BitTorrent Launches Legal Video Download Store

The latest outlaw download service to go legit, BitTorrent banks on a combination of its P2P distribution and Windows Media DRM to make it a serious player in the premium online video distribution space

The internet is abuzz with chatter surrounding the launch of the BitTorrent Entertainment Network. Long viewed as a key enabler of internet piracy, BitTorrent has managed to land deals with almost all of the major studios other than Disney by combining the economics of its core P2P delivery technology with the DRM of Windows Media. "We've done now 34 deals with major studios and networks across the world that will be featured in the BitTorrent Entertainment Network," says Ashwin Navin, BitTorrent COO and cofounder.

In fact, according to this Digital Media Wire article by Michael Cai of Parks Associates, BitTorrent actually boasts stronger studio support than iTunes or Xbox Live Marketplace. Its launch lineup includes over 5,000 movies and TV shows as well as PC games and audio content.

Also touched upon in this article is the question of whether or not BitTorrent's users can be persuaded to give up their pirating ways in order to get their content legally. From the article: "Our consumer data shows that P2P users are much more likely to purchase movies than those who are not using a P2P network, leading us to believe that many P2P users are forced to steal."

But that's not necessarily the whole story, as pointed out in a CNET UK article:"BitTorrent's fate can arguably be predicted if we look at what happened to Kazaa-since going legal, its user base dropped from millions to hundreds in the blink of a gnat's eye."

That said, one can also argue that BitTorrent's user base of a reported 135 million provides such a massive market opportunity that the legal version doesn't need tremendous penetration to realize success. "With 135 million users we only need a small percentage of that market to make some significant inroads to this market," says Navin.

And in this New York Times article, BitTorrent claims that its own surveys have shown that 34% of their users would pay for content.

Also divulged in that article is the fact that while movies can currently only be rented through the service, BitTorrent has actually negotiated the rights to sell movies, but decided not to offer them due to the high prices studios were demanding they charge. In this NewsFactor.com article, Navin has said that BitTorrent is "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." TV shows can be downloaded to own for $1.99 each.

That said, relative to competing outlets like iTunes, Amazon’s Unbox, and CinemaNow, the value that legal BitTorrent-delivered content delivers to its customers has been called into question by some. In this PC World blog posting, the author discusses his experiences downloading an episode of The Flintstones from both BitTorrent and iTunes: "But Apple's episode gave me more Fred and Barney for my money: I could watch the episode on up to five computers-Windows or Mac-or download it to my iPod. BitTorrent's version is viewable on two Windows PCs. Period."

The article also includes a firsthand account of the user experience associated with downloading content through BitTorrent, in which the service is assailed on the user interface front due to the fact that unlike iTunes, BitTorrent Entertainment Network makes its customers go to the website to find the content they want and then move to a separate application to begin downloading it rather than doing everything through a single application.

BitTorrent does have a number of factors working in its favor, though, including faster downloads and porn. That's right, porn. An Ars Technica article delves into BitTorrent's "Mature" section, which features a limited selection of softcore pornography. While this fact might seem irrelevant to a discussion of "legitimate" movie download services, it's worth noting that iTunes does not offer mature content, and the adult industry has long been credited as a driving force in consumer adoption of new technology.

While BitTorrent faces a number of challenges as it strives to become a leader in legal content distribution-including continuing to foster dialog with network operators who are increasingly shaping their networks to limit P2P traffic and justifying those actions by the prevalence of illegal content being distributed in this manner-its combination of P2P distribution economics, strong studio support, and a gigantic install base of content-hungry users makes certain that BitTorrent will be a major player in this space, at least for the short term. After that, only consumer adoption and continued studio support will determine the BitTorrent Entertainment Network's ultimate fate.

Also worth noting is BitTorrent's stated intention of allowing users to upload high bit-rate content they have created and then distribute it through the BitTorrent Entertainment Network. While this offering will in no way compare to YouTube's ability to embed video into web pages in terms of being able to provide instant, easy access to user-generated content, it will be interesting to see what happens when user-generated content goes full-screen, especially since BitTorrent will offer it essentially alongside pay-for premium content.