1 BigChampagne Online Media Measurement BitTorrent TV 101 June 11, 2007

2 BitTorrent A Top Heavy System Typically after an initial surge in variations in torrents for the same item (e.g., album, movie, TV show, game, etc.), the number of torrents tends to decrease and/or the action is focused on a small subset of torrents: –The more a single torrent is spread across multiple seeders, the more efficient the swarm –The very nature of BitTorrent dictates that the quality torrents rise to the top and junk will disappear: Much of BitTorrent's popularity has come both because of the speed of downloads and the assurance that files were real instead of the decoys or damaged content often found on other file-swapping networks. CNET, 24 Jan 2005

3 TV on BitTorrent What is out there? Looking at data for HBOs Entourage for a recent period shows: Every episode is available either as an individual episode torrent or as part of a complete season torrent All but one of the Season 3 episodes are available as individual torrents 88% of individual episodes are from the most recent season 51% of leechers are downloading the most recent seasons episodes Popularity of Seasons 1 and 2 indicates a depth of fan interest

4 TV on BitTorrent What is out there? Over time individual episodes disappear and only season torrents remain Reflects the tendency of the BitTorrent system to continually reduce clutter and focus on as few torrents as it takes to get the job done

5 TV on BitTorrent For a recent time period: –Examining the average TV show: Only 30% had any activity at all The top torrent accounted for 33% of all activity The top 4 torrents accounted for 65% of all activity –Entourage had over 80 available torrents Only 11% had any activity at all The top torrent accounted for 50% of all activity The top 4 accounted for 96% of all activity Approximately half of the activity was for the most recent season

6 TV on BitTorrent Entourage Season Premiere Dynamics

7 TV on BitTorrent Entourage (Premiere) Leechers Geographic Distribution

8 TV on BitTorrent 34.8% of Entourage leechers are in the US and Canada while 48.2% are in the EU.