BitTorrent Expands into Originals

Charging ahead with an OTT content strategy that’s now well in place at companies and services such as Netflix and Amazon, BitTorrent announced this week that it will identify, produce and distribute original video projects in partnership with Rapid Eye Studios.

BitTorrent, which is moving its content team to Los Angeles to back the effort (the company itself will remain headquartered in San Francisco), says its first original project, Children of the Machine, is now slated to start shooting this spring, with an expected debut in late 2015 via its BitTorrent Bundle platform. Marco Weber (Igby goes Down, Unthinkable, The 13th Floor) and Jeff Stockwell (Bridge to Terabithia, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys) have been tapped to as executive producers of the sci-fi series, which feature a first season of eight, 60-minute episodes. Viewers will have the option to watch an ad-supported version of the series for free, or pay $9.95 for a “premium version.” A separate BitTorrent Bundle will offer a Children of the Machine video game.

The coming series and the shift to L.A., marks “a very important, aggressive step for us as we become a media company,” Matt Mason, BitTorrent’s chief content officer, said.

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