BitTorrent to Launch Its First Original TV Series

The technology company has already persuaded many musicians to distribute their works via its “Bundles” feature. The list of the music creators includes Thom Yorke, Pixies, De La Soul and Moby. So, now it seems that BitTorrent Inc. turned its attention to TV content. The company announced that its first original TV series named “Children of the Machine” will be released in the fall of 2015.

The 8-episode show is expected to be a free download on BitTorrent’s file-sharing network that is supported by advertising. In the meantime, the fans of the service and the show will be able to pay $5-10 for an ad-free version or for bonus content. The producer of the show explained that it would be a science fiction catered to the typical tech-savvy, male-dominated audience. Since the producers are not going to make a romantic comedy, the concept of their work moved them toward BitTorrent.

The tech giant currently accounts for over 170 million monthly active users on its network, and it claims that 40 million of them use the service every day. The company offers creators of all stripes, from musicians to TV producers, to put their content in front of such a large audience, which could result in huge profits. In addition to the musicians mentioned in the beginning of the article, BitTorrent bundles have also been launched by Alice in Chains, Azealia Banks, Public Enemy, Diplo and Atari Teenage Riot.

Thom Yorke decided to side with BitTorrent as the distribution platform for his latest solo album named “Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes”. The musician used a “paygate” feature, which can get fans to pay $6 to unlock the entire album. BitTorrent revealed that the free bundle has already been downloaded 4.4 million times over 2 months, but it is unclear how many of the downloaders subsequently paid.

Children of the Machine will be the first original BitTorrent TV series to try a bundle, but the industry observers point out that the feature has already been used for various movies, including such documentaries as The Act of Killing, Dear Mr Watterson and Eddie Izzard’s tour film Force Majeure, along with Madonna’s Secretprojectrevolution movie telling about freedom of speech.

At the moment, BitTorrent is not the only tech giant to announce its plans to distribute original TV shows to an online audience. Other companies, including Netflix and Amazon, also have well-established initiatives in original shows. Netflix has already acclaimed the House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, while online video service named Hulu is also known to invest in original shows. Studio Sony Pictures Television is also distributing its first original series named Powers via its PlayStation Network community.