nrk.no

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) makes popular series available DRM-free via BitTorrent

Kategorier: English-articles & Fildeling


Lars Monsen

As one of many ways to reach people with our content we have decided to do an experiment and make one of our most popular television series available through BitTorrent.This technology makes it possible for us to make our content available in a very high quality without having to invest in large server farms and expensive bandwidth.

The very popular series called «Nordkalotten 365» has been aired on traditional TV in Norway. Over 900 000 of Norway’s 4,6 million watched the show in average, and the marketshare was close to 50%! «Nordkalotten 365» is now made available for download. In this series the experienced hiker Lars Monsen has traveled alone through the north of Scandinavia for one year. The first episode is already published and the next episodes will be made available as they are encoded.

The files are MPEG4 H.264, 1024×576 25fps, 3 Mbit/s. No DRM.

So far the experiment has been a huge success. After one day roughly 8000 people have downloaded the torrent file. Because of the limited statistics reporting from the Amazon S3 tracker we are using we don’t have exact numbers from the tracker itself. Taking into account that Norway is a small country with only 4,5 million people this number is above expectations. The file has been out there for one day, and at this point only the first episode of the series is available. The bittorrent technology seems to work especially well for completely legal and high quality downloads. People happily seed the file and the download speeds achieved are reported to several megabits/s. The whole 600 MB file downloading in minutes or even seconds for the people with fast connections.

Miro Screenshot Monsen

The files can be downloaded with the use of any bittorrent client, but the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation are promoting the free and open source Miro player as the most user friendly and easy way to get hold of the television series.

The reactions from the audience have been extremely positive. More than a hundred comments on the article announcing the experiment (Norwegian) express solid gratitude and people that are impressed by the move.

The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation will keep on with experiments like these and try to make more content available through this technology in addition to the more traditional channels of streaming, podcasts and DVD sales.

Direct link to the RSS-feed with the torrents: nordkalotten365.rss

Links to the torrens:

NB! New version of episode 1. With better quality and hopefully with no errors in the file.
Episode 1: Nordkalotten365.E01.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent

Episode 2: Nordkalotten365.E02.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent
Episode 3: Nordkalotten365.E03.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent
Episode 4: Nordkalotten365.E04.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent
Episode 5: Nordkalotten365.E05.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent
Episode 6: Nordkalotten365.E06.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent
Episode 7: Nordkalotten365.E07.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent
Episode 8: Nordkalotten365.E08.1024×576.H264.NRK.mp4.torrent

That’s all episodes. Download and enjoy. And please seed the file to support this experiment.

Editorial note: This is an English version of the Norwegian article we published yesterday, as a convenience for international readers. See also our other English article; «How to get a bigger screen on Nokia N95 than iPhone».

If you’re curious about NRKbeta, here’s our English about-page.

125 kommentarer

  1. Una cadena de TV noruega decide poner en BitTorrent una de sus series mas populares

    […] Una cadena de TV noruega decide poner en BitTorrent una de sus series mas popularesnrkbeta.no/norwegian-broadcasting-nrk-makes-popular-series-a… por mezvan hace pocos segundos […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

    • Lex Ein (svar til Stevko)

      I enjoyed Episode 3 very much, thanks to the English subtitles file available here! The download was very fast, and the video quality was excellent (it should be, at 700MB for 28 minutes).

    • Morten (svar til Lex Ein)

      Are you not confusing the two series? March 8 posting is about 'Der ingen skulle tru…', while this thread is about 'Nordkalotten365'. I am hoping for subtitles to Nordkalotten365.

    • Lex Ein (svar til Morten)

      I have reported my several comments as erroneous and not applicable to this series. I apologize for the stupidity.

  2. Marius Arnesen (NRK)

    @Stevko

    Sorry. No subtitles, and I am afraid you won’t get much out of it if you don’t understand Norwegian…

    Besides the nice footage from the Arctic region of course 🙂

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  3. Bittorrent » Blog Archive » Norwegian Broadcasting publishes popular TV-series via P2P

    […] Television Rocker Report wrote an interesting post today on Norwegian Broadcasting publishes popular TV-series via P2PHere’s a quick excerptNRK – Norwegian Broadcasting has decided to publish the very popular Norwegian series "Nordkalotten 365" with adventurer Lars Monsen for free on the […]

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  4. Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation makes popular series available DRM-free via BitTorrent : The Last Podcast

    […] Maybe because it’s in Norwegian, it’s unlikely to become a huge hit worldwide, but Norwegian Broadcasting has just started to distribute on of its more successful shows on BitTorrent, without any DRM and in very high quality: As one of many ways to reach people with our content we have decided to do an experiment and make one of our most popular television series available through BitTorrent.This technology makes it possible for us to make our content available in a very high quality without having to invest in large server farms and expensive bandwidth. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  5. TV noruega pone en BitTorrent una de sus series más populares » eConectados

    […] Me gusta leer este tipo de noticias, ver gente que experimenta y no se obceca en lo pasado, en técnicas que no funcionan. La cadena noruega NRK está haciendo un experimento que consiste en publicar en BitTorrent una de sus series más populares (50% cuota de pantalla – 900.000 personas viéndola sobre 4,6 millones). La publican en alta calidad (MPEG4 H.264, 1024×576 25fps) y sin DRM. Totalmente libre para que cualquiera la pueda ver cuando y donde quiera. La serie se llama “Nordkalotten 365“, y cuenta la experiencia de Lars Monsen, un caminante que ha viajado sólo por el norte de Escandinavia durante un año. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  6. BitTorrent Not Just For Pirates? | Norwegian TV Broadcaster Makes Series Available For Free » Web TV Wire

    […] According to NRK’s own English version of the announcement, the response from the audience has been very appreciative, and positive, with over a hundred (and rising) comments received so far. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  7. NRK Beta: Europe is WAY ahead of the curb | Web is the new TV

    […] Just to illustrate how far ahead they are, read the article about how they are making a hugely popular show available DRM free through BitTorrent. How long do you think it’s going to take before the major US networks do the same? “Never” seems like a pretty good bet to me. […]

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  8. I think this is a great idea. They should do more of this. I often prefer to download torrents than adjust my schedule to watch it on TV. I wouldn’t even be offended by some advertising content.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  9. only 4 words:
    this if fucking awesome.

    the first episode is really good, and i can’t wait for the 2nd eventhough i don’t understand more than just their names and maybe welcome and hi 🙂

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  10. jill/txt » NRK releases TV series DRM-free on Bittorrent

    […] I’ve been meaning to blog this for a while, but now I have no excuse; NRK even translated their announcement to English just for you international readers. The deal is, NRK, Norway’s biggest television station (and the license-financed one), has released a popular series through Bittorrent as well as broadcasting it in the conventional way. I don’t actually like the series, so won’t bother to download it, but I certainly welcome the spread of new, DRM-free ways of being able to access television content we pay for, and having more legitimate uses of Bittorrent is splendid. Another reason this open distribution is important is simply access: the web TV thing NRK also offers works poorly on my Mac. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  11. Hi there,

    I found your experiement featured in some german news sites (unfortunately without direkt links) and googled this page.

    Thank you very much for these episodes.

    Unfortunately without subtitles one looses a lot. Could you please comment on the question wether you would dispise or support home made subtitles to be provided by some volunteers who might understand norwegian.

    I think the world would really like to see more of your beatyful country and therefor download this production – even more so, if they could understand you talking … ;D

    cheers!

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  12. Eirik Solheim (NRK)

    As you understand we can’t spend our Norwegian license fee payer’s money on english subtitles for an international audience, but fansubbing is a very nice idea. I’ll look into the possibilities.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  13. Hello,

    I’ve been looking on the web for any English fansub projects for this series. So far I haven’t found any, and would very much like to know if anybody is working on English subtitles.

    Jacob

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  14. Diarmuid Wrenne

    I think this is a brilliant experiment. I’m Irish and the lack of subtitles has not been a problem. One gets the sense of what he is saying, and as it is largely a one-man-show, there is little dialog anyway. The scenery, atmosphere, and the host’s talent all come through perfectly. As far as subbing is concerned, I think it would be sufficient to have an English translation as a document with some sort of (very simple) scene index. I hope the Irish Language broadcaster sees this and considers doing something similar with our home produced documentaries.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  15. It will be freaking awesome if it have the subtitles. Does the Norwegian TV have the English subtitle? If so, then why not put it here in the miro player in a very simple way. And where did you get the subtitle from? England? we, license fee payer’s money paid for it at the first place! I don’t watch anything without subtitles except the football. I hate the BBC iplayer cos they failed to provide the subtitles since last summer and their programmers are useless!

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  16. Miro – Internet TV Blog » Blog Archive » HD TV Series Mass Distributed for Price of an iPhone

    […] Norwegian Public Broadcaster, NRK, recently made waves with the success of their pilot project where they put one of their full series online, in HD, without restrictive DRM, over bittorrent. […]

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  17. Zwartbaard.nl » Blog Archive » CBC To Release TV-Show via BitTorrent, For Free

    […] It is good to see that broadcasters slowly start to realize that they can benefit from sharing their content via BitTorrent. Last month Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) made the popular TV-show “Nordkalotten 365″ available in a DRM-less format. This experiment turned out to be a huge success, while the distribution costs were close to zero. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  18. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to release TV show via bitTorrent for free, and free of DRM protection « Outside the Box Television 2018

    […] It is good to see that broadcasters slowly start to realize that they can benefit from sharing their content via BitTorrent. Last month Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) made the popular TV-show “Nordkalotten 365″ available in a DRM-less format. This experiment turned out to be a huge success, while the distribution costs were close to zero. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  19. Please make the programs available with NORWEGIAN subtitles. NRK has so many programs with ttv also at Nett-TV, and Tekst-TV is also online available. But page 777 is offline and the only program in (mainly) Norwegian language with Norwegian subtitles is Migrapolis.
    It would make it so much easier to follow the programs and to learn the language.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  20. CBC To Release TV-Show via BitTorrent, For Free at IDTorrent Blog

    […] It is good to see that broadcasters slowly start to realize that they can benefit from sharing their content via BitTorrent. Last month Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) made the popular TV-show “Nordkalotten 365″ available in a DRM-less format. This experiment turned out to be a huge success, while the distribution costs were close to zero. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  21. Still no fan subs?
    Was someone going to make subs for episode one?
    I can make some if no one else are going to.
    They wont be perfect but better then nothing, right?
    Well I’m guessing most of the English people that wanted subs are long gone by now.
    But I can make subs for one episode and then we can see if anyone downloads them.
    The Norwegian subs would help because I am having a hard time hearing a few of the words.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  22. The NRKbeta doctrine

    […] Some weeks ago NRK – Norwegian Broadcasting put up one of the most popular shows in Norway on bittorrent. For free, with no DRM, no country restrictions. It has been a huge success and so far about 100 000 episodes have been downloaded by our readers! After being featured on boingboing and digg, Eirik Solheim of NRK was interviewed by the German website Tagesschau: 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 doesn’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. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  23. CBC distributing via BitTorrent « Ramblings of a math and CS teacher

    […] The CBC is the first North American broadcaster to take this step, though not the first in the world.  A Norwegian broadcaster (NRK) took this step earlier this year, with great success.  Eirik Solheim, one of the masterminds of the Norwegian project, was interviewed by a German news site, and the interview is very interesting.  One major problem with distributing shows using this method is third party contracts, which makes adopting BitTorrent distribution something that only new shows are likely to do. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  24. South Park, le quattro pesti sono libere nel web » Panorama.it – Cultura e società

    […] Sono in prima fila alcune emittenti dell’estremo nord dell’emisfero. A gennaio la televisione di Stato norvegese Nrk ha diffuso attraverso la rete BitTorrent gli episodi della serie Nordkalotten 365: in poco tempo 90mila persone hanno scaricato le puntate. Un record che in una nazione di 4,6 milioni di persone ha sorpreso anche i vertici della Nrk. E pochi giorni fa, in Canada, la puntata di Canada’s next Prime minister è andata prima in onda in televisione, e poche ore dopo è stata distribuita online su BitTorrent: dieci ragazzi si sfidano per proporre idee in grado di migliorare il loro Paese. E il pubblico è stato invitato a scaricare, condividere e…divertirsi le prove dei giovani in gara. La maggior parte delle major e delle emittenti, comunque, è ancora piuttosto diffidente dal web. Se da un lato gli utenti dimostrano di apprezzare i filmati liberi disponibili in rete, dall’altro i grandi produttori sono alla ricerca di un modello che garantisca gli incassi. Che, però, non è ancora arrivato. […]

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  25. Hei Trond,

    Er du i ferd med aa lage subs for episode 1? Dro ned gnome subtitle editor selv naa for aa se hvor vanskelig det er, men hvis du er paa nippet til aa sleppe subs for episode 1 saa hopper jeg til episode 2.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  26. Eirik Solheim,

    Mens jeg sitter her aa tekster saa slaar det meg at jeg egentlig vet veldig lite om teksting. Har NRK noen guider/konvensjoner for teksting? Er det mulig aa faa tak i disse?

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  27. PC World-redaktøren»Blog Archive » NRK med samleside for bittorrent-nedlastinger

    […] NRKs satsning på torrent-teknologi er såpass banebrytende at den skaper oppslag i medier i mange andre land. Her finner du alle artikler NRK Beta har skrevet om Bittorrent. […]

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  28. Eirik,
    Oppdaget at gnome-subtitle-editor funket fint med mp4 alikevel, bare jeg som ikke var saerlig kjent med den ennaa. Begynner aa faa litt mer fart paa tekstingen naa, men det er tidkrevende greier ja. 🙂

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  29. Keynote – Tipps

    […] nrkbeta.no/norwegian-broadcasting-nrk-makes-popular-series-available-drm-free-via-bittorrent futurezone.orf.at/hardcore/stories/262695/ KundenfreundlichkeitGuter Kundenservice wird für Unternehmen immer wichtiger. Wohin können sich Kunden wenden, wenn sie Probleme mit Produkten haben oder mit Dienstleistungen nicht zufrieden sind? Leider wird gerade beim Kundenservice oft gespart: Firmen antworten nicht auf Mails, reagieren nicht auf Kundenbeschwerden und lassen Kunden am Telefon ewig warten. Wenn man endlich durchgestellt wird, merkt man oft schnell, dass die Kompetenz der Servicemitarbeiter zu wünschen übrig lässt. […]

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  30. from a social perspective.com » One article – 24 hours

    […] The source of the story is that the Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) made a popular series available DRM-free via BitTorrent. This resulted in a lot of reports both in the old-fashion-press as well as in blogs (so i wont use your time repeating it here). The interesting in this case is an article that followed on Itavisen.no. […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  31. Public netcasting beta | typo(s), tendency and text

    […] Und neben anderen Versuchen, werden bestimmte Sendungen auch über das Peer-to-Peer-Protokoll Bittorrent verbreitet. Dafür mussten bestimmte rechtliche Vorraussetzungen geschaffen werden, aber die NRKbeta-Macher bezeichnen die Bereitstellung von Inhalten per Bittorrent als einen großen Erfolg. Some weeks ago NRK – Norwegian Broadcasting put up one of the most popular shows in Norway on bittorrent. For free, with no DRM, no country restrictions. It has been a huge success and so far about 100 000 episodes have been downloaded by our readers! After being featured on boingboing and digg, Eirik Solheim of NRK was interviewed by the German website Tagesschau. (Quelle) […]

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  32. More images from the Commodore stand at IFA

    […] And while you’re here you can have a look at some images of the OLED screens, some design, the ultimate bachelor mouse and a video roundup from IFA (posts in Norwegian, but the images and video speaks for itself). If you’re really interested you can have a look at what this strange norwegian blog is and read about our successful experiment with BitTorrent. […]

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  33. Video test clips from Canon 5D Mark II gets analyzed

    […] is NRKbeta? Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) makes popular series available DRM-free via BitTorrent Thoughts on BitTorrent distribution for a public […]

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  34. Bryan Peterson

    I’m in America and a friend of mine from Norway linked me to this and I am very impressed with both the quality of the show and distribution method. I only wish I either spoke Norwegian or had some fansubs to go off of. Are there any other shows that we might expect to see torrented in the future?

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  35. La televisione norvegese NRK rende disponibili i suoi prodotti su BitTorrent « Tvpeertopeer’s Blog

    […] la televisione norvegese NRK il peer to peer è soprattutto uno modo per raggiungere persone con i loro contenuti, senza dover […]

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  36. Traditionella medier och fildelning – NRKbeta och Sydsvenskan | What’s Next

    […] sin experimentverkstad för nya medier NRKbeta var NRK första mediehus i världen att prova att distribuera ett TV-program med hjälp av […]

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  37. Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation sets up its own bittorrent tracker

    […] some very successful tests through 2008 the Norwegian state broadcaster has decided to set up their own BitTorrent tracker and […]

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  38. Norwegisches Fernsehen setzt auf eigenen BitTorrent-Tracker

    […] die in Norwegen enorm populäre, achtteilige Fernsehserie Nordkalotten 365 im BitTorrent-Netzwerk zur Verfügung stellte. Kostenlos, ohne DRM und in hoher Bildqualität — der Pilotversuch wurde zu einem riesigen […]

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  39. 0.2 » La TV pubblica norvegese crea un suo Tracker BitTorrent

    […] nell’arco dei primi tre mesi dalla data del lancio dell’iniziativa, avvenuta nel gennaio 2008, le trasmissioni TV erano […]

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  40. I’m English and live in England but this seems good of NRK; to use BitTorrent technology to allow for distribution like this. I’ve watched Episode 1 so far and am impressed with the quality. Somebody did a good job there.

    My problem is I don’t know what’s being said as I don’t understand Norwegian. 🙂 I see some subtitles for Episode 1, but they only seem to cover the first 10 minutes of the programme(?).

    Is there a link to a subtitle repository somewhere?

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  41. Smörgåsbord » Het laatste NOS-journaal downloaden

    […] Als je echt wilt reltrappen kun je de boel nog met bijvoorbeeld ffmpeg2theora in een vrij en open formaat omzetten en verspreiden via BitTorrent. Dat is niet legaal. Het is ook niet legaal om dit (mbv wat scripts) met alle afleveringen van alles dat op uitzendinggemist.nl te verkrijgen is te doen. Niet legaal, maar wel technisch haalbaar, en zo’n onuitwisbare middelvinger van een terabyte is een statement zonder weerga dat wij het handhavingsprobleem van iemand anders niet op ons bordje willen krijgen, onderwijl vreugde verspreidend onder iedereen die ook in de bus een aflevering van ‘t een of ander wil bekijken. Klinkt dat als imagine-all-the-people-dromerij? De Noorse publieke omroep stelt zelf programma’s beschikbaar in een open formaat, via BitTorre… […]

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  42. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) makes popular series available DRM … « Piratbloggen

    […] post: Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) makes popular series available DRM … « The Pirate Bay till hovrätten i november – […]

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  43. even though i know no Norwegian i will try and translate the subs into English myself but if anyone has already done please let me know, the subs as stated above under the the March 8 2009 posting are for other programmes. Thanks

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  44. Øyvind Solstad (NRK)

    @Lex Ein: Amazing job with subtitles!

    Just want to mention that putting the series on YouTube is a violation of our copyright. Even though we use bittorrent for distribution of the series, we still have the copyright. It’s not Creative Commons, so sharing the series on other websites is actually not allowed.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

  45. Øyvind Solstad (NRK)

    @Lex Ein: Yes, I know that it’s not yours, it’s clear from your comment. I would like to leave the comments as they are. We usually don’t delete comments unless there’s a very good reason for it. But I have edited them, see if that’s fine.

    Svar på denne kommentaren

    • Eirik Solheim (NRK) (svar til Collin Ivy)

      That’s good to hear. Comments like these motivates further experiments with this distribution method… 🙂

  46. This is an old article, but either way, the topic is interesting:

    If anyone want subtitles in their language, I suggest using a subtitle translator which are using the Google Translate API. That way you will get a not perfect – but perfectly good translation into your language. A Google search gives some results which may be interesting for some of you.

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  47. Tommy Olausson

    Tackar NRK! Tänk om SVT kunde göra så här också med visa serier dom producerar… Ni på NRK är ett föredöme, älskar många serier och program som ni producerar! Tackar än en gång till för att man kan ladda ner denna trevliga äventyrsserie med Lars Monsen.

    Med varma hälsningar från Göteborg / Sverige

    Tommy

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  48. Links for 14 October 2012 – Chris Unitt's blog

    […] way of background, Norwegian Broadcasting released one of their most popular shows via BitTorrent. As much as anything, you could see this as an attention-grab by a smaller player doing something […]

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  49. Mattis Sehlstedt

    Hey, i’m trying to download the episodes via the links posted on this page with a torrent client, but it doesn’t seem to work. The torrents are dead it seems. So please, if you’ve any solution, i’d gladly appreciate it. Thanks.

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