BT offers ad-supported free movie rentals

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 5 Dec 2007 at 11:38

BT Vision is offering free movie rentals through its BT Vision download service, supported by unskippable adverts inserted at certain points during the film.

The trial is a collaboration with Hiro Media, a 2004 startup which has developed the underlying software for the project. The company has previously conducted trials with NBC and Israeli TV station, Reshet.

Three advert breaks are inserted into the average two hour film, each lasting between three and five minutes and are targeted at the user based upon a short questionnaire filled in when downloading the software.

BT says the breaks are carefully edited into the film, so users won't find an advert break arbitrarily inserted into a key scene.

Files are downloaded over a P2P network, and remain viewable for one month. At each viewing, different adverts will be shown to the user, and files can be distributed between users without constraint.

When the codec software is inactive it will download new adverts in the background. Viewers will need to have Windows Media Player 9 installed, as well as software from Hiro.

"BT believes that sympathetically-placed, targeted advertising, combined with a viral film-sharing capability will be attractive to many customers in conjunction with free or reduced content prices," says Antony Carbonari, BT Vision's interactive and commercial director.

"We look forward to the results"

Three films will be offered initially as a trial; Mischief Night, Played and The Punk Rock Movie.