4 May 2006

BBC Film Network, which offers a showcase platform for new British filmmakers, has launched a free high-resolution film download service.

For a trial period of 12 months, the first 10,000 people to sign up will be able to watch three short films every fortnight on a full screen at, according to the website, "a quality similar to DVD".

A legal peer-to-peer network will be used to deliver the films to subscribers as high quality video files and they will be sent as soon as they are available with alerts, reports Netimperative.

Users have a licence to view the films for 28 days and when it expires, the files will automatically be removed from their hard drive.

The BBC has established this trial to see if people's viewing behaviour changes at all and to see if the benefits of using this method to provide short films to the public are greater than or not as significant as the negative impact upon commercial services.

© Adfero Ltd

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