BBC Gets Ready for BitTorrent Distribution

Ernesto
April 9, 2009
104
BBC,
p2p-next,
R&DTV
Print

Today the BBC published the first episode of R&DTV, a Creative Commons licensed show that users are allowed to remix, redistribute and share. The first episode of the monthly technology show features Digg’s Kevin Rose, among others. The BBC hopes to use BitTorrent for the distribution of future episodes.

rdtv Like many broadcasters today, the BBC is open to experimenting with online video distribution, allowing viewers to watch shows online. However, due to complex copyright issues people are not generally allowed to share or remix the videos – until now. For their new R&DTV production, the BBC is using a Creative Commons license, giving the viewer the freedom to redistribute and re-use the show.

To add to the excitement there are also plans to use BitTorrent to distribute the show and source material. The BBC is one of the partners in the EU funded P2P-Next research project that uses BitTorrent technology to shape the future of web based TV delivery. BitTorrent is very effective in reducing bandwidth costs and thanks to technology developed by the P2P-Next team it can also be used to stream TV-shows, and even live video.

The BBC is not offering BitTorrent downloads or streams for R&DTV just yet, but they do hope to use P2P-Next (and therefore BitTorrent) for future episodes. This could be done by embedding BitTorrent powered streams in their site or alternatively they could offer regular .torrent downloads.

R&DTV is published in a full 30 minute version and a brief 5 minute edition offering just the highlights. Both are available in various video formats but that’s not all. For every episode, all of the source material – including raw footage not used in the full show – is also included in the so-called asset bundle.

In true BitTorrent style the downloads come with a ASCII art Scene-inspired NFO file disguised as readme.txt. “We’re pretty excited and ask you to please tell us what you do end up doing with the asset bundle, so we can learn what works and what does not work and fix it next time we release another asset bundle,” the BBC writes on the download page where the show is posted.

BBC’s official BitTorrent compatible ASCI Logo.

bbscene

We applaud the BBC for being one of the few content publishers not to shy away from BitTorrent and file-sharing in general. We’ve previously written about Norwegian state TV that launched its own BitTorrent tracker, but unfortunately they forbid people from redistributing or remixing their shows.

By using a Creative Commons license the BBC seems to understand that this is one of the key elements of 21st century broadcasting, and we hope to see more initiatives like this in the future.

Previous Post | Next Post

Follow @torrentfreak

Auntie

Gotta love Auntie Beeb.
Anonymous

Interesting. And I hate those stupid ‘nfo’ files, they ARE text files and I always untick the useless bastards. I also disagree that it is “BitTorrent style”, but just one more idiotic manifestation of the lame video scene with their stupid dot-infested filenames and god damn f*****g insane multipart rars!
basement dweller

Thanks for this story. Nice to see the BBC at the forefront again. I wonder how legitimate P2P applications (esp. real-time ones in the future) will succeed being subject to indiscriminate throttling…

“BitTorrent is very effective in reducing bandwidth costs”

More like transferring those costs to the ISPs and in fact, the end users, but thankfully fast connections have become affordable.

Never heard of Ogg Theora – does anyone have some use experience?
mu57i11

A month from now, we’ll all be downloading r&d in utorrent and extracting a bunch of 14.3 mb rars before we watch it.
Everyone needs to spred (digg) this so that it gets a big following; this is one of the only ways that big corporations will see the benefits of using p2p for distribution and of allowing ther users to remix there shows.
Alex

Amen to that Anonymous!
Anonymous

If you don’t like the split archive releases you can always go on a crusade to stop all Usenet activity.
…Good luck.
ufa

@basement dweller

Ogg Theora is a patent-free codec-container, with quality similar to xvid.
KTM EXC-F 250

Awesome
Capn

BBC Heaven!
g

This is a good way for BBC to reduce costs, However, BBC is a government-run company that makes their money by forcing people to pay obligatory taxes on their televisions. They’re not in the same position as other media companies.
Capn

@g BBC aren’t a goverment run or funded company. It’s payed for by license fees.
yoosah

@g #10

The BBC is not government run, it is independednt – apart for the government’s ability to threaten its revenue or shamelessly spineless members of the board of governors.

The BBC is funded through the TV license. You can call that a tax if you like.

They’re not the same as other media companies – they don’t have multi-billionaire’s running them for their own selfish interests, and they don’t make programmes on the same basis of commercial TV stations where viewers are the product that is sold to advertisers.

Maybe you’d prefer that? I know I wouldn’t.
Jim

To No 11, yes it’s payed for by license fees, but it is ran by the government.
Binsy

The BBC is not a government run company. The government does has some influence though, due to its control over how much money the BBC receives from the licence payers.

The Beeb has it’s many faults but its good to see some innovative forward thinking from a pretty dull and boring corporation…
Pingback: BBC Allows RDTV to Share on BitTorrent
rofl

Will we get a discount on our tv tax due to this fantesticle spendthrift move from our government controlled propaganda outlet? I think not.
GY

This is to #2:

The reason there are nfo files is so that you can read all the relevant information on the video file you are about to download. It gives you all the information you need to know whether you want to spend the time involved in downloading something. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen people complain about stuff and say, “If I had known beforehand, blah blah blah,” yet the information was in the nfo file. NFO files are far from useless.

As for the “lame video scene” if those “lame” people weren’t encoding stuff, you’d have nothing to watch. Who cares how then name the file? You’re getting the file for free and you’re still complaining?

Rars were created for a reason. Try to educate yourself on their history and purpose. If you don’t like it, don’t download it. It’s really not that difficult of a choice to make.
whatchamacallit

Theora video is good, but it still has a long way to go.

Besides, BBC has their own video codec – Dirac. I’ve used it a few times and even though it has a slightly higher bitrate than Theora, the quality is comparible to MPEG2.
Pingback: BBC lança produção licenciada em CC, e estuda o uso do BitTorrent para distribuir conteúdo. | Trezentos
Joey

If this tech show is continued, it has potential to be a great resource for documentaries and tech information in general. I wish it much success and applaud BBC for taking such an initiative. Also, for this to be successful, the tech community should fully utilize the resources provided by the BBC. It’ll encourage others to release content in similar fashion. This is really good news for the Bit Torrent protocol, as well as Creative Commons licensing model.
Ann Hoknemouse

Holy cow, good one. Now if you can just stop with the laughable tv tax and just peddle product placement instead, they’d win the race. At least they’re in the race now.

XD
playboyman

SWEET !
SableSlayer

Simply awesome! :)
meThinkEhSoundSmart

PBS has been run on donations for years, the only reason they dont make huge scores of cash nowadays is because they still cater mostly to the same viewers that they catered to over forty years ago, the Lawrence Welk Generation. I bet that something that catered to the current generation of viewers could use a similar business model, through the application of BitTorrent technology.
woohu

Well, to say I emailed the BBC four years ago, you’re all gonna say I’m shitting. so on that basis, fuck you all. I DID email the beeb & at last (as a licence fee payer) thay took someones??? advice
Pingback: BBC Gets Ready for BitTorrent Distribution « The Blog Pirate Community
Stolen Rhone

Go Beeb-Beeb-Ceeb.
Pingback: The BBC Is Going BTTorrent ~ Web Developers
RobbingHood

Let’s hope this saving on bandwidth costs doesn’t go into Mr Woss’s pocket, in fact,they should amend all Beeb employees contract’s to state that they have to seed these until their ISP’s bleed and use the rest of the savings to poach Lisa Burke from Sky.

With her sultry Irish accent; “Deep, penetrating winds coming up from the south”, and the Beeb’s onto a winner.

Ha! I wonder if the AP’s thinking of doing anything like this @ the moment…
Aravind Jose T.

Hats off to BBC !
You’ve got the spirit.
eni_

I’m getting fed up with people calling the TV-License a ‘tax’. Taxes are not, I repeat ~NOT~, optional. The TV-License is, if you wish to watch any of the BBC TV channels, or listen to their radio (which is where the BBC started) then you have to pay it, but other than that you don’t.
This point has already been made, but its worth repeating. The BBC is not Government Run, but government does have a little more power over the BBC than most people would wish, but they do not control it.
@#15 (rofl):
Propaganda only works if you believe it, you can quite easily watch dramas, films, comedies etc… on the BBC and ignore the news, which is what I assume you mean by propaganda, and if you start to argue that the dramas etc… are also propaganda, I think you’ll find that a great deal of them are created by third-party companies, which is partly the where the problem with Copy-Right comes from I assume.

And now that I’ve put forward my argument, I can give out my congratulations.
Good on you BBC, one of the very few that have the foresight to embrace the Creative Commons model, and even less prepared to even look at the Bit-Torrent Protocol, I see good things coming from this.
peace all, ‘ave a good evening/morning/afternoon on me,
eni_
r3loaded

Only two words to describe this (assuming this isn’t a hoax)

EPIC WIN!
andy

@26 – If you watch any cable channel even a non bbc one you still need a tv licence. If you stream tv shows from the bbc website you need a licence. I do not watch any bbc tv and i’ve still got to pay them
zivtins

great news!
eni_

@28: Well, yeah, technically. Its not like they have trucks going up and down your street checking to see if you have a license or not and its not like you need a pass or a key to stream from the BBC website.
And you still don’t HAVE to have a License, you only need one if you have a TV, and I very rarely use my TV at all. I use the BitTorrent to download most of the TV shows I like, and I also often use the BBC iPlayer, and as I said, they’re not going to know.
Fredd

Ok, so if you combine the BBC and France what does that equal?

You download a BBC show, seed it and go to jail for living in France?

The world is getting loopier everyday.

Someone please stop the madness.

Bleh
The P!nk Pr!nce

Gota love the beeeb! First the iplayer which i know wasn’t their idea origianaly but they did make it bloody awsome and secondly this which looks like a blooody good idea!
Pingback: Tech News - REALHS
Anonymous

@2

.nfo files are traditionally used in Scene and Demoscene releases. There are several different “text file” variations, and just because M$ happens to use .txt doesn’t mean that everyone wil. They open with M$ notepad anyway, so you should simply set .nfo to be opened with notepad by default. I honestly don’t see how you even managed to be annoyed by something so insignificant.

Multi-part archives in Scene releases are distributed in that fashion because of their large file sizes. This allows each portion of the file to be downloaded separately, and stored on media smaller than would normally be possible. Considering how little time it takes to unrar a 10 GB Multi-part archive on and old P4EE machine, you really have nothing to cry about…well, unless you don’t normally install 7zip/WinRAR.

NFOs and Multi-part archives had a few other purposes originally that I did not mention here. That is because most of them no longer apply. Kind of the way 1337 had an original purpose…well sort of.

p2p doesn’t have a style…it simply takes whatever the various Scene and warez groups are kind enough to leak to it. Considering how pathetic the actual p2p groups are, you’d be going out and acquiring your media the old-fashioned way if it weren’t for The Scene. The Scene isn’t “lame”, they’re just having fun…among other things. You ,sir, are the “lame” one.
h33t

get the torrents here:

http://www.h33t.com/userdetails.php?id=138800
sweden

Haha even made an ASCII :D
Anonymous

They probably just want to figure out some statistics on how many people who watch bbc also know about BT
Elliot Comber

Yes, The BBC decides to join the 21st century, involving bittorrent (the de-facto web standard of video delivery!)

What a great day to be british!
Elliot Comber

Yes, The BBC decides to join the 21st century, involving bittorrent (the de-facto web standard of video delivery!)

What a great day to be british, if only they decided to use it instead of the shi**y iplayer….
George Wright

Hi all.

Cool, we made it onto TorrentFreak.

I run BBC RAD, the team that helped produce this along with colleagues in BBC Backstage/Research. We’re really pleased that it seems to be going down well.

One of our worries was that we’d try this new way of creating content designed to be shared and we’d make some elementary error and you’d all be like “lamerz”, etc.

Some of the questions above go into questions about BBC funding etc that aren’t for me to answer, but some of the Qs I can help with:

* It’s not a hoax :)
* We’re not tracking downloads or anything (how can we? Not operating a tracker for this first release, and may not for future ones either) – but are obviously going to be looking at d/ls stats from the main FTP site
* My team has done quite a lot of experiments around new distribution models – we worked with Canonical on getting BBC content into Totem, for example, and have just created and open sourced an interesting way of discovering media content (uriplay.org). We’re also a partner in P2P-Next – designed to explore new ways of distributing media content over the Net.
* Yep, we made an ASCII. It’s been ages since we’ve done that so forgot about linewrapping etc
* There’s also all the ‘extras’ – around 8 hours of video files that we edited into these 5 and 30 minute versions. Remix them! Share them!
* we chose an arbitrary selection of codecs for this trial. We wanted a free/patent free one (Ogg) but also more mainstream versions. Next time we might try some other codecs.
* This is a *trial* and is in no way an indication of what the mainstream/ viewer-facing bit of BBC will do next!
* Thx for the h33t torrent creation. Am seeding now. Keep the torrents open!

There’s more on our blog (http://blogs.bbc.co.uk/rad) and in the stuff linked above.

Regards

George Wright
PS – rdtv@bbc.co.uk if you have any direct questions.
Tommy

.torrent or .nothing :p
Now if only…

Well peeps this just very well maybe….a step in the right direction

2010 FTW
h33t

@George

the new torrents have been manually propagated to mininova and TPB. within 1 hour the torrents will automatically propagate to torrentz and isohunt. expect global propagation to the whole bittorrent network to complete within 12 hours

note on network stats: on upload TPB and other trackers inject their own tracker urls into first place in the torrent. tracker stats on the h33t tracker will not reflect those on the other trackers and visa versa. because full scrape is not always enabled on all trackers (for security reasons depending on tracker setup) your best view on global health of the torrents will be using the isohunt system (isohunt polls torrents individually, costly but avoids fullscrape issues)

fyi no genuine flesharer is gonna call you lame because you are new, filesharers are a happy caring community and newcomers are supported. we were all n00bs once and you will find an unlimited amount of friendly help available from filesharing communities. we do get anti-p2p shills who attack our communities in an attempt to disrupt but they are easily spotted because they come with the wrong attitude

fyi you dont need to operate a tracker to track (log) the activity of filesharers using bittorrent

fyi P2P-Next is a commercial operation very far removed from the open world of bittorrent filesharing. P2P-Next is in no way related to the historic pedigree of bittorrent sites, admins, and communities, that established bittorrent filesharing as we know it today. the BBC cannot buy credibility in filesharing by funding a place on the P2P-Next commercial project with goals of profiteering from filesharing technologies. the credibility of the BBC is the enactment of the key principles of filesharing: freedom of data, global access, opportunity for all

however, of all the media cartels, the BBC is uniquely positioned to lead the way because of its unique funding model (the British public pay directly in advance for BBC output using a license system for tv boxes). hence there is no profit motive in the funding model unless it is empire building in the global marketplace a la global media monopoly style. is the BBC mandated to join America’s global media cartel and all that it entails with the monopolistic suppression of diversity and development of new content and creatives?

fact is the majority of all new BBC content is released on the filesharing networks within minutes of broadcast. we filesharers do not need the BBC to officially condone creative commons licensing but it sure would help with the cause if BBC came over to the copyfree camp

if 100% of all young people today are using the filesharing networks then how long will it be before 100% of BBC license payers are filesharers?

welcome to the world of filesharers, welcome to the h33t
John

Good stuff, George! Nice work.
George Wright

Hi H33t.

Thanks for some useful comments and generally positive words. Not sure about what you say about P2P-Next (we’re certainly not *funding* our part in it to buy credibility- it’s an EU funded project to examine P2P research) – but these are your views. WRT to the other stuff re: media cartels, again not for me to comments.

However I do have a technical question that relates to the 5 minute OGG version on the tracker.

I fear some of our versioning has gone wrong – there’s an edit around 90-120 seconds in (on the Kevin Rose interview) – obscuring the video picture.

We’ve uploaded a slightly older version (in which the picture is correct but there are slight (trivial) differences elsewhere. Ideally this would be the one that propagates. It’s here http://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/backstage/rdtv/RDTV_ep1_30mins.ogg

We’re not trying to *replace* the one that’s up there, but we think this is a better version for people to watch. Any comments? I did mention fear of elementary errors :)

Thanks

George
Pingback: popurls.com // popular today
George Wright

Oops, here’s the correct URL for the updated 5 min version:

http://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/backstage/rdtv/RDTV_ep1_5mins.ogg
Jadd

Well I think it’s wicked awesome.
Joe

Too bad it’s got a douche like Kevin Rose in it.
Pingback: Gasmaskboy
Pingback: 0.2 » La BBC pubblica online il primo programma TV in Creative Commons
el90

@ eni_
You really have no idea do you.

The law is that to own a TV or radio you are required by law to hava a licence. Whether you use it or not is not the point, when you buy a TV you have to provide ID so they can submit your details to the government.

Do they drive vans up and down? They used to. Now they just send a letter to any address without a licence threatening them with legal action, they dont even care if you have a TV or if anyone lives there.

When a family member passed away a short while ago my father wrote them a letter explaining that no one lived there, there was no TV and that no licence was required.

Over the next 5-6 months he recieved four.. four legal letters saying they were taking him to court… every time he wrote back saying ‘listen.. there is no one there, this Gentleman is dead’.. yes they continued.

Dont get me wrong I have no problem with the TV Licence, but I hate the heavh handed techniques… EVEN WHEN YOU ARE DEAD !!! ffs.

PS I like the comment about the viewers being the product for advertisers lol, very good.
Anonymous

Funny, my group just did a case study on Time Warner Cable. We all wonder, are cable companies dinosaurs?
Now that BBC’s on BT, maybe more networks will be online too, very soon.
el90

PS – George… if in fact that is your real name ;)… congrats, great to see something like this, when I get some time soon I will definitely give this a try (as well as relearning to touch type) and pass on the word.
h33t

@George

ref. the h33t torrents: they contain the 30mins versions (they do not contain the 5mins versions). if you want to release updates then it can be done by making a new torrent including the word “PROPER” in the title and uploading the torrent to one of the trackers. it will naturally propagate itself or propagation can be accelerated with manual intervention especially to mininova and TPB (the other sites are all networked). it is best that the releaser (you) controls the releases

the issue is not P2P-Next specific it is a gripe direct from the bittorrent establishment. it is rare to have the ear of one so deep within the media cartel and my comments should not be taken personally, on the contrary, filesharers have been seeking a dialogue with the enemy

the issue is when the big money arrived to “examine p2p research” it landed in the hands of a new commercial venture established to exploit the profit opportunities of filesharing. instead the cash could have been better spent investing in a partnership with established bittorrent players like TPB, isohunt or mininova. there are huge open source projects working in bittorrent with decades of accrued experience and knowledge of the protocol, its systems and its application. starting a new venture to investigate p2p is unfriendly behaviour from the perspective of the free communities who inhabit the filesharing universe

meanwhile what cash is put into filesharing by the media cartels is spent on attacking the free filesharing networks to close them down (regardless bittorrent was born of the monopolistic practises of the same media cartels). naturally the majority of content on the filesharing networks has some legacy copyright issue attached because the vast majority of media content is owned by the media monopoly. the injustice of the situation today, and why this comment contains belligerent words such as “enemy” and “warfare”, is because 100% of children are participating in “illegal downloads” as characterised by the BBC

it is political and economic warfare from all sides by the encumbent media monopoly. filesharers and their communities are lambasted and criminalised in the media, in the courts, in their own homes, by a system governed by people who behave like monsters

we are filesharers because we use a technology that we recognise is changing the world for the better. we share because we care. we share because we reach across international boundaries of race, creed, religion, and country, with the simple knowledge that freedom of data, global access, and equality of opportunity, for all the people of the world, is ultimately undeniable with the proliferation of our technology

we filesharers know our communities and networks will prevail, no doubt about it we are the greater in number united by the best in modern communications technology. what pains is the unnecessary victimisation of people by the ugliness of the media cartels as they struggle to come to terms with a new technology that has landed into the hands of people

http://www.h33t.com where filesharing is an ideal
luciferCorreo

That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind
Mum

OK mister h33t, now get your be-hind down stairs and start doing the dishes before dad comes home, you lazy bum!
Or bed without dinner for you.
love,
mum
h33t

awww mum! i am having fun with the man from the b33b ;-(
iHateBBC

I applaud their initiative, but reflect h33t concerns about ‘the bigger picture’.

Someone, somewhere within the bully-boy BBC must have an eye on commercialising content, so i will be interested in seeing where this goes.

As a UK resident, i hate the fact that the BBC threatens people with prison or a £1000 fine if you don’t get a license. The whole point is that i can turn my TV on and get BBC for free; they then threaten you if you don’t have a license.

If you have a PC with a videoCard/TVCard, then yep, you are also eligible for a license, even with no TV.

Side note: If you are blind or severely sight impaired, you get 50% off. Current cost of license is £142.50 for colour and £48 for B&W per year!! So you can see why the government has some say, it is a huge amount of money they collect.

Side note 2: Johnathan Ross secured an £18million contract till 2010.

Also, they have a commercial arm of the BBC called BBC WorldWide. So they create content like the awesome ‘Office’ using license fee money and then distribute it worldwide for $$.

Also, the extortionate cost of the iPlayer (apparently £130million) beggars belief. Check out this funny video of the boss trying to justify costs at the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee :P
link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sfQk9NXlns)

Regards
Prisoner of Society #3,435,675
George Wright

h33t thanks for the clarification about the 30 mins stuff. We got confused with an old version on our FTP site – glad it hasn’t affected the torrents.

We didn’t want to ‘control the releases’ for this one, and so didn’t set up our own tracker, or release to trackers ourselves. This wasn’t laziness – we may well do so next time – we’re learning from this.

Thanks for your technical help – btw I don’t take any of your comments personally at all.

Regards

George
Anonymous

It’s just a pity both of h33t’s posts were so error ridden and laced with “facts” (as he state them) seemingly influenced by a wierd personl ideology to the point of ridiculousness.

Really read those two posts – seriously, George, do your own research and don’t make the mistake of listening to this trumped up idiot who thinks he knows it all.

Both his posts are laden with inaccuracies and baseless agenda driven propaganda – in the name of keepinf the current P2P establishment in existence ironically enough.

It seems to me that he has let his position at his small tracker go to his head and feels entitled to spread lies and his own opinions as facts… as I said, do your own research and take what he says with a large handful of salt.
Anonymous

Awesome news!! This is a great recognition for file sharing and creative commons license for BBC show is great. This will make people explore a whole new territory.
http://realbbs.net/ realbbs.net

The fact that one broadcaster is using BitTorrent and supports sharing and derivative works in no way suggests being against unjust prosecutions and laws regarding file-sharing and BitTorrent. The fact is that broadcasters are in the business of broadcasting, not promoting anything like BitTorrent, even though they may use BitTorrent for their ends. The advance of BitTorrent and the promotion of file-sharing in general must be done by private individuals, not by any corporation.
Pingback: R&D TV - collaborative project between BBC Backstage (R&D) & RAD « I love kittens…
JTK

WELL DONE!

Soon, BitTorrent will be embraced by all the companies just as TV is.
Pingback: Around the Web 4.10.09: CompUSA is back, Yelp lets businesses talk, Time Warner Cable caps data | FocuSoft Tech Blog
Ian Forrester

Hi all,

Glad we made it onto TorrentFreak. I’m a fan of the TV show :)

I’m the senior producer of BBC Backstage, part of the other half of the team behind this project. George has covered most things but I’m really hoping we start to see remixes of the content. It would be a shame if nothing came of the assets.
Pingback: cubicgarden.com...
Pingback: Backstage.bbc.co.uk
Pingback: The Growth Of Framebars & Kevin Rose On The DiggBar — Hobby Cash: Make Cash Blogging About the Things You Love
Blanker

@ George

PLEASE KEEP ASKING FOR ADVICE if you need it. The biggest problem with broadcasters trying to branch out into new media is they don’t take the time and effort to engage with the p2p scene to learn the unofficial rules and customs.

As noted above, if you discover an error in your release the correct way to rectify it is to fix the editing and release the new file with the word PROPER in the file name.

For your reference, we use File.Names.With.Dots because not all systems correctly read spaces and will sometimes screw up the file name so that%20it%20becomes%20hard%20to%20read
1epi

we love bbc !!!!!
1epi

we love bbc !!!!! :)
Onizuka-GTO

We love BBC!!!
Brave D

@George

As a U.K resident, I feel this is a step in the right direction by the BBC. And while I don’t agree fully with the TV License (I think the BBC should perhaps consider doing some advertising, as well as collecting a cut down, set license fee).

I use iPlayer to catch up on shows, and its always a smooth, easy to use way to watch stuff. Congrats for creating it, and glad to see BBC dipping their toes into this area, without the insane fear many in media have.

One the things I have always liked about the BBC, is the world service. I can go, nearly anywhere in the world and hear it. Eventually, I believe the likes of iPlayer should give global access too, even if for a small fee (say £/$1 an ep) to those outside the U.K (this can be handled via paypal or something, help pay for servers etc). No one has had the balls to do this yet, but I hope that as broadband gets fast enough, the BBC will step up to the plate, for what is a kind of holy grail of online content.

Nothing kills progress more, than being region locked, when its technically possible, to have a more open system. This is part of, IMO, why Youtube is so popular.

Like the newspapers, traditional tv will be under threat, the more it holds off establishing a reasonable global internet presence. ,

Food for thought, and I hope you’ll consider some of these ideas, and thanks for listening.

Peace and good fortune to you all.
Ian Forrester

@Blanker

“PLEASE KEEP ASKING FOR ADVICE”

Excellent advice, so quick question. I just uploaded 3 different formats.

MKV – Xvid/AAC sound
AVI – Xvid/Mpeg3 sound
MP4 – X.264/AAC+ sound

http://ftp.kw.bbc.co.uk/backstage/rdtv/

How would you best suggest we distribute these files?
Use Your Brain?

@George & Ian:

EPIC WIN!!! – Love BBC, even on danish national tv-broadcasting (DR), the best programs seems to be coming from BBC these days..

@H33T:

I second that (yeah, all of it..lol)

@59:

STFU!! Lame MAFIAA-troll…
Andre

@ Ian Forrester

clearly bittorrent is the cheapest/quickest way to distribute any type of file to a large number of poeple. there are various software packages out there depending on what type of tracker you want to run (i suggest looking at the following two):

http://xbtt.sourceforge.net/
http://projectgazelle.org/

but if this is just a trial run I really advise using an well established tracker. They’ll have way more visitors than you could possibly get and you’ll end up reaching a far greater audience.

plus it’ll help break the stigma around these sites (thepiratebay/mininova/isohunt). If people see that the BBC is releasing content on these websites then attitudes will change!!

@ the whole RAD team: keep up the good work, it really is important. and we’re not the enemy the media/gov’t/riaa/mpaa/bpi is making us out to be (see Alan Ellis and the http://OiNK.cd/ trial), we just see things differently from your generation as im sure you did with the generation before you.
Pingback: Links 11/04/2009: Wine 1.1.19 Released; Gtk+ 3 Roadmap Shaping Up | Boycott Novell
Pingback: Links 11/04/2009: Wine 1.1.19 Released; Gtk+ 3 Roadmap Shaping Up | All about MICROSOFT
Pingback: Links 11/04/2009: Wine 1.1.19 Released; Gtk+ 3 Roadmap Shaping Up | All about MICROSOFT
JustMe

@George & Ian:

Love the beeb, although not a subject. So, i have to take other means to watch some of your programming on BBC. Torrents currently is the easiest solution. I don’t feel like putting in all the work to make my computer appear to “be” in the U.K. just to watch the T.V.

I certainly hope this turns out to be a fruitful experiment.

Cheers!
Pingback: De quoi Hadopi restera-t-il le non ? « Donjipez Words
TheFuzzball

Woot!
Ian Forrester

@JustMe

One of the major reasons to do this project is to see where and what happens with the content. I’ve already heard and seen it being watched in non-english speaking territories.

About breaking the stigma. I agree, hopefully we along with others will help establish the technology of bit torrent as here to stay. We’ve already had questions about using Pando and Rapidshare to distribute the media, but I can’t say it enough. Do what you like with the content, its licensed that way for this reason.

Tell us about it and it might make it into updated blog posts we’ll be writing soon
Stormblade

Das müsst ihr euch unbedingt angucken!!!
Es ist wirklich abgefahren!!!:D

http://www.youtupe-com-watch-2332-fsdkjfc-1223-11ds.inserat.in
Pingback: Mininova is gently shaking the world | G to The Square
Pingback: BBC uses Torrent distribution-TorrentFreak « FACT - Freedom Against Censorship Thailand
Motorcycle Helmets

Motorcycle Helmets
MVGroup

We’ve got a tracker they can use, hell we’ve even got it preloaded with BBC content, as long as they chip in for the server costs…

lol
Pingback: Tech Whiz Underground » BitTorrent Powered TV is Coming
Leonardo Machado

Canal Futura is an educational tv channel in Brazil and distributes shows free of charge using bittorrent for more than an year! Futura shares in VCD format, so people at schools and educational organizations can watch them with a simple standalone DVD player and a tv. The project is called Futuratec (www.futuratec.org.br).
Pingback: BitTorrent Powered TV is Coming | InstantIdiocy
Pingback: BitTorrent Powered TV is Coming - Torrent Invites! Get your free private torrent tracker invites !
Pingback: BitTorrent Powered TV is Coming | IDTorrent Blog
h33t

“One of the major reasons to do this project is to see where and what happens with the content”

@Ian Forrester

remixing of tv media is an esoteric emergent. you aint gonna get no stats from that and your boss needs feed

the content was dry dude, you are nowhere when you release technobabble. however, release raw pop media aka Glastonbury et ilk and you are so rushed is unseen and the big man in the sky is gonna rain gold on your ass
h33t

@BBC in general

what maybe is long time in the learning is bittorrent is about popular

what is not pop is best left on the ftp server aka digital library downloaded 10x per day because bittorrent is uneconomical for low activity releases

is understood you are educated peeps in salary position in the b33b. now help your colleagues pay their mortgages and car loans (cos you all in the slave system right?) by bringing the message to the budget holders that THERE IS NO BUDGET FOR REDUNDANT MATERIAL

giving us “Click” in an inferior format sux

what is the difference between a mosquito and the bbc? the bbc keeps on suxing no matter how many times you slap it …. look at the most recent bbc coverage of TPB trial where a man in a huge long coat and hat going around HMV shoving random movies and CD’s in his pocket
Pingback: BitTorrent Powered TV is Coming | JCA - Tech Blog
Pingback: ????????? bitTorrent client ?? ???????? ??? TV! | zero.gr

TorrentFreak

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

BBC Gets Ready for BitTorrent Distribution

BBC’s official BitTorrent compatible ASCI Logo.

Related Posts

Previous Post | Next Post

NewsBits

Pirate Bay Founder Gottfrid Svartholm on Freedom of Speech

Blu-ray Anti-Piracy Tech Stops Discs and Promotes Purchases

Foxtel Breeds Pirates by Locking Up Game of Thrones

UK Student Admits Breaching Sony Copyrights With Leak of PS3 SDK

Pirates Can Be Identified Despite Sharing IP Addresses, ISP Claims

MostDiscussed

Pirate Bay Takes Over Distribution of Censored 3D Printable Gun

McAfee Patents Technology to Detect and Block Pirated Content

Pirate Bay Finds Safe Haven in Iceland, Switches to .IS Domain

Copyright Trolls Threaten to Call Neighbors of Accused Porn Pirates

Game Pirates Whine About Piracy in Game Dev Simulator

CopyQuote

PopularArticles

VPN Services That Take Your Anonymity Seriously, 2013 Edition

Top 10 Most Popular Torrent Sites of 2013

Which VPN Service Providers Really Take Anonymity Seriously?

What’s The Best VPN / Proxy for BitTorrent?

BTGuard Review: How Does it Work?

Optimize Your BitTorrent Download Speed

The place where breaking news, BitTorrent and copyright collide

Search TorrentFreak

BBC’s official BitTorrent compatible ASCI Logo.

Related Posts

NewsBits

MostDiscussed

CopyQuote

PopularArticles