United Kingdom Leads the World in TV Downloads 1077
SumDog writes "The UK is known for many things, great food, a wonderful climate and beautiful women. However, according to a story on the Guardian, a new study puts the UK ahead in one more category: it leads the world in TV piracy, accounting for 38.4% of the world's TV downloads, with Australia coming in second at 15.6% and the US in third at a pitiful 7.3%"
Wrong number (Score:5, Informative)
Re:What shows? (Score:5, Informative)
more numbers... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:We do pay for it (Score:2, Informative)
Well, except that The Prisoner was made by ITC, an independant commercial company, and was broadcast by the predecessor of the very commercial ITV. You know, except for that minor point
Sarcasm? (Score:3, Informative)
Well, there's chicken tikka masala, no hurricanes or tornadoes, and Keira Knightley. So maybe the /. eds aren't being sarcastic after all.
BBC & DVDs...you are slightly mistaken... (Score:5, Informative)
You're a bit off the mark there - The Prisoner was not a BBC show. It was an ITC show, produced for Channel 3 (or whatever it was called then). It was nothing, repeat nothing, to do with the licence fee. If you actually bothered to look at the DVD box, you'd have noticed it was published by Carlton, not the BBC. So do you still think it's legal?
Increasingly, the BBC isn't publishing the DVDs - another company is. Take the Spooks (or MI-6, as it's called in the US) DVDs - they're published not by the BBC, but by the production company (Kudos), who get all the money.
And to be honest, I think some of the BBC dvds are very well priced - take the Red Dwarf DVDs, which retail for about £11 on Amazon for an entire season. I debate you pay "over the odds" for BBC DVDs - I think you pay the same as DVDs produced by any other company or studio.
You do raise some valid points though:
"So I say, I paid for it already, give it to me."
If you read the news, you'd see that's what the BBC want to do. It's even been posted on Slashdot before, for God's sake. The BBC actually WANTS you to be able to download TV shows and radio shows they produce for free. They're investing in P2P technology to try and make it possible. The thing stopping them is actually the issue of repeat fees for writers / producers etc.
"BBC make enough money to either a) scrap tv license or b) give us cheaper DVD's."
The TV license doesn't just pay for TV though...it pays for commercial free radio, one of the most popular internet sites in the world, educational programs and resources, transmission infrastructure, high tech R&D, etc. The DVDs the BBC produce are typically cheaper than other DVDs anyway, or at least around the same price.
"Most people spend more on BBC DVD's than they do on licenses nowwadays (only takes one or two Christmas prezzies of the office to do that)."
Erm. Let me see. Seasons 1 and 2 of The Office cost £15 on Amazon. £15. For 2 seasons. The licence fee is around £115. 15 x 2 doesn't = 115.
Perhaps you'd be interested in what the BBC actually spends the money on - they are accountable for it after all. See the website below:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/licencefee/
So what's your problem?
As a Brtitsh ex pat... (Score:5, Informative)
I'd be more than happy to pay the BBC licence fee, and watch UK-TV legally here in Sweden, but it's not possible. I can't get it through my cable provider, or over the net.
Channel 4 [channel4.com] have a broadband service you can subscribe to, unfortunatly it's not available outside the UK.
The only way to get access to most Brittish TV is via BitTorrent, and the networks can't be loosing too much revenue as they are not provising a service to compete with the illegal downloads. I hope they get their act together soon, I'd much prefer to pay and see the stuff when it's aired.
As for UK leading the world for downloads, what do you expect US TV is crap! We produced this [imdb.com] and this [imdb.com], you guys produced this [imdb.com] and this [imdb.com].
I WANT MY, I WANT MY, I WANT MY BBC
Re:License Fee (Score:3, Informative)
Porn on slashdot - on topic even! (Score:2, Informative)
I call shenanigans on the ugly british chick thing.
www.page3.com [page3.com]
Re:The TV industry failing to adapt (Score:5, Informative)
Did video recorders somehow pass you by?
Re:Britain TV is a bit different. (Score:5, Informative)
The rest of the broadcasters in this country are paid for by commercials, spread through the programs at ~15 minute intervals. They are far less intrusive than US ads and we never do things like run the credits, go to a break, come back to the show, break five minutes later, bit more show, ads, then roll the end credits
Re:UK TV Licenses (Score:3, Informative)
Re:We do pay for it (Score:2, Informative)
I'm sorry, predecessor? I don't think you have any idea how ITV WORKS.
Basically, different regions of the country have different companies running them. The Midlands had ATV, the South West had Westward, London had Thames etc etc etc. ITC was owned by ATV, who sent it to all the other companies for all of the regions, who broadcast it. This is called "networking a programme".
ITV doesn't even have a predecessor, before ITV there was the BBC and nothing else. It's been going since 1955, all that's happened recently is some jumped up little wankers decided to buy all the companies and change their name to ITV plc. Heil Thatcher.
Re:We do pay for it (Score:4, Informative)
That's one of the reasons why the BBC rocks. Personally I think it's worth the price of the licence fee for just the BBC news.
What about Page 3 Girls? (Score:1, Informative)
For those of you not in the know, go to http://www.page3.com. You will be pleasantly surprised at some of the wildlife the limeys have produced.
Re:American TV (Score:2, Informative)
As an American living in Sydney, I just don't understand the download thing, because we get plenty of sh*t American TV free-to-air, and even more on the 20 bazillion channels on Foxtel Digital Cable (the most advanced digital TV network in the world, BTW, used to deliver mostly sh*t American TV downunder!)
Re:Makes a bit of sense. (Score:3, Informative)
Greetings,
Re:Climate has improved now people drive 4x4s (Score:3, Informative)
Unfortunatly, the consensus seems to be that global warming will likely result in the UK reverting to the climate you'd expect at this latitude. Think Moscow, Labrador, the Alaskan pan-handle, then warm them just a little from now.
Re:Makes a bit of sense. (Score:2, Informative)
Well, since US television tends not to make it to Britain for a long time after it airs here
Except for Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis. Sky One in the UK is actually a couple of episodes ahead of Sci-Fi in the US.
RegardselFarto
Re:Malfunction, Will Robinson! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Malfunction, Will Robinson! (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a Briton who now lives in Canada. I miss the climate. Vancouver sounds pretty appealing on this frosty morning in Toronto. It was below -20 here before Christmas. I was in the UK over Christmas and out running in T-shirt and sun glasses - no worries about frost bite there. The second year in a row for me. Yeah, it did get below 5C some days, but after what we put up with here that's nothing. No gloves, no hat, just pull on your coat. No shoes melting in to huge filthy puddles by the front door. No shovelling the driveway. In the summer when it's revoltingly hot and humid here, England will be a pleasant 20-25C. The thing is with that place is that the weather is so variable: sun, cloud, wind, rain, everyday! Of course, we're not going see any life here until May, when we get our short month of spring. The UK will start seeing signs of spring very soon (well, at least in the SE where I grew up).
Re:UK TV Licenses (Score:2, Informative)
In the past they used detection vehicles, which tune in to a specific frequency that is automaticly output by all TVs, by a device that is called the local oscillator. It's then a simple matter to cross-refference "Houses With a TV", with "Houses Paying TV Liscence Tax". The ones that arenn't paying tax get a visit...
That was in the past. Nowadays it's simpler, quicker, and cheaper to check all a list of all homes in the UK against homes with a TV liscence. If you don't have a licence, you're suspected of dodging the licence fee. This isn't actually too harsh, as every single person I know has a TV. (Do you know anyone who doesn't?)
You don't have to pay the fee, though, especially if you dont have a TV. If you do have a TV set but use it for games, or for DVDs, you don't need a licence either.
http://www.tvlicensing.biz [tvlicensing.biz] is a very good resource for more infomation. If you do find yourself in a situation where you have to deal with the TVLA, contact the Citizen's Advice Bureau, as they will provide much better advice than slashdot, or the Net.
Wanna know what I think? 50p a day for one of the world's best public TV services really isn't bad. Add that to the other BBC projects such as their massive website and their radio services, and their intitiative to digitise their archives and make them available for viewing... it's one of the few things that makes me proud to be British...
BBC to offer TV-on-demand over the internet (Score:3, Informative)
They are working to introduce a service where the last 7 days of shows are available for download in a similar fasion to their online radio player.
Additionally they are hoping to introduce a service where archive content is also available for download, featuring old shows that no longer have the same broadcast restrictions as recent content.
TV on demand is already available through networks such as HomeChoice [homechoice.co.uk] which offer both recent archive (spaced, black books etc..) content and some of the shows broadcast in the last 7 days (from EastEnders to 'The Sky At Night'), all provided over a ADSL/LLU network.
To me, all this suggest that the BBC is looking to embrace the new delivery technologies now available. I wouldn't be surpried if they found articles like this Guardian piece to be encouraging, in indiating the public's desire to adopt more flexible viewing choices.
Re:Aaaaah, stereotypes (Score:2, Informative)
Hold it right there Dr. Smith... (Score:3, Informative)
Your first example is of Catherine Zeta-Jones, she's Welsh not British.
The second is Thandie Newton, while her father was British, she's Zambian and her mother was the princess of Zimbabwe.
The third I'm not familiar with.
Elizabeth Taylor, while BORN in England, is painfully American. Both parents were from St Louis and she only resided in the UK for seven years.
Your only true correct example is Elizabeth Hurley.
I think you're leaving out the fabulous Bond girls that were English. I'm not sure of all their names, but you could've researched your torts much better.
Peace
Re:Hold it right there Dr. Smith... (Score:3, Informative)
Wales is part of the United Kingom [cia.gov]. If you were born in the UK before 1983, you are British [yourrights.org.uk]. (There are some extra requirements if you were born after 1983.)
Re:Malfunction, Will Robinson! (Score:2, Informative)