James Delahunty
10 Feb 2006 17:20
NTL and BitTorrent Inc. have signed a deal to test a new service that will let Internet users download movies and music videos legally. This deal comes as BitTorrent is attempting to push its popular software as a legitimate way to distribute content. BitTorrent is widely used to share large files, including movies, software and games quickly. It has many legitimate purposes already, allowing developers to distribute software without huge bandwidth costs for example.
BitTorrent has been in talks with Hollywood studios and in November made a deal with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to filter out results of torrent files used to share movies illegally from the BitTorrent.com search engine. Overall, BitTorrent accounts for about a third of all Internet bandwidth. The excessive use of bandwidth has been expensive for ISPs.
In the deal with NTL, additional technology from CacheLogic Inc. will be used. It will will store frequently downloaded files within the NTL network, speeding up downloads and reducing expensive interconnect charges. NTL said the test will begin next month with about 100 homes initially. "We're working with rightsholders and ISPs because we view ourselves at the centre of a lot of the activity going on here," said BitTorrent Inc. Chief Operating Officer Ashwin Navin.
Navin also didn't mind hinting that BitTorrent was far ahead of legitimate services looking to offer video content this year. "Each country has a different dynamic around P2P, but I'd say Europe is slightly more progressive than the U.S.," he said. "There's been a lot of banter about video over the Internet this year, but for BitTorrent it's a few years old."
Source:
Reuters