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Norwegian Broadcasting Sets Up Its Own Tracker
Posted by
timothy
on Sun Mar 08, 2009 04:50 PM
from the some-things-are-neutral dept.
from the some-things-are-neutral dept.
eirikso writes with an interesting story from Norway; the state broadcaster there has decided to put up some of its content on BitTorrent. "The tracker is based on the same OpenTracker software that the Pirate Bay has been using for the last couple of years. By using BitTorrent we can reach our audience with full quality, unencrypted media files. Experience from our early tests show that if we're the best provider of our own content we also gain control of it."
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Umm... (Score:5, Funny)
Experience from our early tests show that if we're the best provider of our own content we also gain control of it.
Did I wake up in a wrong universe or something? People are actually thinking now?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
No. You are in the right universe.
Just wait and see what happens to their control when they no longer want to provide something.
Re: (Score:2)
Just wait and see what happens to their control when they no longer want to provide something.
I think they meant "if it's already out there, at least make sure it's good quality". Presumably they know what happens to torrents in general if they're referring to TPB.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It may also mean that they recognize that if they distribute high quality files on bittorrent with a lot of bandwidth behind it (and maybe release it before anyone else has a chance to) that they can eventually slide a quick commercial in there and people will choose their file because they'll have been getting it fast, reliably, and looking great.
Re: (Score:2)
Uhm, they did say unencrypted files.
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Would had been cool if they had choosen TPB instead of setting up their own tracker though, maybe they could had gotten a category of their own or something such.
But it would be nice for the people behind TPB to say "well, see, at least NRK gets it .."
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Did I wake up in a wrong universe or something? People are actually thinking now?
Right universe, wrong country. It's been known to happen these "3rd world countries" that don't have public education systems designed to beat individuality out of people, starting with a morning salute to the flag, and ending in a cease and desist order to the cries of "oh my precious imaginary property!"
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
We American's don't salute the flag. We pledge allegiance to our flag and everything it represents - not just the nation itself, but its ideals.
I refused to say the pledge in high school as I'm an Atheist and I object to the "Under God" bit. I stand out of respect, but I don't salute in any way nor do I say the pledge.
My homeroom teacher was in the Air Force and she really didn't like me for that, especially since I said, "Thank you for your service to this wonderful country that allows me to express my dis
Re:Umm... (Score:4, Informative)
Canada
Parent
Re:Umm... (Score:4, Informative)
Finland. Our national broadcasting company (YLE) doesn't use BitTorrent but that is just a minor issue. All the shows shown on YLE will be online (for free, no DRM and no country restrictions) the day after they are shown on TV.
Parent
Re:Umm... (Score:4, Informative)
All the shows shown on YLE will be online (for free, no DRM and no country restrictions) the day after they are shown on TV.
Not quite everything shown: only their own productions, not foreign stuff they have to buy rights for.
Parent
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Insightful)
Also on a side note, there's a torrent tracker which is dedicated to British TV. Rumours fly, that backroom deals (for instance not distributing content available on DVD) keeps them from legal trouble.
also, I know that most german TV networks offer their content to watch online (though their TV imho, isn't worth watching).
I admit, they're not torrenting their data and I don't know how easy it is to make a local copy (afaik the BBC requires you to use their own software iplayer). In the grand scheme of things it's quite a step forward though.
Parent
Somebody catch me... (Score:5, Funny)
Experience from our early tests show that if we're the best provider of our own content we also gain control of it.
... think I'm going to faint.
Re: (Score:2)
By what stretch of the imagination do they gain control of it?
Do they really think it can't be re-seeded and tracked by other trackers?
Re:Somebody catch me... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:Somebody catch me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Somebody catch me... (Score:5, Interesting)
As for the "Money" bit, you do realized this is a fully government funded organization don't you?
Yes, but if I was a Norwegian citizen and they asked me to vote on something that would slightly raise taxes to pay for upgrades, new shows, etc, I might actually vote for it because the government in this case is actually using taxpayer money responsibly.
Parent
Re:Somebody catch me... (Score:4, Insightful)
Unlike the US, TV in the rest of the world fulfills a lot of other purposes - apolitical news, documentaries, education, current affairs as well as entertainment shows that are too high-brow/niche for the commercial channels to bother with.
Besides, it's not government-run, it's government funded; there's a difference. When TV is used to keep the populace informed, instead of just keeping the population stupified, it helps not to spend 30% of the runtime playing adverts.
Parent
Anybody got the (Score:2)
english subtitles?
Mind boggling outburst (Score:5, Informative)
of common sense:
"We have provided all the Norwegian subtitle files and if people want to fansub any of the episodes we're more than happy to let you do that. Please let us know in the comments and we'll link to your translations."
Three cheers for the Norvegians !!!
Re:Mind boggling outburst (Score:4, Funny)
You won't cheer if anyone subs Pompel & Pilt! I tried, and had to go into therapy for three years after only finishing two of the six episodes.
Parent
Oblig: (Score:3, Funny)
A moose once bit my sister...
suddenoutbreakofcommonsense (Score:2)
Re:suddenoutbreakofcommonsense (Score:5, Informative)
If you want control of your content you need to lock it down in a vault and never show it to anyone. We gave up control of our content the day we started broadcasting. For years our most popular content have been available on BitTorrent and on sites like YouTube anyway. DRM doesnâ(TM)t work. The only way to control your content is to be the best provider of it. If people want it on YouTube then you should publish it on YouTube or in a system that give the same experience. If people want it on BitTorrent then you should provide that. If you do it right people will come to your official publish point and you'll end up with more control.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
With any luck, bigger media players will watch what happens here and learn from it. Maybe somebody will even go the next step and figure out how to profit off of this distribution scheme.
Actually, that's the whole issue. NRK is taxpayer funded so there are no fees or ads to begin with. Whether people watch it on TV or online really does not matter, in fact if they probably want to reach more people abroad with these shows as it fits their cultural mission. Subscription based or ad based TV has serious issues because others can distribute it without subscription fees or ads, which pretty much by definitino means it's not ideal. But it's another source for people to learn just how good TV off
Re: (Score:2)
If real television companies did this, I'd watch it with advertisements too. ...
But none of this specialized player and a day (or week) late bullshit
Hurray! (Score:2, Insightful)
Is any material up right now? (Score:2)
Is it available for outsiders as well? Could we get a link?
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It certainly seems to be available for anybody who's interested.
Translation (Score:3, Insightful)
"Experience from our early tests show that if we're the best provider of our own content we also gain control of it."
Translated: More people will pay for what they can get for free than will pay for for less than they can get for free.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
More like:
If it is just plain easier, and more reliable to get it from us in the way they want it, they will come to us instead of a 3rd party redistributor.
(This means they will come to OUR site, and see OUR ads when they search our tracker.)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How about an explanation of the translation, since it's already about as concise as it can be.
Right now, people can get unencrypted, DRM-free, commercial-free files, which (will always) work anywhere, any time, for free.
People can also get encrypted, DRM-laden, commercial-packed files which (might, if you're lucky) work on certified players, as long as the company that produced the DRM scheme stays in business top operate the DRM servers and the copyright owner doesn't decide to take the work off the market
I for one... (Score:3, Funny)
Hope that the BBC follows suite, it's the next logical step after iPlayer right?
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The BBC basically shows how NOT to run a state-run TV channel.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Why should I, as a UK TV licence payer, fund programs for other people to watch?
Additionally, I believe that since the BBC co-producers shows with other broadcasters in other countries, the licensing agreements currently in place mean the BBC has to take steps to stop (for example) a co-Canadian produced drama appearing for free before it is shown in Canada.
Oh, and the BBC is not a state-run tv channel. It is a public broadcaster, but aside from the BBC T
Re:I for one... (Score:4, Insightful)
Why should I, as a UK TV licence payer, fund programs for other people to watch?
Because it doesn't cost any more. If the entire world population were to turn on the BBC (and assuming these were physical TVs and not electronic so you can't add in the small cost of bandwidth) they could all receive it. Is it unfair? Yes, but I am of the opinion (note that I am not a UK citizen nor do I live in even a European nation), that if something doesn't require more money to keep it going, then why really charge for it or prevent others from using it? For example, for a road toll, by driving across it you create wear on the road that will eventually have to be paid to fix using the toll money. On the other hand, when I receive TV transmissions, it doesn't require any extra fees to keep it running.
Parent
Re:I for one... (Score:4, Interesting)
Actually if you were in Europe if you pointed a dish at 28.2 East you would have access to bbc1 to 4 cbbc and cbeebies also itv1-4 channel 4 e4 more4 film4 and channel 5 all are broadcast in the clear with no encryption. The bbc does limit it's output on the Internet but presumably it has to pay for the bandwidth used. so bbc says yes to give away for free, no to paying to let you watch for free.
Parent
Re:I for one... (Score:4, Insightful)
Hah, I don't think you understand bureaucracy.
The BBC have shovelled a HUGE quantity of money into iPlayer. That spending has to be justified, which means it will stay largely as it is for at least the next five years.
Parent
Three cheers (Score:2)
The Pirate Bay retaliates.. (Score:2, Funny)
Clearly TPB should sue them, how the hell are they supposed to compete against a service that release their own content for free and in high quality, and that doesnt even have any advertising on their site?
It is all about being able to demand license fees (Score:5, Interesting)
NRK actually tried to claim that everyone who owns a telephone also has a television and asked for permission to demand that everyone registered with a telephone pays the TV license. They were, luckily, denied when they tried that one. Now they are trying to claim that everyone who owns a computer can view their content and should pay a television license.
NRK setting up a BitTorrent tracker does look like a good thing - at first glance. But do not get fooled: This is all about getting a new Norwegian law which would say that everyone who owns computer technology must pay NRK a yearly fee. It is that simple. This is all about the money. That they use BitTorrent is in itself a good thing. Their motives are absolutely not.
Re:War! (Score:5, Interesting)
Will this mean war? Norway vs the EU! nay! against the whole world!
They have a decent amount of oil & gas, which the EU and others desperately need.
They also have healthy fish stocks, through fairly competent management of fisheries. The EU regularly howls of unfair competition in fish, as the EU has rapaciously plundered its own stocks, and continues overfishing at destructive levels.
It's the EU that will cave in, not Norway. Disclaimer: I'm not Norwegian, but did visit there twice (1983 and 1998), and changed plane in Oslo a few times.
Parent
Re:War! (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I don't know about EU, but USA can perform a "liberation war" on them, under some excuse like "terrorism and kiddie porn". Once they have flattened the country, they can set up a regime that will give their multinationals all rights on oil, gas and fishing. This will be as a compensation on the expenses incurred by the rebuilding effort and paying for deployment of the liberator's army.
Then, after all is done and nicely set up, they can replace the president and blame everything on the previous one, without returning the people of the "liberated" country the rights to their own natural resources.
It worked with Iraq.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
Will this mean war? Norway vs the EU! nay! against the whole world!
Meh, they'd just pass a directive - we've passed over 8000 EU directives without being a member already.
Re:And now let's bitch about the CODEC used (Score:5, Informative)
They are using MP4 with H.264 video and AAC audio.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
To go slightly off-topic, I've had a lot more trouble with files distributed in the matroska format than I have with MPEG-4. For some reason there seem to be a lot more half-broken mkv files out there (as in, they'll sort of play but not quite right), even though I doubt this has anything to do with the container format itself it has kind of turned me off of mkv (not to mention that I have more hardware and software capable of playing mp4 than I have capable of playing mkv). Kind of reminds me of when 7zip
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Coming from an AC I'm inclined to believe you're just a random troll, especially since my experience is hardly unique, and screaming "anecdote!" at the top of your lungs doesn't mean that my cellphone and other non-PC hardware magically gains the ability to play mkv files, not to mention that for some reason a lot of mkv files seem to be of rather questionable quality, although obviously this is not something that you can find peer-reviewed research about...
/Mikael