Bit Torrent May Be Able To Challenge iTunes Movie Store

I caught this on Wired:

San Francisco company BitTorrent, creator of the file sharing application and protocol of the same name, have announced content distribution partnerships with some of Hollywood's major media houses, including 20th Century Fox, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Palm Pictures and video game industry news channel G4. The company sent out a press release this morning.

The story goes on to say that TV and Short Films will be able to rent or buy for as little as $1. This falls in line with iTMS, but the more genuine competitors to the market (WalMart, Xbox) the more pressure on price flexibly. Basically with minimal overheads in distribution of digitial content, there is plenty of room to shift the price bar.

From The Press Release:

Designed in 2001, BitTorrent has become the most efficient means of distributing large, high-quality files on the Internet. With many millions of users, BitTorrent traffic accounts for as much as 40 percent of all worldwide Internet traffic. BitTorrent continues to work with the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to remove copyright infringing content from its search results and, as evidenced by today’s announcement, is working with studios to replace that content with a high-quality, legal option that aspires to compete with piracy. With integrated monetization for paid and ad-supported content, the forthcoming BitTorrent service will be an ideal platform for the digital distribution of online entertainment. The service will offer not only video, but also music and games. BitTorrent will disclose pricing details closer to the time of the launch of the online retail marketplace, which is set for February 2007.

“BitTorrent has fundamentally changed the Internet architecture by enabling high-speed and high-quality content distribution on the Web. Today we have announced the role BitTorrent.com will play as a hub for consumers to enjoy their favorite entertainment, but we see a future that involves BitTorrent’s content delivery platform powering thousands of websites including those of content creators themselves, offering them the profound benefits of our technology,” said Navin.

Wired also questions whether any of the recent foray of content deals will effect the rash of piracy on the net given through the proliferation of of high speed broadband.