BitTorrent unwraps $4.95 annual subscription for-ad-free uTorrent

PanARMENIAN.Net - BitTorrent has unveiled a new annual subscription fee that removes ads from the torrent-streaming service. Costing a modest $4.95 per year, the launch follows a short beta period, and adds to the existing $19.95 annual Pro tier as well as the free ad-supported service, VentureBeat reports.

As you would expect, there are extra benefits to signing up for the Pro incarnation, such as virus protection, customer support, and instant streaming. But for those who can do without those perks and simply don’t like ads, this new offering will likely prove popular.

Launched initially in 2005, uTorrent has emerged as one of the most popular desktop and mobile clients for BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing protocol that was acquired by BitTorrent Inc. in 2006. In April last year, BitTorrent revealed it had passed 100 million downloads on mobile alone across its myriad of apps, which includes uTorrent/BitTorrent for Android, uTorrent/BitTorrent Remote for Android, uTorrent Remote for iOS (Web app), and uTorrent Remote for Windows Phone.

While many subscribers to the Pro service would likely have paid purely for the ad-free element, for others it would still probably have proved too much to pay. So by introducing a plan at 25 percent of the Pro tier, this should encourage many more to sign-up.