Guba, BitTorrent deals deepen Silicon Valley-Hollywood relationship

wedding.jpg

Two weeks ago, we declared the long-awaited wedding between Silicon Valley tech and Hollywood movies has finally taken place.

But we don’t really know who the long-term participants are in this story. Now, with so many players in the video-sharing technology area, it is the distribution deals that will decide which among them will actually get the bride.

San Francisco’s Guba, fresh from announcing a deal to offer video from Warner Bros., announces it has signed an agreement with Sony to immediately provide 100 movies, such as “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Spider-Man 2,” for rental and download purchases. We don’t know how much money Guba will make, but the move is significant, nonetheless. Here is the story by our colleague John Boudreau in the Merc.

File-sharing company BitTorrent, of San Francisco, meanwhile, has signed licensing agreements with at least four independent film companies. BitTorrent also has a deal to distribute Warner Bros. video, though nothing will be available until sometime in the fall, according to BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin.

Next Story:
Previous Story:

About the Author,

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.

blog comments powered by Disqus