By Erika Morphy TechNewsWorld Part of the ECT News Network
05/09/06 2:46 PM PT
If nothing else, Warner Bros.' gamble on BitTorrent is emblematic of the cachet smaller companies have developed in the tech community, according to Charles King, principal analyst of Pund-IT Research. "They have continually outpaced larger established firms, as far as figuring out effective ways to leverage the Internet to deliver content," he told TechNewsWorld.
Is Your Website Killing Customer Confidence? Your Website's privacy policy can be a key factor in a customer's decision to do business with you, and it is vital to ensuring you don't run afoul of your online legal and regulatory responsibilities. Need more reasons? Read on.
"Strange Bed Partners" sounds like a viable name for a good movie. It also characterizes the new business alliance formed by Warner Bros. Entertainment and its erstwhile enemy BitTorrent -- a peer-to-peer network that has become synonymous with online trading of pirated movies.
The movie studio is allowing BitTorrent to sell and distribute its movies and television shows over the Internet at as-yet-undisclosed price points.
It is an unusual alliance, considering the animosity Hollywood harbored toward the peer-to-peer networks only a few years ago. The studios had watched music CD sales plummet, and it was widely assumed that the music industry's downward spiral was due to illegal downloading of songs from peer-to-peer Web sites.
It was only a matter of time, the reasoning went, until DVD sales would suffer the same fate. Probably the most visited peer-to-peer site in its heyday, BitTorrent put a face to this activity for studio and music executives.
Make Money Not War
That was then. Now, Hollywood has several business issues it must solve and has turned to its former adversary.
These include establishing a brand-name online distribution system for its movies that can support high definition content when it becomes more available. More fundamental, Hollywood has yet to produce its own version of iTunes -- a one-stop shop music store where consumers can download songs without knowing or caring which music studio has licensed the copyright.
Few would have thought that vehicle would be BitTorrent -- although there have been reports of studios considering licensing content to the site even though it is still easy to engage in illegal downloading there.
Warner Bros. appears to be the first to make that leap. The thinking at the company, according to accounts, is that even if it converts only a small number of users, it will still be capturing revenues otherwise unrealized.
Smaller Company Cachet
If nothing else, Warner Bros.' gamble on BitTorrent is emblematic of the cachet smaller companies have developed in the tech community, according to Charles King, principal analyst of Pund-IT Research.
"They have continually outpaced larger established firms, as far as figuring out effective ways to leverage the Internet to deliver content," he told TechNewsWorld. "It should turn out to be a good deal for Warner Bros., and it certainly is a high profile win for BitTorrent."
Indeed, the movie industry has been rather slow to adopt Internet-friendly business models. It was only this year that seven studios, including Warner Bros., began offering movies for download on the same day they became available on DVD.
Like the BitTorrent transaction, it was another first -- previously movies had been available only for rent over the Internet -- unless, of course, you got them from BitTorrent.
Panel Claims CATV Bill Will Save Consumers Billions May 05, 2006
"We are concerned with the network neutrality language in the bill that would impose first time network neutrality regulation on the Internet," Brian Dietz, vice president for communication for the NCTA told the E-Commerce Times. "We will continue to work both on the House and Senate side to remove any unnecessary regulation of the Internet."
Related Stories
Pact Writers Sidetrack 'Threat' to Internet May 09, 2006
Yahoo, headed by former Hollywood executive Terry Semel, sees itself as a competitor to broadcasters and wants the same rights they do, according to James Love, director of the Consumer Project On Technology. "It wants the same deal that the TV and radio guys get, whatever it is," he said. "It doesn't care if they get thin rights or fat rights or this right or that right, it is all about parity for them."
More by Erika Morphy
Roku Channel Store Hangs Out Shingle November 23, 2009
Roku's new channel store is based on a "one screen in the cloud" business model, said Michael Gartenberg, vice president of strategy and analysis with Interpret. "Essentially, what they are doing is taking the TV set -- whether it is a standard appliance or a high-def monster -- and enhancing it with content the consumer wants to see."
Ballmer Gives Shareholders - and Dell - Cause for Optimism November 20, 2009
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was all smiles at the company's shareholders meeting, as he touted the early success of Windows 7. Ballmer's cheer may have been contagious; after posting a massive earnings decline for the third quarter, Dell needed some good news to latch onto, and the prospect of broad enterprise adoption of Windows 7 could spur PC sales.
AA.com Sucks the Fun Out of Trip-Planning November 20, 2009
Using AA.com to book a flight was a painful experience. Densely packed, disorganized information was displayed in an unattractive format. On the plus side, it did seem as though the deals American Airlines advertised were real and not mere bait-and-switch lures. For anyone who wants a travel-planning Web site to inject a little pleasure into the experience, though, I say look elsewhere.