Content Deals

BitTorrent Launches Legal Download Service
Once the biggest, baddest, mean mo’fo name in the world of web piracy, BitTorrent is going legit today with the launch of a digital store backed by a string of big name content partners.
The deal sees BitTorrent able to offer films, TV shows and videogames from heavyweights such as Fox, Lionsgate, Paramount, MGM, and MTV Networks, as well as content from indie distributors like First Look, Palm Pictures and Kadokawa and several video game distributors
After announcing its intention to give up a life of crime and go straight over a year ago, BitTorrent has been in prolonged negotiations with a string of studio big boys but failed to secure enough partners for their proposed autumn 2006 launch.
Although the company were keen to get all the big studios ticked off the list, they took a look around an increasingly crowded marketplace and realised that they’d better get their arses in gear before they became associated with the words, “ship” and “sailed”.
“We have been ready to go for a while,” insisted company CEO Ashwin Navin.
“There comes a point in time where you say we’ve got 10,000 titles ready to go and we shouldn’t wait anymore. We’re confident that we’ll be adding more studios soon,” he added.
BitTorrent technology
The peer-to-peer protocol developed by BitTorrent has proved massively popular on the internet, although mainly with people sporting an eye patch, a parrot on their shoulder and a propensity for saying, “oooo arrrr!”

Despite its dodgy background, BitTorrent enjoys a high ‘brand’ profile which it’s going to need when going head to head with rivals like Apple, Microsoft, Amazon.com and Wal-Mart.
With its Premium TV and movie content looking much the same as everyone else’s and pricing pegged in a similar ballpark, we’re looking hard to find an exciting USP here for BitTorrent.
All of the movies offered will only be available for digital rental, with the content going kaput 30 days after being downloaded (or a day after you start watching it), with DRM being taken care of by Microsoft’s Windows Media Player.
We can’t see punters getting too excited by having to fork out for a time-limited, use-limited movie that offers a far worse deal than owning a DVD. Can you?
source
26 February, 2007
Sky To Pull Channels From Virgin Media: Offering Discounts
The spat between Virgin Media and Mr Murdoch’s Sky TV is getting uglier as Sky threatens to pull its Sky One, Two, Three, News and Sports News channels from Virgin Media at the end of the month.
The frost started back in November last year when Virgin’s Richard Branson complained about Sky buying a £940m holding in the UK broadcaster, ITV. Branson jumped up and down and generally said how unfair it was.
A week ago Sky said it was considering a formal complaint against Virgin Media’s latest advertising campaign, which stated, “The cheapest place to get Sky Sports isn’t Sky.” Sky refuted Virgin’s claims, saying they were misleading.
Today sees the latest round. Virgin put out a statement this morning saying that they anticipated “a withdrawal of these channels by Sky at the end of February.”
Clearly angry, the statement continued,
“The nature of these negotiations leads us to believe that this outcome has been deliberately engineered by Sky in order to suppress competition and coerce Virgin Media’s customers into switching to its service by denying them access to the basic channels. (These negotiations do not impact Sky’s premium sports and movies channels which will continue to be available to Virgin Media customers.)
This view is reinforced by Sky’s decision to broadcast, at the height of negotiations on 12th February, a series of promotions claiming that the channels were about to disappear from Virgin Media’s network. This was nothing more than a heavy-handed attempt to exert undue influence on the negotiating process.”
Virgin Media claim that Sky has been asking for “a carriage fee more than double the existing arrangement.”
Julian Closer is reporting that Virgin will be offering up to £9.75 in compensation for the loss of Sky-branded channels.
23 February, 2007
Viacom Joost Deal Struck
US media giant, Viacom, have struck a deal with Joost, the VOD TV to computer previously known as The Venice Project.
Joost is currently in beta, and it’s understood that the Viacom material will be available for the yet-undefined launch date of Joost. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Joost users will have financially-free access to the content. Joost users will ‘pay’ by being shown brief adverts, that we call blip-verts. They only last a couple of seconds and aren’t _that_ offensive, if the video pieces that are being watched aren’t too short.
The Viacom channels covered by the deal are MTV, Comedy Central, VH1, Spike TV, Logo and BET.
Clearly Philippe Dauman, Viacom President and Chief Executive Officer, is showing his excitement at being involved, “We’re extremely pleased to be working with Joost, and couldn’t be prouder to be a key partner in the launch of the next generation in broadband video technology.” He’s not looking at the Joost deal as an exclusive though, “we’re determined to keep pushing and growing our digital presence and bring our programming to audiences on every platform and device that they want. In addition to strong partnerships we have with traditional distributors, we will continue to seek out partners like Joost, which has created an exciting breakthrough platform that represents not only a fantastic user experience, but one that is built on a compelling and sustainable business model that respects both content creators and consumers.”
All of this comes only a couple of week after Viacom threw their legal department at YouTube, insisting that they remove their content from the video sharing site and accused Google-owned YouTube of knowingly profiting from material stolen from them.
Joost recently introduced a version of Joost to run on Apple’s Mac. Version 0.8.0.1 for Mac came out on Monday, following a brief period in Alpha test. They describe it as looking “very much like Joost for Windows, while behaving very much like a Mac application.” A growing number of Mac Beta testers are complaining that the software only works on Intel-based Macs.
Joost
21 February, 2007
Vodafone Now Have YouTube
Is this now getting boring? Vodafone have announced another content access deal, this time with YouTube.
Well they certainly have the set in their hands now don’t they? – First MySpace on Tuesday, then eBay yesterday, and today YouTube.
What can you do with the service? Well, watch YouTube videos really. But it won’t be all of the videos, just “a daily selection of new videos,” chosen by YouTube and accessed through Vodafone Live! True, these can be very entertaining, but one of the delights of YouTube is the wide access to all of the content. The process of near-unlimited discovery, down some very strange rabbit-holes, will be lost through editorialised content.
To encourage the viral effect, subscribers will be able to forward links of their favourite videos to friends. No shock there.
One big benefit for YouTube will be Vodafone making it easy for mobile phone users to upload films that they’ve shot on their mobiles, up to YouTube.
The most interesting part of this lies in the following statement, “Vodafone and YouTube will continue to explore ways to enhance this offering and cooperate closely in the coming months.” The potential in this is considerable.
Vodafone will be rubbing their hands thinking about all of the extra potential income from the data charges of delivering videos to mobile handsets.
9 February, 2007
Vodafone Europe Gets MySpace Mobile
Vodafone Europe has signed an exclusive deal with MySpace to get MySpace Mobile on their service.
Although currently exclusive, MySpace are remaining elusive as to the length of the agreement. When we asked, they declined to be drawn on how long the exclusivity with Vodafone would last, preferring to tantalise with “our ambition is to get MySpace on as many platforms as possible.”
MySpace addicts will be able to feed their cravings when not glued to the computers.
To tantalise potential subscribers further, Vodafone will pre-load it on to ‘selected handsets.’
MySpace did a similar deal in the US with Cingular back in December 2006. In that deal Cingular charged their subscribers an extra $2.99/month, plus data charges for the privilege.
At the time of going to press it is unclear if there will be a similar charging scheme with Vodafone.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
More details shortly.
7 February, 2007
YouTube To Share Ad Revenue With Uploaders
Filmmakers who upload their own movies on to the video-sharing website YouTube will soon be able to enjoy some financial rewards for their efforts.
In an interview with the BBC, YouTube founder Chad Hurley announced that the company was working on a revenue-sharing mechanism designed to “reward creativity”.
Set to start rolling out in a couple of months, the deal would raise revenue to reward creative camcorder types via a mixture of adverts and short clips slipped in at the beginning of a clip.

Only folks who own the full copyright of the videos can expect to receive a wedge of the moolah, with YouTube introducing the advertising technology incrementally.
Somerfield Staff Antics on YouTube
Elsewhere, UK supermarket chain Somerfield has launched an inquiry after video clips of their staff mucking about turned up on YouTube.
Various staff members are seen larking about while wearing the store’s uniform, including a break dancing shelf stacker, an “extreme floor cleaner” crashing into a wall and a nutter hurtling down a car park slope on a shopping trolley.

Somerfield has said that they are looking into the incidents, sternly adding that they will, “take any necessary action where appropriate.”
Of course, all they’ve really done is helped publicise the clips for everyone else to enjoy – and reminded us of our equally daft antics in previous crap jobs.
Somerfield YouTube videos
29 January, 2007
TiVo: Broadband Music Deals; TiVoToGo For Mac; Emmy Award: CES 2007
TiVo has been shipping their PVRs with an Ethernet port since their series 2 model, promising content delivered over broadband.
At CES this week they told the world a bit more about what they’re going to do about it.
TiVo have signed deals with both Music Choice and RealNetworks to deliver music videos and songs to their panting subscriber’s TVs starting “later in 2007.”
The Real Networks deal is self-described as a “first-of-its-kind integration of the Rhapsody digital music service with the TiVo service,” which will give TiVo subscribers access to over 3 million songs on-demand only using their TiVo remote.
TiVoToGo for the Macintosh
TiVoToGo – the Tivo add-on service that lets subscribers burn the content they have on their TiVo to DVD and transfer it to portable devices – is now available on the Mac, a year after it was introduced for the PC.
They achieved this through a joint venture with Roxio, utilizing their Toast 8 Titanium software, letting subscribers transfer programmes either one episode at a time or automatically as soon as the TiVo DVR has recorded them.
The standard charge will be $99, but for a limited period it can be bought through the Roxio site with the bonus of getting a FREE TiVo Glo remote.
Emmy Award
TiVo has had a pretty long path to where they are now, which at times has been a little bumpy, so we imagine there is much happiness when they heard that its Interactive Advertising Platform was presented with the Emmy Award for Outstanding Innovation and Achievement in Advanced Media Technology.
The collective ears of the advertising business must be ringing when TiVo’s CEO, Tom Rogers said, “We have proven that consumers will opt in to an advertising message if relevant and provided the ability to not miss their favorite shows.” The Ads-types will see grasp hold of this, praying that this will lead them out of the valley of (income)-death.
TiVoTVToGo
12 January, 2007
BitTorrent Ups Its Game: Funding And Content
The one-time force for evil (in the eyes of the film industry), Bit Torrent has had a good couple of days, first they sign a distribution deal with some of the major film and TV companies, then today they announce that they’ve closed another funding round.
Content deal
The content deals add to those they signed back in May this year and will provide films with a Download-to-Own (DTO) basis or for rent on a Video-on-Demand (VOD) basis.
Pricing for them hasn’t been announced, as they plan to disclose pricing details closer to the time of the launch of their online retail marketplace, which is set for February 2007.
It’s not just the old junk that the studios don’t care about anymore that will be available. The majority of the deals include new film releases day-and-date with the DVD release, popular TV series, deep catalogue titles and cult classics.
The exception is Palm Pictures, as they plan to be the first studio to utilize the BitTorrent platform to release full-length feature films before the theatrical and DVD release dates.
The most recent partnerships are with 20th Century Fox, G4, Kadokawa Pictures USA, Lionsgate, MTV Networks, Palm Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Starz Media, which build on the previous deals with Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, Egami Media, Hart Sharp, Koch Entertainment and The Orchard.
What about the money!
Today the series B funding has been announced (although TechCrunch scooped it a couple of days ago). They’ve raised $20m from new investor Accel Partners leading the round, with participation from initial investor DCM.
Given Bram Cohen wrote the majority of the code for BitTorrent himself, what, you may ask do they need the money for?
Almost to prove how corporate they’ve become, BitTorrent (BT) use the cut and paste phrase that it will “support the company’s growth, building on its leadership in high-performance content distribution on the Internet.” So more jobs for people will large salaries it sounds like.
What is more interesting is the longer terms plans for BT. They intend taking the technology, using it to “power other websites with the performance and efficiency of BitTorrent’s content delivery service.” It’s words like these that will get companies in the content delivery game worried.
Not just to the PC
BitTorrent signed a deal with a number of consumer electronics companies back in the end of October. ASUS, Planex and QNAP are among the first CE manufacturers to implement the BitTorrent download manager into digital home devices. ASUS and Palnex will build it into a number of their routers, QNAP into their NAS Servers.
This alone is a major change for the once-feared BitTorrent – it takes them away from the computer and closer to the TV in the lounge, while eliminating the need for the user to get involved with setting up and running it.
Bittorrent
1 December, 2006
Orange Expand Mobile BBC World Deal To 8 Countries
The BBC is expanding its distribution with Orange to take its international news service, BBC World, to Orange mobile phones in eight countries.
The live stream of BBC World has been available on Orange mobiles in France for the past two years, so given this background it make sense for Orange to want to expand the coverage. They’re taking it to quite an assortment of countries – Belgium, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania, Portugal, Jordan, Egypt and the Dominican Republic.
The live streams will be distributed over either 3G or EDGE to what they’re calling “mobile broadband customers,” (first time we’ve heard Orange use the term before).
We spoke to Gerry Ritchie, BBC World’s Regional Director and Business Development, Europe, Middle East, South Asia, Americas (A title that would at one time have been an anathema – BizDev … at the BBC!) about the deal.
Gerry said that in the time that they’ve been doing video to mobiles, they’ve come to realise that ‘made for’ packages (edited summaries) don’t really work. When people hear about an event, they “turn to BBC World for immediate coverage, so even a 10 minute editing delay won’t work. People place trust in the BBC brand, as it is known for the quality of its reporting, not just getting the news there first, but making sure it’s accurate.”
BBC World is held within the commercial arm of the BBC, so Orange are paying the BBC for the privilege of showing it to their subscribers. Gerry wouldn’t give specific details of deal, but we did learn that they don’t do deals on the number of streams that are watched.
The deal isn’t on an exclusive basis, as the BBC want to get their content distributed as widely as they can, but clearly Orange will have a major advantage in being the first mover.
BBC World has already been highly successful in getting its content distributed around the world, including 46 cruise liners, 36 airlines and 26 mobile phone platforms.
BBC World
15 November, 2006
Universal Music Get Part Of Zune Price
Microsoft is giving the Universal Music Group (UMG) a per-unit fee for each Zune that they sell, in addition to the money that they’ll make out sell music tracks on it too.
There’s only days left until the US launch of Zune, Microsoft’s last hope to get in a strong position with portable music players. The deal with Universal has only just been sealed, so we’d imagine the negotiations with Microsoft haven’t been that relaxed, because, as we all know, a device without content is in a dangerous position.
In our view this deal is lunacy. Giving the record company part of the value of selling the portable music player is like letting them have part of the profit from selling a record player.
Is Microsoft really that desperate to try and make up the huge gap between itself and Apple, that it’s prepared to give away part of the actual device?
It is possible that this a move-of-genius by Microsoft, creating a new ‘standard’ of deal within digital music deal. The reality is that when Apple’s negotiating with the labels, they have the strongest card of all – OK don’t deal with us, and lose access to the most popular music sales in the world.
10 November, 2006