BitTorrent Inc. Shutters BitTorrent Entertainment Network, Reverts to Torrent Search

Suffering from unprofitability, quietly closes paid content store and turns to searching the web for torrent trackers to download content, both legally and illegally.

BitTorrent Inc. had launched their ambitious BitTorrent Entertainment Network(BEN) last year.

The store enabled the BitTorrent users to purchase and download movies and television shows legally.

However, the store was not a success as the company has now announced its closure.

Simon Morris, BitTorrent’s VP of Product Management spoke about this new development: “After a great deal of soul searching we decided to close down the Torrent Entertainment Network content store. We want to focus on core technology rather than merchandising and given the harsh economic environment, we can’t afford to continue to invest in endeavors that don’t come close to break-even.”

From the site:

We created TEN to empower content creators and viewers like you to discover a new kind of video experience. However, as we sharpen our focus we have decided to invest more in content delivery technology rather than content merchandising. As a result we have taken the difficult decision to shut down TEN.

We appreciate the millions of global users who supported TEN and look forward to continuing to serve you with innovative content delivery technology.

— The TEN Team

They are now going to provide a search engine service using Ask.com instead.

“Its about focus and economics,” Morris added. “We want to focus on core technology rather than merchandising and given the harsh economic environment, we can’t afford to continue to invest in endeavors that don’t come close to break-even.”

I think for many it wasn’t a total surprise because BEN never really offered a value added alternative to regular, though illegal, sources of BitTorrent downloadable content.