Mark Cuban believes that it's a no brainer, but that ignores the challenges

Wired asks if the time has come for BitTorrent to move from the PC to the TV. The answer is a resounding yes according to HDNet chairman Mark Cuban. The topic was recently considered following the acquisition of µTorrent (micro torrent) by BitTorrent and an announcement by rival client software maker Azureus to distribute HD quality movies over BitTorrent networks.

Obviously there is room for legal peer-to-peer distribution of content; however movie and TV media may not be the best fit. For starters while the overall bandwidth requirement is distributed among swarm participants (those sharing the file), the maximum download speed can be quite slow since most of these sources are hosted on residential DSL and Cable modems. As a result it can take many hours for a full length movie or TV show to be delivered to a viewer's set.

In practice the viewer would need to either pre-schedule the download or wait until the file was completely downloaded. This is because BitTorrent sends chunks of the file, not necessarily in order, to the client who is responsible for reassembling them. Unlike a traditional download you can not start playing the file until it is completely reassembled on your PC or entertainment system.

While the idea of further legitimizing BitTorrent is a good, an application such as this will be met with little interest from consumers, regardless of how "easy" it is to use. In a way the idea of waiting for your show to download is counter to the last 20 years of "on demand" programming and instant gratification that we have all become accustomed to. That's not to say there aren't smart applications of the technology, it's just that I feel that it's not ready for prime time, TV that is.