BitTorrent passes on its DNA in Brightcove deal

BitTorrent Inc. announced Tuesday that Brightcove will begin incorporating BitTorrent DNA into its Web TV platform. The deal marks BitTorrent’s first major foray into third-party software licensing as it looks to expand its sources of revenue.

Short for Delivery Network Accelerator, the BitTorrent DNA is built upon BitTorrent’s decentralized peer-sharing system first developed by co-founder Bram Cohen in 2001. By incorporating the technology into its platform, Brightcove can harness the 150 million PCs worldwide that have downloaded BitTorrent software to speed up download times, reduce latency and, most importantly, reduce its bandwidth needs.

“BitTorrent DNA addresses fundamental technology challenges associated with high-quality media delivery online, and by integrating it into a new offering in our Internet TV service, we can give our content publishers the option to easily deliver full-screen, broadcast-quality streaming video to their viewers,” Brightcove chairman/CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement.  

“Internet TV started with short videos on websites, but the next step is to move seamlessly from contextual video into full-screen, full-length programming,” he added.

BitTorrent, which operates a licensed movie download service, is looking to expand its business by licensing its technology to hardware makers and third-party applications developers. Earlier this year it released a development kit for consumer electronics makers that enables them to incorporate BitTorrent technology into future network-enabled hardware devices.

The Brightcove deal marks its first foray into software licensing.

“We anticipate that BitTorrent DNA will be powering most of the video websites in the coming months,” said Aswin Navin, co-founder and president of BitTorrent Inc.

BitTorrent DNA is meant to help online video providers solve the daunting problem of scalability. Traditional download and streaming services typically send discreet data streams to each end-user who requests a file. As a program becomes more popular, however, individual requests increase and bandwidth costs quickly mount.

BitTorrent DNA turns that problem on its head by storing files in distributed form across a network. Thus, the more popular a program, the more copies there are on the network and the easier and faster it is to find and retrieve.

“The solution scales by design,” Navin said. “This is a broadcast infrastructure built on 150 million computers that have installed bit torrent client that allows people to bring video online profitably with a better user experience. When you add bit torrent DNA, you suddenly have a way to enable things like added supported video or try before you buy.”

More details are available in the BitTorrent press release here.