Download service inks deal with YuMe.
April 3, 2007
By Michael Cohn
Ready to shed its renegade image, BitTorrent on Monday forged a deal with YuMe Networks to display ads along with its wide-ranging video content.
BitTorrent is testing the waters with YuMe’s ad-supported video from cable TV channel G4 TV’s tech-themed content, starting with about 10 clips next week. The first advertiser on BitTorrent will be game developer Eidos.
And the move sounds like an old-school business plan: offering television content spiked with ads that’s free, as opposed to paying $1.99 per episode. The San Francisco-based firm was once accused of illegal file sharing.
By year-end, all of BitTorrent television programming will hopefully be available to viewers via this ad-supported model, said Eric Patterson, vice president of consumer services at BitTorrent.
Movies, however, will continue to be sold on a download-to-own basis. BitTorrent currently offers over 5,000 movies and TV shows, and many of them have already been purchased by users, according to Mr. Patterson. In February, it signed a deal with several major movie studios to offer video downloads for purchase.
Tracking Ads
The deal puts in place ad-tracking and placement technology from Redwood City, California-based YuMe. The technology promises sites such as BitTorrent the ability to link ads with the appropriate videos much like the streaming world, according to YuMe CEO Jayant Kadambi.
YuMe’s advertising tools adjust the placement of pre-roll video ads and break them up, splitting one 10-second ad into two five-second ads, for example. YuMe, which also works with HD content, lets an advertiser or site place a logo in the corner of the video.
YuMe was formed in 2004, and it got its first institutional investment of $6 million in June 2006 from Khosla Ventures, BV Capital, and Accel Partners. Accel has previously bet on other video ventures such as Brightcove, and BV had invested in Azureus, another peer-to-peer download site that’s following the same path as BitTorrent.