Digital Trends

Filesharing phenomenon BitTorrent has announced new licensing deals today with Fox, Viacom, and others to power a new video downloading service in 2007.

File-sharing bad-boy BitTorrent has announced a series of new content licensing agreements which will increase the number of television and movie offerings to be available on its forthcoming video download service, due in February 2007.

"We're thrilled to be partnering with world-renowned entertainment companies and TV networks," said Ashwin Navin, President and Co-founder of BitTorrent. "This is a true testament to the value of our community, technology, and the position we aspire to play in the world of entertainment and content distribution. Our audience has a voracious appetite for digital content and by offering the titles they want with a solid user experience; it's a win-win situation for both content providers as well as our users."

The new licensing deals include agreements with 20th Century Fox, G4, Lionsgate, Palm Pictures, Starz Media, and Viacom (which brings Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount, and numerous other properties to the fold). Films included in the deal include X-Men The Last Stand, Ringu, Saw III, 13 Tzameti, Mission: Impossible III, and Ghost in the Shell; television programming includes hit series like 24, SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park, and G4's Attack of the Show.

The deals follow on similar agreements with Warner Home Entertainment, Koch Entertainment, Egami Media, and others to bring content into BitTorrent's library.

Most films will be available on a video-on-demand or download-to-own basis, although TV content will only be available as a download-to-own offering. In an interesting move, Palm Pictures has actually agreed to release films to BitTorrent before their theatrical or DVD releases.

The additional content is falling into place as BitTorrent prepares to launch its own video marketplace in February 2007—at which point, it will presumably put pricetags on its video download offerings. BitTorrent's service will also offer music and games, and offer both commercial and ad-supported content.