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Norwegian Broadcaster Evaluates BitTorrent Distribution Costs

Posted by Soulskill on from the leeches-welcome dept.

FrostPaw writes "An experiment was conducted recently by Norwegian broadcasting company NRK involving the release of the series 'Nordkalotten 365' (a wildlife program) in a DRM free format using BitTorrent. One of the broadcasters has posted the approximate figures for the overall distribution costs, and discussed his reasons for doing so. Their estimated cost for using Amazon S3 to offer the files through HTTP/FTP/etc. come to approximately 41,000 NOK (about $8,000 US). However, when using the Amazon servers as the originating seed and utilizing BitTorrent, their total cost for distribution of the entire project, thanks to generous seeds, would amount to approximately 1,700 NOK. The post with the original figures is available only in Norwegian.

3 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. This Just In: by rsmith-mac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Making other people do your work for free makes your own costs cheaper. Film at 11.

    In other words, why is this news? It's something that has been obvious about BitTorrent since day 1: if you can get/make your users use their own upload bandwidth, you won't need as much of your own, and in a cost model that means your costs are lower. Did this really require a study?

    1. Re:This Just In: by yakumo.unr · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's news because a lot of marketers need it spelled out for them, with big juicy numbers with currency symbols attached, once they start to really realize the financial positives of using the most efficient distribution systems, they might stop trying to shut down just that, a highly efficient distribution system. it's not the personification of piracy.

  2. A 100% share ratio requirement is unrealistic by tepples · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And you can use a tracker that will ban users if they don't seed to atleast 1:1 It is mathematically impossible for everybody to seed more than 1:1. That would require the sum of uploads to be greater than the sum of downloads, when they're supposed to be equal by definition. Besides, for an older file that has 20 seeds and 0 downloaders, how can one seed to 1:1 without keeping the computer turned on and connected to the Internet for weeks at a time, praying that another downloader might show up?