DISQUS

Aaron · 1 year ago

This is a refreshing point of view. I am happy to see that some marketing execs realise that the Internet is the way of the future, and if you're not online you're going to be left in the dust. While I haven't downloaded any leaked shows, merely knowing that there are some firms that are okay with having their shows out on BitTorrent makes me more likely to watch the show!

Ariel · 1 year ago

I'm not an expert on Media bussiness, but I assume that the whole discussion above is based on the assumption that shows don't make money outside of TV (say youtube, bittorrent, etc), but only use those channels as a way for the show to drive TV watchers, or does their bussiness model include making money outside TV too? (e.g. through Internet ads shown along their content)

TIm · 1 year ago

And this is how it should be. This is how I got hooked on "LOST". It was all downloads. Then I got caught up. AND I could not wait for torrents. I wanted to see it as soon as it came out. That me me turning on the TV and watching.

And this season, when it starts back up I will be there.

Guinevere · 1 year ago

For those who are engaging in it, the experiment has 2 main goals:

#1 get new viewers for the actual show on broadcast TV
#2 build a business case to prove we need a long term business model for distributing content digitally

Evan · 1 year ago

I personally started watching several shows after downloading torrents and watching them, and for several of them I bought the DVD sets as well. I think torrent is a great way to check out new shows (or grab an episode if you missed it).

chaos · 1 year ago

you are all missing a very important point. bittorrents and the like are available around the globe. unlike american tv channels.

Darren · 1 year ago

Its good to see the industry waking up.

Here in Australia we have a difficult situation in that a show shown in the US very often doesnt screen here for upto 18 months after it was broadcast in the US. Whilst a couple of the network buyers here have finally woken up and screening the show within 48 hours after its on the US Networks (which has caused a drop in Australia US Net Traffic) its good to see that happening.

Typically getting a torrent wont distract from a good show as from all the people ive worked with will download it, but still watch it when it is broadcast, if the show is rubbish they will watch a few minutes of the downloaded version and change to something else.

Weeds was a good example of what actually happens, the network here picked it up BECAUSE it was seeing a number of people downloading it and decided to buy the rights on that reason. Otherwise it probably would not have been bought and that network timeslot instead to go to a late night game show. We only have 5 non paytv networks in Australia, One Governent backed Network (the ABC) which has great quality but non commercial programs, SBS multicultural channel, and 7, 9 & 10 (the commercial networks) of which mostly is filled with .... US network shows mainly.

Its these three channels that finally are coming to their senses.

Darren

aarlof · 1 year ago

It's great that unlike movie studios, tv studios are realizing that torrents fill a huge void and can definitely be used to estimate the success of a show. i understand that movie and tv studios have different revenue models but torrents work in the advantage of tv studios. I feel that ripping a tv show or d/l'ing a torrent isn't really illegal. sure, there's the copyright thing, but there's no argument on lost revenues. You pay for cable access (or not in the case of channels freely broadcast over the air) but the shows are essentially free.

I started with torrents during the first season of Heroes when my co-workers all were watching but i couldn't since i didn't have cable or schedule time to watch a show. Having access to everything on tv via torrents is awesome. I can catch up on shows or watch new ones. I just finished the SciFi miniseries "Tin Man" this way. Again, since the revenue model for tv is different from movies and the gap to dvd release is so long, seeing the big networks look at torrents as a positive measure of their industry instead of a force to be destroyed.

Gareth · 1 year ago

Wow, what a great article. Other than Weeds, lets not forget the Sarah Chronicles, which has been on bit torrent for some time. And what about another Showtime production Dexter which had its first two episodes and last two episodes 'leaked' on to bit torrent. It also is consistantly in the top 100 content combined downloads at the Piratebay. Go Dexter!

b0b · 1 year ago

Only problem that I see is the advertisers will be pissed off. One of the reasons that I have downloaded shows from the internet (bt/etc) is because I am just sick to death of all of the adverts. I hate adverts. TV shows from bittorrent have the ads cut out. It's great.

beach · 1 year ago

Recently, quite a few celebrities were said to appear on the millionaire luxury club "Meetrich.com". OMG!!! Are these famous guys fond of internet dating for now?? Maybe they are indeed so rich that they feel boring sometimes to need new things?

Fatih Nakış · 1 year ago

you are all missing a very important point. bittorrents and the like are available around the globe. unlike american tv channels.

Sicaine · 1 year ago

Yeah it is really nice for german to see tvshows, there are not at air. But you have to see this way: not every german person can understand english. So if i talk to a friend and say "hey heroes is ueber" then he says: "okay and where can I see it?" and i say "oh mh how is your english skill" and he will say "oh bad bad at all. I cant watch movies or tv shows in english" then i say "hey okay no problem. Wait 4 weeks and you can watch the first sesson at rtl2" and he will say "oh thank you a lot!"

We are the cheap way of advertisment :>

Comcast Cable Deals · 1 year ago

Terrific article and I couldn't agree more. Execs do need to start paying attention to the fact that internet viewers are here to stay and are only going to multiply over time. With technology these days, I truly can't believe how behind the times we are with this...

Regards,

Mark G.