USA Today reports that Warner Bros. will become the first major studio to distribute its films and TV shows over the Internet using peer-to-peer technology developed by BitTorrent.
The companies did not specify a date but said the service will be offered starting this summer. Pricing is also undetermined, although individual TV shows could be priced as low as $1 and movies will be sold for about the price of buying a DVD, BitTorrent said.
Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner, said it will use BitTorrent's ability to speed the downloading of large computer files to offer rentals and purchase of its films on the same day the movies become available on DVD. The studio also will sell permanent copies of films and TV shows online that can be burned to a backup DVD -- although the copy will only play on the computer used to download the film and not on standard DVD players.
The deal is aimed at converting some of the file-sharing users who regularly seek copies of films and TV shows by offering them a reliable experience at a reasonable price online. Meaning, what has puzzled consumers, was blatantly obvious to most industry analysts, is now apparent to the studio executives -- they will positively benefit from a P2P offering, by gaining new revenue and avoiding the high costs of ongoing litigation.
"If we can convert 5, 10, 15% of the peer-to-peer users that have been obtaining our product from illegitimate sources to becoming legitimate buyers of our product, that has the potential of a huge impact on our industry and our economics," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
The companies did not specify a date but said the service will be offered starting this summer. Pricing is also undetermined, although individual TV shows could be priced as low as $1 and movies will be sold for about the price of buying a DVD, BitTorrent said.
Warner Bros., a division of Time Warner, said it will use BitTorrent's ability to speed the downloading of large computer files to offer rentals and purchase of its films on the same day the movies become available on DVD. The studio also will sell permanent copies of films and TV shows online that can be burned to a backup DVD -- although the copy will only play on the computer used to download the film and not on standard DVD players.
The deal is aimed at converting some of the file-sharing users who regularly seek copies of films and TV shows by offering them a reliable experience at a reasonable price online. Meaning, what has puzzled consumers, was blatantly obvious to most industry analysts, is now apparent to the studio executives -- they will positively benefit from a P2P offering, by gaining new revenue and avoiding the high costs of ongoing litigation.
"If we can convert 5, 10, 15% of the peer-to-peer users that have been obtaining our product from illegitimate sources to becoming legitimate buyers of our product, that has the potential of a huge impact on our industry and our economics," said Kevin Tsujihara, president of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.