News UK net users leading TV downloads

"British TV viewers lead the trend of illegally downloading US shows from the net, according to research.

New episodes of 24, Desperate Housewives and Six Feet Under, appear on the web hours after they are shown in the US, said a report.

Web tracking company Envisional said 18% of downloaders were from within the UK and that downloads of TV programmes had increased by 150% in the last year.

About 70% were using file-sharing program BitTorrent, the firm said. "

More on that here

 

You know what they should do to combat it? Show things here the same time as the US. It shows Brit peeps are pissed off with always being considered 2nd rate.

Not only that though, if you could stream TV over the net you could watch it whenever you felt like which is a major attraction as well.

 

Well surprise surprise, what do they expect when we get the same shows but most months behind.
And the fact we speak the same language sort of makes it easier.

Although it is considered illegal, I can't find anything morally wrong with this as long as you pay your TV licence and subscribe to the channels that would air these shows over here, eventually..

 

Absoultely. No different than recording them when they air over here.

 

Yer it does take the p*ss a bit, its not like they have to dub them or cut out bits that arent suitable for our culture.

 

Good point, but we are no longer watching the advertisements that are on during the programs. Most of the programs they listed in that artticle are from C4 who dont get money from the TVLA, they rely on advertisement, if you download the show months in advance, the chances are that your not gonna watch it when its on C4.]

Although, as has been said, what do they expect when we get shows months after the US? The simple way to combat this would be to give the UK the shows at the same time that America gets to see them

 

If they (for some obserd reason) *need* to delay the programs, Id be happy if it was by two weeks or so..

 

Exactly, why should we have to wait?

Also as you say there's an issue of time shifting and not wanting to be at the mercy of the channel schedulers.

 

First off I want to say that I download TV shows via BitTorrent. Why? Because I dont know what I'd do without my fix of 24 and Lost.
I also pay for a TV license and a full Sky subscription (working out in total to be around £450/year).

However I can see both sides of the argument. Apart from the BBC, all our television shows are subsidised by adverts. Apparently without them we would either need to a. Pay more or b. Put up with lesser quality programing (I wonder if that is even possible at times ).

The funny thing is, when I've lately sat down to watch Sky (which admittedly isn't as much as I use to), I swear the adverts are a lot more obtrusive than they use to be. Especially with premium channels such as E4 and SkyOne. This might just be because I've been spoilt by other *ahem* shady methods, but they defiantly seem to be longer and more frequent.

Anyway, it will be very interesting to see how the industry retaliates. They could go down the Music/CD street (pretend there is no problem and raise the price of albums to something ridiculous, then wonder why they aren't selling) or do something totally shocking and improve their world-wide scheduling so we wont need to download.

(PS: God bless LOL )

 

Lets see what will come of this, will they:

a). Broadcast them at (or very near) the same time as the US.
b). Offer a good quality net service where we can stream the shows for a small amount.
c). Go around blaming all loss of sales / income etc. to the illegal downloads, start shutting down all related websites/p2p sites, and start suing people.

I vote c).

EDIT: beaten by NuTech

 

c) cause it's the cheapist approach to simplify and demonise something else.

If i could get HD TV streamed on the net id pay for it, even with adverts as long as i could save it (ok, i like to archive things - it's a habit). If it was worth watching again and the DVDs had nice extra's id pay for the DVDs too: i do with CSI.

But that costs them money to setup and they want to screw people for the max amount of money possible = keep shareholders happy.

 

That happened to some extent with R2 dvds though when everybody started buying R1s.

They'll never officially let you 'save' TV for the long term, only to time shift.

I wouldn't be supprised if they try and introduce some sort of timed auto destruct for recordings.

 

Indeed. In exactly the same way that simultaneous worldwide cinema releases would reduce the amount of online film piracy, simultaneous TV screening would have exactly the same effect.

Mind you, the situation is rather more complex than the picture painted by the BBC report.

A case in point is the "new" Battlestar Galactica, which actually screened first in the UK, some three months prior to its US premiere.

Of course, Stateside viewers soon started grabbing episodes uploaded from the UK, but rather than detract from US viewing figures when the series did start to air there, the "download culture" has probably had the opposite effect.

The advance buzz and anticipation created by the downloaders, and (very positive) sneak reviews based on the downloads, resulted in the series premiere of BSG on the US Sci Fi channel beating out established series like Stargate, while the series has since actually increased its net viewer base there since.

Bearing in mind that, prior to all this, most Americans would have thought of Battlestar as that campy 70's Star Wars ripoff, you could contend that the UK advance screening and its results proved to be an extremely effective stealth marketing campaign. So much for "illegal downloads"!

 

I agree, I live in the states, and someone gave me a dvd-r with all the battlestar galactica episodes. I was quickly hooked!

What I want to ask is, several of you have mentioned a "tv license" in addition to a sky subscription cost. I know sky is a satellite provider, but what is a tv license? Do you mean an additional charge to receive what would be considered "broadcast" tv?

Kinda wondering.

 

hmm 70% of people using a less suitable method of downloading.

don't these plebs know the pleasure of usenet?!?
this is what its best at mass distrabution were great retention isn't desired!

 

What are all you talking about wiht the delay in the UK? Maybe on some things, but your seasons for Atlantis, SG-1 and BSG are all finished and we're only about 1/2 way through..

 

The US has the big gap between like episodes 18 and 24 of most series for the superbowl or something I think. With new series we tend to get the last 4-6 episodes before the US because we carry on as normal. Terrestrial TV is normally at least 2 seasons behind Sky or cable telly as the licenses to show it are far cheaper then. Many, many shows aren't shown at the same time though, and it's been that way for years. The UK misses out on just about everything; take the new Beatle car. When it was finally released in the UK (some 2 years after the US got it) it just wasn't cool and sales plummeted. i download 5 shows from the net because I can't afford Sky and don't wanna wait a couple of years to watch it (IF it gets aired).

I think the BSG was probably to use us as a test audience to gauge reaction and cut the show as required.

 

MovieFreak,

The TV license pays for the BBC as it dosent use adverts to make its money, so you need a TV license if you own a TV because any TV is capable of recieving the BBC services even if you dont watch their channels.

Mark.

 

the new beetle car was never cool. nether was the old one.

 

Right, there is a little mid-season break for about 5 or 6 weeks, but for Stargate (and I assume BSG), we have 2 half seasons. The 1st part is June - September and then the rest of the season is from January - March. I didn't realize that you were SEASONS behind in some things - but then you get releases of other things a lot sooner than we do. For instance, mobile phones and other electronics. They usually get released to the UK market before the US.