Peer-to-Peer Network and the Distribution in the EU

Broadband internet connections are growing rapidly throughout Europe: after a slow start, the old continent has caught up with the USA and other industrialized countries. The diffusion of broadband is a key factor to develop digital convergence between telecommunications and television, new Internet applications and services, and new online contents. Peer-to-Peer networks are becoming an increasingly important avenue to distribute such contents across broadband connections. In our work we will describe the working of Peer-to-Peer networks, its evolution towards legal business models, its regulatory challenges, and the role that they will play in a convergent world.

Content services are benefiting from the steady rise in the broadband subscriber base. The pioneer services that were launched before 2000 suffered from a lack of bandwidth, from the lack of cooperation between content providers, online distributors and ISPs, and from difficulties in establishing business models. But most of these obstacles have been lifted as bitrates increase, thus improving the quality of the services. Other contributing factors include a more open attitude from content providers, the impetus provided by new entrants coming from other industries such as Consumer Electronics (CE) and the growth of online advertising, along with the growth of the online audience. Some services have proven that it is in fact possible to market paid content via the web.