CBC distributing via BitTorrent

The CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) have begun what may become standard in the future — distributing a DRM-free, full quality version of a TV show (Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister) for all to download and view for free.  To make things even better, CBC has chosen to use BitTorrent technology to distribute the file.  This allows a large file such as this TV show to be distributed to a large number of people without costing the CBC exorbitant amounts of hosting fees.  In essence, you share the file while also downloading it, so the more people who are downloading, the faster it becomes (the exact opposite of what you might expect traditionally).

The CBC is the first North American broadcaster to take this step, though not the first in the world.  A Norwegian broadcaster (NRK) took this step earlier this year, with great success.  Eirik Solheim, one of the masterminds of the Norwegian project, was interviewed by a German news site, and the interview is very interesting.  One major problem with distributing shows using this method is third party contracts, which makes adopting BitTorrent distribution something that only new shows are likely to do.

This is exciting news, and I hope the CBC continues to expand on this.  It seems like such a obvious thing for a public broadcaster to distribute shows to their viewers using the cheapest and most convenient method available, but the issue of third party sponsorship will surely cause some difficulty during the initial stages of this concept.