Another step ahead in BitTorrent’s bid to expand its Bundle business model to all kinds of content, and all kinds of payment options. The company today said it would soon post a full-length feature film directed by David Cross, HITS, and people can get it by paying whatever they want. The film is set to go up on BitTorrent on February 13.
HITS first debuted at Sundance in 2014 and this will be its first wide release, alongside another not-too-conventional push in physical theaters. Cross is also currently running a Kickstarter to get the movie to a select number of cinemas, also in a pay-what-you-want model for moviegoers.
Bundles — super-flexible premium content offerings that let the creators set whatever kind of payment option they like around them, including paygates, for part of the offering — are BitTorrent’s biggest effort to date to turn its peer-to-peer distribution network into a legit, revenue-generating business, both for itself but also for those making the content. The company in November last year announced that it would open the bundles to all interested parties, giving them a 90% cut of the sales. So far these have been doing well, the company tells me.
Other P2P services services that BitTorrent has made “premium” include paid tiers for products like its Sync file-sharing service, which now has a $40/year “pro” tier.