BitTorrent partners with Rapid Eye Studios to produce exclusive TV shows
known as BitTorrent Originals
February 11, 2015 8:00 AM
Emil Protalinski
BitTorrent today announced an exclusive partnership with Rapid Eye Studios
to launch BitTorrent Originals. In short, the two will identify, produce,
and distribute original video content for the BitTorrent Bundle platform,
the company’s direct-to-fan publishing platform.
BitTorrent Originals will be timed exclusives, meaning they will debut on
the BitTorrent Bundle platform and only be available there for 30 to 60 days
. After the BitTorrent exclusive window closes, each project will be
available through other distribution channels.
For now at least, BitTorrent Originals will only be produced by Rapid Eye
Studios. The reverse is not true, though: Marco Weber, chief executive of
Rapid Eye Studios, told VentureBeat he plans to push the content via cable
and network deals, and eventually even release it on DVD.
BitTorrent first launched Bundle back in May 2013 with the hope of giving
artists control over how they distribute their content. Since then, more
than 10,000 publishers have joined the platform, and over 2 million legal
titles have been served to over 170 million monthly users.
“Others in the original content space such as Amazon Prime, Netflix and
Hulu have made great progress, but we are starting out with a big advantage:
We have a larger audience than all of those platforms combined,” Matt
Mason, BitTorrent’s chief content officer, said in a statement. The
criteria for BitTorrent Originals is thus aimed at this audience: stories
appealing to a young, creative, and influential group of 14-to-25-year-olds.
And yet, BitTorrent isn’t willing to push for complete exclusivity. Weber
mentioned that Netflix’s House of Cards was the inspiration for BitTorrent
Originals. Yet House of Cards is available on Netflix, and only Netflix.
“This landmark deal with Marco is a major milestone for us and an
aggressive expansion into the media space for BitTorrent,” Eric Klinker,
BitTorrent’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Expanding into the
world of original content is a move that makes us a serious player in the
media business, and takes us another step closer toward our goal: creating a
sustainable digital future for creators of all kinds.”
BitTorrent and Rapid Eye Studios didn’t want to discuss the financials of
the partnership, but the BitTorrent Originals description states there is a
90/10 profit split in favor of the content creator. The two were quick to
emphasize this is “very much a collaboration,” not one company hiring the
other.
The big news here is that BitTorrent is doubling down on creating content
for its platform. In fact, Mason and part of his team will relocate from San
Francisco to Los Angeles and work jointly from Rapid Eye Studio’s offices.
BitTorrent and Rapid Eye Studios are already in “advanced negotiations”
with global advertisers for access to BitTorrent Original content.
Sponsorship, advertising, and brand integration are all being considered.
“We have received an unprecedented and positive response from the largest
global brands wanting to be a part of the BitTorrent Original initiative,”
BitTorrent chief operating officer Ro Choy said in a statement. “Through
BitTorrent Originals we enable brands to reach our massive, highly engaged,
and coveted audience; not only through traditional standard ad placements
but by integrating brands into the content itself.”
While Rapid Eye Studios is eager to produce all types of video content,
advertisers have shown much more interest in serial content, and so the
majority will be TV-style shows. “We will focus entirely on the creation of
shows for the next two years,” Weber told VentureBeat. “Once we have this
model up and running, we will move into independent film financing.”
Children of the Machine
The first BitTorrent Originals series will be Children of the Machine, which
was first announced in November 2014 and begins shooting this spring. Weber
(producer of Igby Goes Down, Unthinkable, The 13th Floor) and Jeff
Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithea, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) will
serve as executive producers of the sci-fi series.
Weber told VentureBeat that the series was originally meant to be a pilot
project with a paygate used to finance the show, but when advertisers
started to show interest in the large audience potential, BitTorrent and
Rapid Eye Studios decided to make it available for free. One episode turned
into an entire first season with a viable business model, which then morphed
into an exclusive relationship that is supposed to bring a “handful of
original shows per year.”
“I found it fascinating to watch how BitTorrent has grown into an enormous
creative community over the course of the last few years,” Weber said in a
statement. “It became obvious to me that original content would add a
tremendous amount of value and engagement to the growing BitTorrent Bundle
platform. Once we started approaching major brands and advertisers with the
series, the response was incredible. They were incredibly intrigued by the
outlook of reaching an audience of 60-80 million fans per show in the most
attractive demographic.”
children_of_the_machine
Children of the Machine will be launching on BitTorrent Bundle in the fourth
quarter of 2015 for free. The first season of eight 60-minute episodes will
be supported by advertising.
A premium version of the series will be available for $9.95 via BitTorrent
Bundle’s paygate feature. Interested fans will be paying to remove ads, and
they will get additional material such as the soundtrack, shots from behind
the scenes, and other unseen footage (much like the “special features” on
many DVDs).
BitTorrent projects that the Children of the Machine series will reach 60
million to 80 million viewers worldwide. Mason says this estimate is based
on how BitTorrent plans to promote the Bundle, including via the front page
of its website, other pages it controls, as well as the start page of the
main BitTorrent client for Windows, OS X, Linux, and Android client.
Furthermore, a separate BitTorrent Bundle will offer a Children of the
Machine video game for Android and iOS. Weber told VentureBeat the mobile
game will arrive at “pretty much the same time” as the show, possibly
delayed by a week or two. When asked, he said the video game developer was
well-known but wouldn’t reveal its name.
The first step of a much bigger partnership
BitTorrent wants to figure out what original content actually works on its
platform. Rapid Eye Studios wants to be the first to push new series to a
potentially massive online audience. When asked about how long the exclusive
partnership might last, they both repeated that, if anything, the
partnership will only get deeper.
When I talked to BitTorrent and Rapid Eye Studios, it became very clear that
they were very excited about BitTorrent Originals. And they should be — it
’s a brilliant idea with a lot of promise.
Mason told VentureBeat that the main challenge will be engaging as many of
BitTorrent’s 170 million users as possible. Other than that, he sees “no
major obstacles,” and believes the Rapid Eye Studios deal feels like a
natural progression that happened “very organically.”
That said, while Children of the Machine is supposed to be just the first of
many series launched, it will make or break this partnership. If the show
doesn’t catch on, we doubt more content will be produced. If it does,
however, 2016 will bring a slew of BitTorrent Originals.
