BitTorrent And Ads Begin To Play Together

While Google, primarily an Internet-based company, is busy adapting its ad model to traditional television, TV networks – and their advertisers - are moving gradually into Internet-based delivery channels. Something that would normally take at least a decade to come full-circle has had all dots connected in just a few months.

In the TV-via-the-Internet arena, there’s quite a bit brewing, and the peer-to-peer realm’s biggest player, BitTorrent, isn’t slowing in its quest to bring the advertisers into the picture. Where BitTorrent hopes to have a roaring river and eventually an ocean, there is but a trickling stream. Eventually, a literal torrent of attention to legitimate, free downloads may result from the company's new ad-centric foray. First, however, advertisers - with the help of YuMe, a middleman of sorts - will be dipping their cautious-experimentalist selves into and world still very much new and undeveloped.

BitTorrent is now offering its first legal digital downloads free to customers who choose to endure accept advertising while watching said downloads. The “pilot” programming is comprised of shows broadcast by G4 TV, a tech-themed network, and will be limited to 10 clips in the first few days of the trial. The first advertiser grace BitTorrent’s world will be Eidos, a well-known game developer.

Doesn’t sound like BitTorrent and the content owners are making a big step, does it? I don’t think it’s much either. But it’s a start. The idea of paying $1.99 for every ad-free television show, regardless of length, can sometimes be a blessing, but is more often a bad investment. It’s much more logical to migrate the basic television model that’s been working for decades over to IPTV delivery systems and channels; only advertisements should be enhanced so viewers can opt for more information from the advertisers if so interested and also refuse recurring ads marketing things the viewer has no desire to see again.

$1.99 per episode works well for those who plan to watch purchased content over and over and over again, or collect seasons of digital files as one would DVD packages. Even for entertainment seekers interested in catching up on dramas, sitcoms, or documentary series, or for folks who want to enjoy shows on their own schedules, the premium doesn’t match the product. Not when it’s freely available OTA (Over The Air).

So the new road BitTorrent is charting for itself (in partnership with YuMe, a company focusing on targeted advertisements) isn’t an expressway straight through the heart of the IPTV world. We wouldn’t expect it to be at first. But if enough eyes notice the change and approve of free, ad-supported content via the Web, the folks at BitTorrent will certainly send along the news to their content providers, and we’ll start to see very mainstream shows emerge become freely available. As revenue increases, BitTorrent – and other delivery services – will look to connect their Internet marketplaces to folks’ television sets. Then it’s just a matter of time before IPTV truly booms.