DRM News

In an effort to curb the downloading of movies from torrent sites, a number of Hollywood studios, the UK Film Council and tech firm Blinkbox have joined forces to launch Full Stream Ahead.

Full Stream Ahead will be a week long promotion where anyone accessing a specific web address (fullstreamahead.co.uk) will receive a credit to spend on viewings of streamed movies. Those movies will be watchable on home computer or any television with the right setup.

The hope is that after a taste of the legal movie streaming service, more of the general public will turn towards using such options in the future rather than pirating movies. The other hope is that by jumping on to streaming technology more quickly than the music industry did, the movie business can better help turn the tide.

From The Guardian :

"We are doing it much earlier," says Michael Comish, chief executive and co-founder of Blinkbox. "By the time the music industry enabled strong and good-quality legal [streaming] services it was arguably too late. We are in the early days of digital retail for movies, and our ambition is to make people aware of the benefits of streaming services before it is too late."

Blinkbox already has more than 1.2 million monthly users, and their hope of substantially increasing that number is why they’re willing to bear most of the costs of the promotion.

"If millions of people take up this offer, yes, it is going to cost us a lot of money," he said. "But the cost of not doing it is far larger. If we do not make people aware that there is good-quality streaming video available, then we will hit a tipping point in online piracy."

So, if you’re in the UK and have broadband, give it a shot.