Warner Bros Home Entertainment Group today announced an agreement with
BitTorrent Incorporated to improve the company’s peer-assisted delivery system for the electronic sell through of motion picture and television content in the United States. Warner now becomes the first major studio to provide legal video content via the BitTorrent publishing platform. This follows BitTorrent’s agreement with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to prevent film piracy and promote innovation in
online digital distribution of content. BitTorrent will provide the first peer-assisted technology platform to offer US consumers legal content on both a video-on-demand (VOD) and electronic sell through (EST) basis, day-and-date with the DVD release. The service will be launched in summer of 2006 and will initially feature more than 200 Warner Bros new releases, catalog favorites and television series. Featured titles to be initially offered will include newer releases such as “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” “Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride,” “Dukes of Hazzard,” “North Country,” and “Rumor Has It,” as well as library titles such as “The Matrix,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Natural Born Killers,” and “National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation.” TV programming will include shows such as “Babylon 5” and “Dukes of Hazzard.”
BitTorrent is the ideal platform to publish high-quality content on the Internet and by combining Warner Bros.’ popular video content with BitTorrent’s proven delivery efficiency, consumers will have an unparalleled way to experience entertainment online. Content published with BitTorrent will be available on BitTorrent.com and features downloadable programming and the distribution channel will leverage BitTorrent’s revolutionary “file-swarming” technology, which enables the transfer of massive files from a website to a PC with the speed and
bandwidth efficiency of peer-assisted transfers. This is the first peer-assisted network in the US that combines guaranteed availability, high-quality video and rapid download rates.
