ExtraTorrent-Australian Government Sponsored BitTorrent Series

[Atreides]

Despite the bad publicity P2P networks and BitTorrent have received in Australia and worldwide, the Federal Government was generous enough to give a considerable boost to moviemakers choosing the format for distribution. The government has invested $350,000 in a forthcoming sci-fi TV series from the creators of The Tunnel – a horror show that premiered on BitTorrent two years ago.
 

Back in June 2010, the Australia-based Distracted Media announced its crowdfunding campaign for a new movie, The Tunnel. The film was set in the abandoned real-life tunnels under Sydney, and was supposed to be financed by the 135K Project (135,000 frames that people could buy individually).

The Tunnel launched on BitTorrent in a tie up with BitTorrent Inc. and indie platform VODO, also premiered on TV and pulled off a deal with Paramount Pictures. As you know, BitTorrent releases are much more common today than they were several years ago, but the new Distracted Media’s BitTorrent project is very interesting because of the way it is being funded.

Distracted Media is going to film Airlock – a new sci-fi TV series set on a derelict space ship and an isolated space station. The outfit hopes to raise $100,000 through a Kickstarter campaign, but the company has already secured additional funding from Screen Australia. The latter is the Federal Government’s main funding body for the promotion, development and distribution of the local screen material. It seems that the government realizes that there is a huge potential audience there for legitimate shows and movies.

The new show will launch on BitTorrent, even though it isn’t locked into BitTorrent Inc. or VODO as the first project was. In addition, the episodes of the series will likely be released on torrents each week with other formats following later.