BitTorrent hopes to speed commercial content streaming
BitTorrent wants to shake up the way content is streamed online by taking its method for downloading large files and applying it to multimedia streaming.
BitTorrent's claim to fame is a peer-to-peer software program widely used to share pirated music and video over the Web. That program downloads large files such as movies or television shows by atomizing each file into individual bits, allowing users to download them from multiple users, and then reassembling them once the download is complete. The company's new program, called BitTorrent DNA, delivers content streaming using the same model, which it says will improve quality and dramatically reduce lag for streams.
"The plan is to have BitTorrent DNA deliver video streams into browsers, much like YouTube," says Ashwin Navin, BitTorrent's president and cofounder. "BitTorrent DNA video experiences will be a lot faster, and will potentially have higher quality than other video streaming services."
