BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, will be distributing some of its best known shows through a file-sharing network following a deal with technology company Azureus.
Full series of Little Britain, Fawlty Towers, Doctor Who, League of Gentleman, Coupling and Keeping are just some of the shows to be released through the P2P network with additional content partnerships due to be announced soon. Red Dwarf, Invasion Earth and Strange will also be making their US broadband debut through the service.
BBC Worldwide has agreed to licence these shows for release on Azureus's downloadable Zudeo platform, which allows users to swap large files very easily. Files can be tagged with keywords to make them easier to search.
The deal means that hundreds of BBC programmes will be released into the wild, available to search, download and watch at leisure. Legally.
Until very recently, peer-to-peer, or file sharing, networks have been the focus of music and movie companies suing for copyright-infringement but increasingly these networks are looking for partner with content producers on legal distribution deal. This licence agreement with the BBC is the latest example.
In the release, Worldwide's VP for programme management and digital media, Beth Clearfield, described this as a revolutionary distribution model: "We want to ensure that our most popular content - as well as the programmes that have rarely been seen in the territory - are part of the latest dynamic entertainment environment and can reach the largest audience possible."
But before we get too excited, this deal is for US users only. That seems a little unfair: I pay my licence fee and want my BBC content online, when I want it.
• MTV launches mobile service
MTV has a young, keen audience for new tech initiatives, so its latest scheme is building its mobile offering. This is an MTV-branded service for the US called Bananas that offers various MTV shows including Laguna Beach, the Real World and The Hills. The service offers a bunch of content related to those shows such as ringtones of soundtrack songs, wallpapers and cast photos, and though there's nothing new in offering those kind of services for mobiles it's the video that's really the important part.
No word on pricing, but it is cross-network and someone out there will be pleased that Beavis & Butthead clips are on offer too. Huh-huh. MTV's release here.
• Text messages
The Mobile Data Association put out figures this morning on the UK's love affair with text messages. We sent 37 billion this year - that's 126 million every day. The mobile industry gets an end-of-year bonus from us all in the form of New year text messages: last year we sent 165 million and that's the highest number ever recorded. We also sent about 1 million picture messages every day between July and September.
