UK film premieres on the net

The first feature film to be premiered on the internet will be streamed from 18.00 hours BST today.

This is Not a Love Song, a thriller from Full Monty writer Simon Beaufoy, marks the first time a film has been officially launched over the web

The producers of the low-budget picture hope that using the internet will tempt people to watch British films and bring UK film producers' work to a wider audience.

Beaufoy told BBC One's Breakfast programme that he wrote the film for the internet because it is hard for small local films to get distribution deals.

The film will be shown at the same time in selected cinemas in Bristol, London, Manchester and Sheffield.

"It's on in five cinemas but the point was that we felt British films were being squeezed out of the cinemas by big American blockbusters," he said.

"The films I like watching and making are small niche films that have no place in the cinema.

"We thought, 'Let's try and get our films out to the man in Norfolk and the woman in the Yorkshire Dales who never see my films.'"

This is Not a Love Song tells the story of two loners, Spike and Heaton, who make an unlikely team. But when Spike commits a crime, Heaton decides to stand by him as the two fugitives are chased by a posse of farmers bent on revenge.

The film will be available in various file sizes for streaming or for download from the film's website, www.thisisnotalovesong.com, for between £2 to £3.