Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group has signed an agreement with BitTorrent, a San Francisco-based provider of peer-to-peer technology that has been widely used for illegal content downloads. The deal--which follows an agreement between BitTorrent and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), under which BitTorrent has undertaken to help prevent content piracy (note: as part of its efforts to ingratiate itself with content providers, BitTorrent last year launched a search engine on its Web site, which it says is designed to serve as a venue for publishers to showcase their content; the company is working with the MPAA to remove copyright-infringing content from the engine's search results, and says that it is working on developing "integrated monetization for paid and ad-supported content"; it also recently added DRM capabilities to its service)--will make Warner Bros. the first major studio to use BitTorrent's publishing platform to distribute video. Under the terms of its deal with Warner Bros, BitTorrent will offer access to a line-up of the latter's content--including DVD-quality movies--on its Web site: consumers will be able to download the content using BitTorrent's peer-assisted "file-swarming" technology (note: the technology is designed to enable speed and bandwidth efficiency in the transfer of massive files from a Web site to a PC). "The technology behind BitTorrent is elegantly designed for the delivery of large files like TV programs and films," Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, said in a prepared statement. "Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group was established to provide innovative, next-generation distribution models, and this relationship provides our company with a unique platform to reach a new set of movie fans. BitTorrent has made the leap in creating a legal partnership that respects the value of the intellectual property. This has provided us with a next-generation platform for the distribution of our films and TV programs."
BitTorrent claims that the deal will result in it providing the first peer- assisted technology platform to offer US consumers legal content on both a VOD and an electronic sell-through (EST) basis, day-and-date with that content's DVD release. The service enabled by its platform is scheduled to launch this summer, and will initially feature around 200 Warner Bros. new releases, library titles and TV series. Titles expected to be offered on the service include "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride," "Dukes of Hazzard," "North Country," "Rumor Has It," "The Matrix," "Dog Day Afternoon," "Natural Born Killers," "National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation," "Babylon 5," and "Dukes of Hazzard." "Warner Bros. is in the business of making its movies and TV shows available to as wide an audience as possible," Warner Bros. EVP of distribution technology and operations, Darcy Antonellis, said in a prepared statement. "The launch of a legal BitTorrent online video service allows us to extend our reach to places our content would not ordinarily be found legally and opens up new opportunities. Entering into agreements such as this to distribute our content is not only a better way to reach existing and new customers but a reflection of the critical role distribution technologies play in the future of the entertainment industry."
