BitTorrent trys to avoid squeeze — strikes deals, raises more cash?
San Francisco’s BitTorrent used to enjoy all the buzz surrounding video downloading. Its peer-to-peer file sharing technology allowed for cheap, easy distribution at a time when video streaming technologies were nascent. That’s changed, despite its announcement today of deals struck with major studios.
Today, it will unveil deals with Paramount, MTV Networks, 20th Century Fox and some other studios. Users will be able to purchase or rent movies from these sources, in a video store to be launched in February. The deals follows BitTorrent’s earlier deal with Warner Bros.
Trouble is, BitTorrent has never gained mass appeal among regular consumers. It is best as a back-end distribution protocol. Now major retailers have entered the market, from Apple, which offers its own movie downloading service, to AT&T, Amazon.com, Microsoft and WalMart (see news yesterday), offering similar services — all making it easy for regular folk to watch movies from their TV screens. You’d think BitTorrent would be more focused on becoming the distribution partner for some of these players, rather than try to become the consumer destination. There’s a summary story in the Mercury News today, which suggests consumers using BitTorrent’s service will be able to play downloaded videos only on their computers — though the company says it will try to change that, to allow watching videos in their living rooms.
There are rumors that chief executive Bram Cohen has departed, and that the company has raised at least $15 million in a venture round from Accel Partners, and existing backer Doll Capital Management (which invested $8.75M in BitTorrent more than a year ago). VentrueBeat has confirmed that Accel’s Ping Li is the point person on the deal. Stay tuned.
Update: BitTorrent tells VentureBeat there’s nothing to the rumor about Bram departing; he’s there to stay, a spokeswoman said.
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About the Author, Matt Marshall
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.
