Hollywood gives blessing to BitTorrent store

BitTorrent is using its software to launch a download site - called the BitTorrent Entertainment Network - that will distribute more than 5,000 titles from digital movies, TV shows, games and other media.

In the battle for the nascent online video market, BitTorrent could be a competitor, thanks to its existing reputation for speedy file distribution.

It also has an established user base it says numbers 135 million - which could immediately pit it against some of the sector's heavyweights, including Brightcove, Joost (a new P2P service started by the founders of Kazaa and Skype) and YouTube. Joost recently partnered with some big entertainment companies, such as Viacom.

Despite the reputation of BitTorrent's software for helping people illegally share millions of unauthorised video files, company managers have convinced studios such as 20th Century Fox, Lions Gate and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios that the company comes to Hollywood with a laurel branch in its hands.

But the distribution deal did not come cheap. To sell entertainment companies on the idea they could profit from the file-sharing system, BitTorrent executives had to make some important concessions - such as wrapping digital media on the site in a DRM system.

Among the many challenges the BitTorrent Entertainment Network faces are proving the technology can bring movies to users faster than the clunky distribution methods now available, and not alienating the millions who have grown accustomed to using BitTorrent to snatch files off the web with virtually no DRM and at no cost.

Depending on connection speed, BitTorrent president Ashwin Navin said it should be able to deliver movie downloads to users "faster than a pizza delivery".

Navin added that the new online store smoothes out many rough spots typically found in downloading movies off the web. Perhaps, most importantly, users can rent or buy movies from some of Hollywood's biggest studios and download them without worrying about viruses or corrupted files, he said.

Older film titles for rent will cost $2.99, while new releases will go for $3.99. Customers can take up to a month to watch a film. Once they start watching a title, they have up 24 hours to finish it. TV shows and music videos are "download to own" and cost $1.99 each.

Some of the feature films that will be offered are An Inconvenient Truth, Mission: Impossible III and Superman Returns. Among the available TV shows are 24 and Chappelle's Show.

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com