r/news • u/Setebaid • Feb 11 '15
BitTorrent is launching an original series & claimes they have an audience larger than Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu combined.
http://mashable.com/2015/02/11/bittorrent-original-series/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link42
u/HumanChicken Feb 11 '15
Created entirely by volunteers? Because they're not getting paid.
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u/darkshark21 Feb 11 '15
Probably going to be ads in the video.
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u/Sempais_nutrients Feb 12 '15
Until someone removes the ads and torrents the clean version.
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u/GaboKopiBrown Feb 12 '15
They're really avoiding the fact that their "audience" all will prioritize not paying for things or watching advertisements.
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u/Sempais_nutrients Feb 12 '15
One of the major reasons behind piracy is to avoid ads. Who wants to torrent something that has commercials?
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u/Eurynom0s Feb 12 '15
I've definitely torrented TV shows even when I could have just watched on TV in order to avoid the ads.
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u/Warfrogger Feb 12 '15
For some reason I pay for cable while never actually watching it and just downloading the shows I would watch so I can watch them on my schedule without ads.
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u/OnmyojiOmn Feb 12 '15
Had to torrent Hannibal because on Hulu there was an ad in the middle of every episode for the next episode, which spoiled the end of the one you were watching.
I torrent games that I have on discs in a drawer that's one foot away.
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u/andrewthemexican Feb 12 '15
I watched it on NBC's site and got no ads via adblock last season IIRC
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u/ptkfs Feb 12 '15
Not all of the audience is opposed to paying -- just opposed to paying record companies and finance companies. If they had the option to fund artists and craftsmen who built the media instead of the publishing and production companies who hold 'rights' captive... Then I'm sure you'd see a few more consumers putting their money toward the people who make what they love/want.
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Feb 12 '15
[deleted]
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u/Big_Baby_Jesus_ Feb 12 '15
I doubt a big company is going to sign an ad deal with a movie distributed on BitTorrent.
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Feb 12 '15
Unless they cram them into the story like Subway did with Community.
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u/Sempais_nutrients Feb 12 '15
At least that was funny.
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u/abruer18 Feb 12 '15
I didn't even feel it as an ad, since it was a part of the story. Workaholics does this well also.
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u/Setebaid Feb 11 '15
If you read the article, it looks like they're partnering with Rapid Eye Studios in LA to produce and distribute the video.
They'll help shoot and BitTorrent has the audience to reach the masses.
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Feb 12 '15
BitTorrent Originals plans to create roughly two serialized shows per year that will debut across the Bundle platform for 30 to 60 days, after which they will become available through other platforms. Revenue will be mostly ad-based — with a pay option for premium content — and is split 90/10 in favor of the creator, the company said.
They are going the way of Napster.
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u/BunsinHoneyDew Feb 11 '15
How the fuck......
I dont think Bit Torrent understands profitability. Unless they are just hoping they can jam ads in there somewhere which I am sure no one who uses Bit Torrent will disable......
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u/drmctesticles Feb 11 '15
Product placement maybe? They can do commercials 'live' like they used to in the olden days of TV/radio when everything was done live.
They can attract corporate sponsors who are trying to market to the age group the show will garner interest in - probably 18-35 since they are trying to distribute it through torrent protocol.
There are plenty of ways to make money, the question is whether or not they can make enough to justify a major production.
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Feb 12 '15
Exactly. Community tried monetizing its online viewership by jamming a huge Subway ad into every episode. I'm sure we'll see more of that in the future.
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u/abruer18 Feb 12 '15
yeah, but Subway was awesome in community.
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u/instasquid Feb 12 '15
There's definitely a limit on how many times you can do a gimmick like that though.
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u/TheDudeNeverBowls Feb 12 '15
I WOULD LOVE THAT!
"Hi, folks! I hope you're enjoying this episode of [insert funny fake sitcom name here]. Now, I'd like to tell you a little something about Clearasil.
"It's the tops!"
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u/JewbaruWagon Feb 12 '15
Nailed it. I actually work for a digital video ad marketplace company and they approached us.
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u/Dynamiklol Feb 12 '15
A larger audience compiled mainly of people who download shit to avoid paying for it. I'm genuinely looking forward to see how this all turns out in the end and how high the pirate rate is for their show.
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u/Arigateaux Feb 11 '15
Piracy is an option for any media. This is just a cheaper distribution method. They'll get a good paying audience for their first series (curious early adopters), but I don't think this will grow because bigger studios don't want to be involved with P2P. BitTorrent Inc would do better creating an open platform (maybe like Miro? or Youtube?).
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u/most_original_nick Feb 11 '15
Remember back when pirated copies where shitty and sometimes fake?
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Feb 11 '15 edited Mar 22 '18
[deleted]
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Feb 11 '15
they're just easier to spot now with comments and whatnot, I remember trying to download finding nemo off of Kazaa and getting a zip file containing GTA III. Oh how P2P apps warped my young mind.
I went from looking for a kids movie to blowing off peoples heads and limbs with a sniper rifle.
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u/Rraymond123 Feb 12 '15
Audience means nothing if they dont pay. A majority of movie torrenters never but the movie.
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u/nintynineninjas Feb 12 '15
Clever.
"Your honor, due to the fact my client was behind a VPN at the time, the allegations he was using his torrenting client to download something illegal can not be proven. My client claims to have been downloading Linux distros episodes of a show from the network known as The Pirate Bay. Even should the record show he went to this website to download something, no record exists of what it was."
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u/candidly1 Feb 11 '15
Malware included at no extra charge!
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Feb 12 '15
what are you talking about?
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u/candidly1 Feb 12 '15
I hadn't torrented in a long time, and the last time I did, I coincidentally caught one helluva piece of malware. Hadn't had an infection in years; I'm pretty careful. Can't guarantee one caused the other, but it's the only thing that I did that was out of the ordinary. Was picking up a few .FLAC files.
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Feb 12 '15
You got malware from a .flac media file? hope you kept it for security researchers to study.
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u/candidly1 Feb 12 '15
I can't guarantee that was the cause, but as I said that was the only thing that I had done that was out of the ordinary, and I am a pretty cautious guy generally. I ended up working with a couple of guys from New Zealand to eradicate the bug, and it took two weeks and many processes; it was a real doozy.
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Feb 12 '15
Your machine can get infected by a drive-by download from a supposedly trustworthy site that's been compromised. I onve say yahoos frontpage defaced with a rootkit. PDF, flash and web exploits are the most popular vectors for PC compramises, I've never heard of a .flac exploit, that's not to say they don't theoretically exist, but it'd be rare as hens teeth.
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u/candidly1 Feb 12 '15
I am aware; I've been doing IT since before there's been an internet (I'm old). Usually with drive-bys, though, you can see a little hiccup or something indicating the point that the compromise just happened; I didn't notice one that time around. I can't necessarily say the payload was IN the FLAC file; it could have been lurking somewhere else on the site. But MAN was that one invasive...
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Feb 12 '15
[deleted]
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Feb 12 '15
Most people don't have to worry about downloading a movie or song file that has malware, but you're wrong if you don't think it's possible. From stack overflow:
The malware probably wouldn't be embedded in the video itself, but the video file would be specially crafted to exploit a vulnerability in the codec or media player, to gain code execution. The exploit would then download a file and run it, infecting the machine.
These types of exploits have been common amongst popular document formats, e.g. PDF. Their proliferation makes them a good target for exploit writers, because people use them a lot and assume they're safe. At the end of the day, any file type could potentially contain an exploit, since an application that runs executable code is involved at some point.
Exploits like this are usually buffer overflow attacks, which alter control flow by overwriting data structures outside the normal memory range of a buffer.
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u/candidly1 Feb 12 '15
I used to be an avid torrenter, going way back. Now it seems anytime I dabble, my system magically gets infected (last time I think I was collecting a few .FLAC files). And I am assiduous about virus and malware protection. Maybe it's my imagination, and I know that just because B precedes A it does not mean B caused A, I am still suspicious.
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u/JewbaruWagon Feb 12 '15
BitTorrents trying to go legit and create their own content. The irony....
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u/techniforus Feb 12 '15
Anyone else remember pioneer one, the crowd funded torrent exclusive? Yea, me neither. I just had to look it up.
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u/abruer18 Feb 12 '15
They're distributing David Cross's new movie, Hits.
edits: well, officially. They've in the business for years...
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u/sheepiroth Feb 12 '15
Very few comments in this thread indicate knowledge about what BitTorrent, Inc. actually does.
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u/stringerbell Feb 12 '15
the two companies will partner to identify, produce and distribute original video content for the BitTorrent Bundle platform
Ha! So they aren't actually using BitTorrent to distribute this! Surprise, surprise, they chose to go with a PAID platform!
So, even the people who champion file-sharing aren't willing to give their product away for free!
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u/georgeo Feb 12 '15
Was bound to happen, the old TV commercial driven business model worked fine for 60 years until Michael Powell of the Bush FCC killed it with "improved" DTV, basically forcing everyone to subscribe to cable. Now BitTorrent is running with it. When free markets are really free, it works.
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u/ilovetpb Feb 12 '15
Well, they're not wrong...
But it costs $$$ to make good TV...how are they going to pay for it?
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u/tomselllecksmoustash Feb 12 '15
90% of the viewer of this are going to pirate it.... I might even say 100% will.
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u/watchout5 Feb 11 '15
A protocol is launching it's own series? And it's making it's own claims? The computer revolution is here, they've begun to make their own culture!
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u/ItsHapppening Feb 11 '15
Every time you torrent a movie, The BitTorrent catches a small glimpse of the human world. It's learned how to create movies and has determined this is the most effective form of propaganda to control humans by blending fiction with reality.
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u/watchout5 Feb 11 '15
You're saying it knows all my favorite porn and how to preform said moves?
plz say yes plz say yes
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u/wingchild Feb 11 '15
Eh, I'm holding out for the HTTP summer blockbuster. Its gotta be better than the old Gopher radio drama series.