Mininova Closes Distribution Deal for TV-Show
Written by Ernesto on October 31, 2007The “old media” is slowly realizing that BitTorrent is a great distribution platform, and above all, an excellent marketing tool. Today, The Red Band Film Company and Mininova announce the first official deal to distribute a TV-show on the popular BitTorrent site.
The immense popularity of TV-shows on BitTorrent doesn’t go unnoticed, not even to TV-producers. Several TV-production companies already leaked their pilots on BitTorrent, but Red Band and Mininova take it one step further.
Mininova and Red Band made a distribution deal for the upcoming TV-show Pariah Island, a new comedy series which parodies reality TV shows like “Survivor” or “Pirate Master”. Although Red Band can’t be compared to billion dollar production studios such as 20th Century Fox Television and Warner Bros., it is a sign that times are changing and that TV-producers are looking for alternative distribution channels.
“We at Red Band recognize that downloading sites such as Mininova are a distribution medium, one which can be partnered with in a true participatory arrangement,” says the Red Band production team.
The Red Band team adds: “With this deal, Mininova gets overnight credibility as a partner of content producers, thereby disproving the notion that such sites are “pirates” seeking only to break copyrights. Mininova gets producer credit on Pariah Island, and their logo will eventually appear on Pariah Island. In exchange, Pariah Island gets advertising space and other promotional activities on Mininova.org.”
Erik, one of the founders of Mininova told TorrentFreak that the partnership will show that Mininova is more than a venue for pirated material, and hopes that more production companies will choose Mininova as a distribution platform in the future.
It is an interesting development to see these new partnerships like this. Both parties will most certainly benefit from the deal, and let’s hope it will appeal to the Mininova users as well.
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41 Responses (Add yours or TrackBack)
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Looks interesting, I’ll have to download the show whenever possible.
Actually sounds kinda cool, I’ll check it out.
Will be interesting to see how this turns out, if people will seed it enough to be useful.
Another good tracker to find legal shows on is http://www.LegitTorrents.info
Sounds good, will download when possible.
I don’t feel guilty for downloading shows, but at least I can feel *less* guilty.
Its a great sign to see that they realise that it will get released on BT anyway, so why not embrace it?
Nick
wow, finally an institution thats not completely ignorant towards bittorrent
Heh, and here I were. Thinking they (tv, movie and music industry) were all idiots who didn’t know that BitTorrent could potentially be used to gain incredible advantages.
Someone figured it out! Someone is less stupid it seems.
@ Nick: “I don’t feel guilty for downloading shows, but at least I can feel *less* guilty.”
So which is it, do you feel guilty or not? Figure it out before your next shady download.
“We at Red Band recognize that downloading sites such as Mininova are a distribution medium, one which can be partnered with in a true participatory arrangement,”
well… actually, I think, WE the users are the distributors. Mininova merely facilitates OUR distribution of content. This is a peoples’ revolution… people.
Or am I splitting hairs here? Sound like maybe a decent show. Here’s to hoping it is :)
[quote]So which is it, do you feel guilty or not? Figure it out before your next shady download.[/quote]
He doesn’t feel guilty about downloading TV, but he feels good about downloading this.
[quote comment="200621"]
well… actually, I think, WE the users are the distributors. Mininova merely facilitates OUR distribution of content. This is a peoples’ revolution… people.
Or am I splitting hairs here? Sound like maybe a decent show. Here’s to hoping it is :)[/quote]
You’re not splitting hairs at all. It sounds as though Mininova is crossing over into dangerous legal territory if they want to start taking credit for THEIR content distribution. Looks like they want to have their cake and eat it too.
By now, this is hardly surprising. Just look at the ongoing monetization of YouTube and Facebook –where we are the content yet, at the end of the day, somebody else is lining their pockers.
I’ll download this show just to support the concept.
this show will suck just because it’s legal.
Is anyone else having problems with what.cd right now? I think its down.
Is it just me, or does that show look terrible? No one else would distribute it so I think they had to rely on some random internet site. I’m sure the fans of ‘epic movie’ and what not will disagree with me.
We shall sue them for distributing legal content on a pirate site.
We have a site that merely hosts torrent files that run through other peoples trackers, and suddenly it’s a “distribution platform”?
Mininova are not content distributors, and actually have as little to do with bittorrent as a free web or image host.
Some web hosts will only allow html pages, image hosts only allow images, mininova is nothing more than the torrent file equivalent.
Anyone can host those files and throw together a quick scrape script, it doesn’t make them a “distribution platform”.
This piece seems like nothing more than a copy/paste job straight from the corporate propoganda.
It helps to totally confuse the masses, the result of which is all the rubbish spouted about oink recently.
Original system, not that asshat imposter (witness the use of more than one word) :P
I’ll be sure to check it out. They’re at least trying what we’ve wanted, that’s worth at least an episode.
It’s about time some producers started pulling their heads out their asses and embrace the future.
[quote]Is it just me, or does that show look terrible? No one else would distribute it so I think they had to rely on some random internet site. I’m sure the fans of ‘epic movie’ and what not will disagree with me.[/quote]
It could either be good or bad (or people’s opinions could vary extremely). It’s best not to judge a show before watching it.
Who would have thought a misanthropic doctor named House played by George from Blackadder would make a good show, until watching it? :P
will at least be worth a look, i got sick of all these stupid reality tv shows a long time ago
[quote comment="200833"]will at least be worth a look, i got sick of all these stupid reality tv shows a long time ago[/quote]
The Joe Schmo show parodied existing reality tv shows, but did not really come off any better than them.
What a fucking bunch of sellouts. Fuck Mininova.
It seems kind of silly to use a torrent site to “release” or whatever when the medium itself has nothing to do with where you download it from. Wouldn’t they be better off just seeding it themselves and putting out a promotional site?
Totally a marketing ploy to make their crappy show seem “cool”.
I call shenanigans!
N
@Anonymous
“What a fucking bunch of sellouts. Fuck Mininova.”
You sir, are a moron
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