NTL Partners BitTorrent To Test Legal TV Downloads

Cable giant NTL is to begin testing new technologies to deliver TV content via ultra-fast peer to peer downloads, partnering with file sharing icon BitTorrent to develop a legal distribution system.

The trial, which is expected to launch in April, will see NTL join BitTorrent Inc and peer to peer caching specialist Cachelogic in developing a service to distribute licensed video content, including movies, music videos and television programmes.

The new service will combine BitTorrent’s “file-swarming” software and CacheLogic’s content archives to accelerate delivery through NTL’s ultra-high speed network. The three companies promise to deliver “ground-breaking download speeds” of broadcast quality content.

BitTorrent’s co-founder and president, Ashwin Navin, stated that the firm is seeking content partners to help build a “consumer-friendly ecosystem” for legal programme delivery, rather than allowing the BitTorrent brand to become synonymous with online piracy.

“As the world’s leading P2P application, we are engaging artists and ISPs to build a consumer-friendly ecosystem around our protocol that allows all involved to benefit from P2P,” the software boss explained.

“We are pleased to announce our work with ntl and CacheLogic, as both entities share our vision for the future of content distribution.”

NTL hopes the partnership will extend its presence beyond the living room, with the firm’s director of network strategy Kevin Baughan explaining that the trial would “extend its high-quality video experience from the set top box to the media player.”

The latest high-tech trials follow similar activity by broadcasters such as the BBC, which recently held trials of its own peer to peer delivery system, the interactive Media Player (iMP) (see BBC Enters Second Phase Of Web TV Trial).

The Corporation’s software is eventually intended to allow on-demand access to all of its broadcast content from the past seven days, as well as providing a gateway to its extensive archive of material.

BBC director general Mark Thompson unveiled plans to launch a public version of the software, provisionally named MyBBCplayer, with live simulcasts of BBC One and Two, at last year’s Edinburgh International TV Festival (see Thompson Announces On Demand Programming From BBC).

NTL: 01256 752000 www.ntl.com