to ignorantly foot most of the bill for the bandwidth required to distribute their (censored)DRM content.
Well, at least I'm not alone.
They had planned to release the movies to the theatres, then at around $80 a pop on video cassette, then to HBO, and finally to the networks. What actually happened made them far more money than they planned, but they couldn't see that. They were so busy trying to make a killing on every single viewing, that they didn't understand that hundreds of people would buy a movie for $15, when maybe two or three would at $80.
I use Azureus, and seldom have any trouble as long as someone else is seeding. I also avoid anything that might be illegal, like pirated movies, software or music. It's just not worth the risk to me.
I dont think DRM is the issue. I think its the fact that you dont have a physical medium so to your minds eye the value isnt quite what they say it is.
BITTORRENT song anyone?
I really look forward to the day when a couple of terabyte hard drives don't cost much, and you can have all your movies on a hard drive and select them with the remote. However, I still want to be able to back them up and play them on other devices, just like I do with my music, now.
Yup. Despite the fact that disk space is cheap and getting cheaper, most folk aren't going to be hanging onto these multi-gigabyte downloads permanently.
I'm also interested in if there are any allowances made using this tech for disk/system crashes. They are, after all, releasing it for windows users.
I won't be playing as I consider ms-windows too big a security risk to allow in my household.
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