Will the BitTorrent download site succeed?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 27 February 2007 22:09

Your IT - Entertainment

BitTorrent’s new ‘BitTorrent Entertainment Network’ has launched as a legal download store at last, offering new competition in the growing online video store market that’s starting to get a little crowded. Can it succeed?

If you thought all of the video download action was happening through Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Wal-mart, prepare for a shock - one of the pioneers of software used to pirate movies and TV shows by the million has finally launched a legal video download store.

This means that BitTorrent has made the transition from an enemy of Hollywood, to a close partner, by both selling and renting video content. There will be 34 content partners, 5000+ movie titles from many major studios for rent at US $3.99 for new movies and $2.99 for older ones.

Popular TV shows and music videos will cost $1.99 to buy, and if available in high-definition, will cost $2.99 each. It will also be possible to buy games from the service to download and play on your computer, along with high quality user generated content that will be free to download. Ad-supported TV shows will also emerge, and these will be free to watch instead of needing to pay a $1.99 or higher fee.

BitTorrent uses its own ‘bittorrent’ peer to peer (p2p) protocol, where popular TV shows, movies and more are downloaded by many, effectively spreading the content across the entire network of connected users.

When a new user joins and starts downloading shows, these come in small chunks from computers across the network at speeds that get faster the more popular the content becomes. This means that when the network is busy, speeds go faster instead of slowing down, something that is a problem for traditional download stores that host content on their own servers.

But BitTorrent faces massive competition from the big name players we have already mentioned, and a number of others who also offer legal download services or legal ways to freely watch TV content.

In one sense, BitTorrent looks late to the party, but comes armed with p2p technology that is not only already recognized and used by millions, but offers the faster network download speeds even if the network is brimming with users busily downloading paid video content.

BitTorrent has a lot to prove over the next few months and years, from getting all of the major and minor content partners on board, through to capturing the public’s imagination once more, swaying them from illegal and free downloads to a legal service that offers a massive library of legal titles, freedom from accidentally downloading viruses or spyware, fast download speeds and even cheaper prices.

BitTorrent’s visibility and success in the marketplace depends on it, or as with poorly rating TV shows will find itself canceled from the schedule.

The first episode of the legal video download story of ‘The Bold and the Download Booty Full’ has just ended on a cliffhanger leaving us all to wonder what will happen next – which is just the way we like it!