TV Piracy is Next 774
Blackfire writes "Why is a TV executive so agitated about online pirates? Because he, like most media
honchos, has seen the scary numbers indicating that the next big craze in illegal file-sharing is
not music, not movies, but television." Frankly I'm amazed that movies caught on before TV since there's so much more TV, and they tend to be smaller files than movies.
TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
That is the boat, you have missed it.
Seriously, this has been going on for years.
I remember downloading auful real encoded southpark season 1 and 2 episodes on dial up. ICK, that was painfull.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Informative)
22min x 13 = 286 minutes = 4.8 hours.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Amazon [amazon.com] retails them for just over $100
Perhaps Friends [amazon.com] is cheaper as you say, but that's not true for all TV series.
When someone tries to charge something like $700 for some plastic material with IP produced in 87-94.. i think that's close to robbery. (Not that i can use that as an argument to steal it, but nevertheless, i understand those who do).
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
FYI, it is still *LEGAL* to record a TV show for your personal use. If I want all 7 seasons of TNG on DVD, all I need is a video capture card, SpikeTV's broadcast schedule, a simple shell script, and a small investment of time to edit out the commercials and burn the disks. If Paramount wants me to PAY for something I can *LEGALLY* get for next to nothing, they have to make it worth my while. Better image quality is a start, but it isn't worth an order of magnitude price difference.
$100 for the WHOLE SERIES RUN is a more realistic assessment of the real value -- at that price it's almost worth it to me to get the nice box set rather than collecting the episodes over the course of a couple months.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't remember if Spike does that but Sci-Fi channel cut out many parts of the original Star Trek to make room for commercials.
Spike clearly advertises that their Trek is "uncut".
Anyway, though, your point allows me to perfectly illustrate my point, which is that it seems to me there's a perfectly acceptable solution to TV "piracy" staring TV execs right in the face and they simply fail to acknowledge it.
Make all TV shows available for download, for free.
TV execs will look at this and say "bah! It's our IP! You don't just give IP away!" Well, yes you do. I don't pay anything for over-the-air broadcasts (even in high def!), and while I do pay a cable bill, that bill's going to the cable company for maintenance of the infrastructure - it's not going to the broadcast TV networks (or even to most of the cable networks, who are ad supported). Most TV stations give their content away gratis every day of the week.
I don't see why a TV station couldn't put whatever bugs they want in the corner and include commercials with their downloads (people will find a way to skip them however hard they make it to fast forward, but then what else is new? People have been doing that for years with VCR's, nevermind TiVo). The perceived value to advertisers shouldn't be any different, because I mean look. Either downloading is a small issue and therefore it shouldn't matter either to advertisers or the networks, or it's rampant and growing, in which case those advertisers would at least want the chance to reach all those eyes, rather than just sitting on the sidelines while ad-stripped copies of shows float around on bittorrent sites.
Now, there would be issues to work out with affiliates, syndicators, etc. who sell their own advertising, often locally. But so what? Issues can be worked out for the good of the industry; it's actually a rather minor change in how TV business is done in the grand scheme of things. You work out some sort of revenue-sharing deal and voila: done. And of course, TV still needs to be broadcast live before it can be downloaded, so the affiliates still get their local advertising in anyway.
One quick example - I remember when the Jon Stewart Crossfire interview aired, and afterwards there was a big story about how more people had shared and downloaded a digitized version of it than had actually watched the show in the first place. This is an extreme case right now (though it will happen more and more over time), and CNN was completely pissed about it, but I saw more than one journalist suggest that instead of whining about it, CNN could have driven people to their web site and could have promoted the show a lot better by simply making it available for free download themselves. I don't see how you can really argue with that - the downloads happened anyway, wouldn't it be better for the network to get some traffic and marketing out of it themselves rather than just ceding that market to the file sharers?
If TV shows were available for free download from network web sites, very few people are going to take the illegal route in stripping out the non-program material and then sharing them on file sharing sites. Sure, some people will, but those are the same people who'd rip or download the DVD's and share them too; they're pretty hardcore pirates, and they're not going to pay for your stuff regardless. It seems to me the idea is to keep the 99% of viewers who aren't pirates from becoming pirates, not to convert the 1% who are pirates into paying customers (a futile goal).
Of course, DVD's would still be made available at some future date, sans commercials and
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:4, Insightful)
Or price the DVD's low enough that people are willing to pay the money for the added convenience(Yes, I know it varies), legality (yes, it's worth money!), quality, and features. Also, release them quickly enough that the pirates aren't providing a product that's otherwise unavailable. Heck, that's happing in the movie industry right now.
You look at Farscape. They actually made so much money from the DVD sales that they made a Direct to DVD season! How messed up is that? Not really, ultimatly speaking. I'm not willing to pay $40 a month for cable/dish when the only channels I'd really watch would be the cartoon &SciFi channels. $40x12=$480 a year, which can cover about 4 season DVDs. Doing without a Tivo/VCR gets me another. Which I can watch at any time (I work long&unusual hours), as often as I like, rewinding and whatnot.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Insightful)
And it would be easy to make a 'custom build' for the user. Require users to create a profile. On the server each act is seperate, based on the users profile they select the commerials (which of course are preren
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Insightful)
Anyway, HD-DVD's are coming soon. Present DVD's are downrezzed from about 525 lines to 480. Why buy fuzzy recordings for high prices when soon they will have full-rez versions available?
And you can download most popular programs NOW using Bittorrent -- in HD format, wide aspect ratio. And make copies. Which HD-DVD's wll not let you do.
They simply w
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Funny)
But if you were watching friends it would probably feel like much longer...
AC
"Next" ??? No kidding ! (Score:3, Informative)
http://www.suprnova.org/ [suprnova.org]
Scroll down to "TV Shows" .. And this is just for today ..
Re:"Next" ??? No kidding ! (Score:3, Funny)
I'm convinced that the RIAA and MPAA has Slashdot accounts, and just lie in wait... "Oh, look, a cool new technology that vaguely threatens our self-centered view of the world...EXTERMINATE!!!!"
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Me, I'm going the other way because it just occurred to me I'm paying £XX/month for:
Just recently I've found myself watching program A, then the adverts start. Rather than watch them I channel-flick and start watching program B. Then forget I was even watching program A until more adverts come on.
Damn.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:4, Insightful)
This attitude re:copying TV is akin to that of the fat ugly broad who bitches you out and calls you a pervert because you happened to glance at her in her string bikini.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Interesting)
Lately, I've found that many stations have begun syncing their commercials with each other so that you can't do that anymore. When there's a commercial on...YOU MUST WATCH IT...
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Insightful)
"There aren't enough good writers to make enough good shows to fill one station with good programming for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, much less 250 of them." --Me
Sometimes I think that they run the commercials to distract you from the horrible programs you are mesmerized into watching.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:5, Insightful)
Lately, I have really been upping my anime fetish, and the shows I like aren't even available in the US in most cases, let alone the UK, so I download fansubs and buy the DVD's when/if they get released.
But why buy the DVD's when I downloaded it already for free? Because I still believe content creators should be paid.
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Interesting)
Hell, invent a system that allows you to download and share TV WITHOUT the ads legally where the actual creators of the show get a bigger cut instead of the middleman (the ones making the boxes), and I'd jump on it.
I bought (starting jan 2004), 12 boxes of series, somewhere between 30 and 40 movies, and then I'm not even counting the cheap ones (the ones you pick up in some store betwee
Re:TV piracy is next? (Score:3, Interesting)
When the BBC finally caught up, they cut the last few episodes to ribbons, meaning that we didn't see Willow cuttin
Maybe this is why (Score:3, Informative)
It is a bit annoying because I have been using this exact method for quite some time, but now that everyone else has a step by step guide to it, they are having a 'slashdot effect' on my favourite rss feeds, and it is drawing attention to the tv episode download scene, which can only mean lawsuits are just around the corner.
For me I feel I am justified in
Other reasons... (Score:3, Insightful)
I live about 15 minutes from a friend of mine who gets the Space channel (canadian version of Sci-fi) for free with his basic cable service. Me? I can't get it at all, not even if I wanted to pay for it. Why? Because my neighbourhood is considered a french neighbourhood by the cable company, and thus we don't want any sci-fi in English. Let's forget the fact that most of the people I cross on my stre
You've described the Anime business model... (Score:3, Interesting)
Heck, Anime companies have made statements that amount to "Sue the pirates? Heck, no, they're our best customers!"
Most of them don't even pay macrovision to turn that bit on for the "copy protection" because "We don't believe in paying money for something that doesn't help the business." It doesn't stop piracy, it doesn't increase sales (actually decreases them!), and it annoys t
I love TV (Score:4, Insightful)
If I have to pay 49$'s a month for cable why do I have to have commercials.
Re:I love TV (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I love TV (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm gonna be an asshole here and ask the obvious question - sure it may be commercial free, but is there anything worth watching?
American TV is a wasteland - but there is so much money floating around that occasionally shows get made that I like (course those do seem to get cancelled awfully quick too). And someone must like those stupid reality shows and boyband infomercials.
Re:I love TV (Score:3, Insightful)
For exactly the same reason that you have to pay $49 for a cable internet connection but websites still have ads on them.
KFG
Re:I love TV (Score:5, Interesting)
The advert revenue on cable allows the cable company to reduces the cost to the subscriber*, effectively the cable subscriber is paying for their subscription in two ways: money and viewing time.
With cable internet it's a different kettle of fish: the subsciber's $49 goes to the cable company, but the revenue from the advertisement doesn't go anywhere near the cable company, it is used by the site maintainer to pay for bandwidth costs. In this case the cable internet subscriber is paying their subscription and the costs of a third party.
The two cases aren't really equivalent: the former is a simple trade of one cost for another, the latter is two costs - one from the cable company and one from the website owner.
* as long as you assume that the cost of the subscription really is > $49. Which it probably isn't, but such is the way of business.
Re:I love TV (Score:3, Funny)
TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:5, Interesting)
The TV companies would be in control of their content again and would be free to include advertising. This is a whole new distribution medium for them with virtually no operating costs (due to the highly distributed nature of BitTorrent). Any revenue generated by advertising in this channel would be total profit!
I would be happy to download "official" torrents that included ads rather than take my chances with dodgy video and lipsync etc.
Unfortunately, the TV companies will probably try to wrap it up in some evil DRM to prevent other people cutting the ads out and seeding the high-quality ad-free versions.
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:5, Insightful)
I know this is perhaps a controversial view on
There is nothing wrong with a company wishing to protect its investment, and to be paid for its product.
The point at which it becomes evil is when it is used a vehicle for out-dated commercial models.
I believe most people would rather have a legitimate copy of something rather than a pirate, and would even pay money for that legitimacy. The problem facing owners of digital media, is HOW MUCH money are they prepared to pay. If the cost is too great, $15 for a CD, people will quite happily justify piracy to themselves.
I also think many IP owners fall into the mistake of thinking that better DRM will enable them to keep their prices higher. But as we all know once someone finds out how to crack their security, the high prices serves to fuel the market for pirates.
As an aside, having watched american adverts and english adverts, i notice a huge difference in approach. Correct me if i'm wrong, but in the US an advert treats you like a moron who will buy anything cause a guy with white perfect teeth say's it will change your life.
In the UK, our advertisers pander to our sense of intellectual superiority. Here the message tends to be, obviously we as advertisers know YOU are far too clever to fall for our marketing, but here is a clever and amusing advert, which you can pretend not to be influenced by. For an example of this sort of english ad check out some of tango's ads [tango.tv].. compare them to coke or pepsi for example who would have you believe a coke/pepsi can save the world... Tango on the other hand asks you to "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!"
In my experience lots of british people like watching adverts, (tango's website lets you e-mail the ads to people). The challenge faced by TV producers now is not to try and stop this new technology, but work out how to make it work for them. Making adverts that people don't mind watching is where i think their future lies.
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:3, Insightful)
I think you may have an antiquated notion of "legitimate." If a tv program is shown over the air it is not "piracy" to record that show or even to rebroadcast it. The show has been run on
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, because, gosh, we don't have any ads like that on UK TV, do we?
Give me a break. For every witty tango or yellow pages ad, there are 10s of crap ones that are just like the ones you describe. Just because some car manufacturer spen
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh we also get the this product is amazing and will change your life ads too, but there is a large group of very post modern ads.
I'm not sure if it's just a cultural thing, for example Pot noodle [potnoodle.com] (probably work safe, but you may need to reasure people it's not a porn site), a noodle snack food, who's new marketing campaign is based on the premise "it's filthy but you love it". The website is a parody of a porn site, the ads on TV follow the theme that this snack food is dirtier than most sexual vices.
I think pot noodles core market is students and truckers, who know full well it's rubbish food, but is quick and easy for lunch, or when you come back from the pub... I don't think you could run the same ads in the US, and i think it's a bit deeper than just cultural translation, i think it's an acceptance that an ad is by its very nature dishonest, lying sales speak, but even knowing that, there's no reason why you can't use that public knowledge to your advantage.
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:3, Insightful)
pot noodle are putting disclaimers on their websites now though. This one from natural noodling [naturalnoodling.com] nearl
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:3, Insightful)
Put adds in, but make it trivial to download the contents legally. Build this and they *will* come.
Hey, not going to buy cable (Score:4, Insightful)
My antenna doesn't reach any local channels, yes, I'm in the boonies...yet I have 3mbit DSL. So, I watch one program a week, and I download the show "Lost". That's it.
Sorry, but I'm not paying Comcast 50 bucks a month just to watch one show.
Hey ABC, want to put commercials in? And still get paid? Offer torrents of your programs on your website of all your shows WITH the commercials still in them...and I'll download from there. I have no problems with commericals.
They are missing out on a HUGE opportunity here.
Re:TV episodes from BitTorrent (Score:4, Interesting)
Channel 9, what do you seriously expect me to do?
Uh, no. (Score:5, Interesting)
The major concern executives are having, is trying to ensure video tape operations do not put in commercials into the wrong aspect ratio, The shows airing on TV do not mean crap to the executive, it's the commercials paying his wage.
I was trained to make sure, in the worst case situation. That the commercials go to air, even if that meant the TV show itself was just one nice black screen.
Re:Uh, no. (Score:3, Insightful)
Aslong as someone is watching a show, and their will always be. Then advertisements companies will pay up
Ok (Score:2, Insightful)
And yes, people have been and will STILL PAY and PAY WELL for DVDs of shows they can get for free. Been to Best Buy lately? They've got about 40 yards, five shelves high of television shows on DVD that have been available for FREE broadcast almost continuously. Can't keep them in stock, even the shitty shows.
Non-issue.
Re:Ok (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think it's a big issue yet, but it might be someday soon. I'm personally frustrated as hell with how long it takes to get shows to DVD -- I can understand why others tire of waiting years for a single goddamn season, then putting out $60-80 for it.
Television networks can avoid the same mistakes the RIAA has made by adapting to technology and setting up a legal alternative to piracy before television piracy begins in earnest. If they start churning out DVDs now instead of infuriating the consumer with slow marketing to squeeze every drop of money possible out of each season, and dare I think it lowering the insanely high prices on these DVDs, I can see television shows becoming far more profitable than they are today. Imagine, if they sell the latest episode online or mail-order DVD for, what, $5 after airing it? (Probably less, but then the average twelve-episode season wouldn't cost $60.) I can see them making some serious money.
But that would require that the status quo change, so, yeah, hold your breath.
iShows (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:iShows (Score:5, Funny)
Mods: It's a joke
been doing this for ages (Score:5, Insightful)
I watch enterprise, SG1, atlantis, alias, etc. before they're shown on tv over here. eventually when the dvd's become available i end up buying quite a few of them as well. i don't think the studios are loosing anything major whilst this is happening. in fact they're building a bigger fan base than they would have anyway. it's the tb stations that loose out on the advertising revenue
Re:been doing this for ages (Score:4, Informative)
However, I do have to agree that there are many shows that, if you want to stay current, you have to download. I am always watching the UK/EU download sites and grabbing the first few episodes of their TV series. There have been several shows that I got that way that I would never have found otherwise.
As for the creators getting paid? Amazon.co.uk has seen me buy several box sets. It looks to me that my "piracy" has generated them more revenue than they would have had otherwise.
I think that while loss of revenue from commercials may hurt things in the short run, sales of box sets will more than make up for it in the long run. In the meantime, the losses are small (while a large % of movie-goers are the correct demographics for downloading, on TV the % is much smaller) and will not have a large impact on ad revenue. This will worsen over time as more people figure out the technology (and that Tivo can skip the commercials), but this is a good thing: It will force the industry to quit being so stagnant and actually figure out their new business model, but affect them slowly enough to give them time to do it.
Re:been doing this for ages (Score:4, Interesting)
SKY is running the new Battlestar Galactica seried already - which won't start airing in the US until January 15th.
Meanwhile, I'm *cough*told*cough* you can get up to episode 6 online.
Movies before TV (Score:5, Interesting)
Also 90% of TV is very low quality crap, so why would anyone waste their bandwidth downloading it. Films caught on before TV because they are much more 'worthy' of the bandwidth. Most of TV, with the exclusion of the occasional good documentary or high quality series (think 24, Friends, Simpsons, etc) is 'throw away' stuff that you watch mindlessly and forget about, and none of that stuff is something you'd ever download voluntarily (or randomly).
Old Idea (Score:4, Insightful)
All that aside, what do they really have to lose from people recording TV shows and showing them to other people? It's not like all TV is pay-per-view or anything like that. Yeah, so people who don't have cable or satellite might see some TV without paying for a subscription. These people wouldn't be paying for a subscription anyway, so no one is really at a loss. If anything, I think it might cause people to be more likely to switch to cable or satellite.
they didn't (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh nose! (Score:2)
WtF? (Score:5, Interesting)
What the hell? How is trading copies of broadcast television shows illegal? Since when is it piracy to copy and share copies of tv shows THAT ARE ON TV? I pay my dues in cable bills, so how the hell is it illegal? Recording shows to VHS has been done plenty of times - and you'd think they'd want you to watch the shows again and again....I don't see the logic or the losses involved here. Either way you end up seeing the show (commercial free or not)...
TFA states that people will have "no need to spring for satellite feeds or specialty channels" Hell, some specialty channels are a waste anyway...I mean, who needs 6 ESPNs, or 5 Discovery channels, or 10 friggin HBOs? I think some people would still hang on to their channels anyway...Its still a hell of a lot easier (for most) to watch tv at 6 than download and play clips offline. They make it sound like everyone's going to drop their cable services and rely on the downloading and recording of one lone pirate with an eye patch and a rouge TiVO....
TFA also states a line about "In his forum speech, Chernin said: "Consumers need to understand that stealing is wrong, and there are consequences." "
When the fuck did free use become a dirty word? Stealing? Bah!
What a good way to start Thanksgiving leftovers...
-thewldisntenuff
Hey (Score:5, Funny)
Have you watched the shit you're shoveling lately? It is awful. Face-down in bubbling warm shit awful. It's enough to make a brave man weep into a PA system.
And then the commercials. Oh great humpity fuck, some of the commercials on television are enough to make someone want to projectile vomit their shoes for a 90-yard touchdown. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't broadcast at intervals more frequent than a dry-heaving hummingbird. And yes, most of the people watching have already re-financed their house eight times this week.
Try working on the quality, there, Captain Meetings. Maybe then people will actually watch your channel.
Advertising (Score:4, Insightful)
There are several TV shows that I first saw online (either from File sharing nets, torrents, or Winamp TV stations), and then started to watch on TV, mainly because I missed the first season or so and got to catch myself up.
If I hadn't seen them that way, I never would have gotten hooked in the first place, and whether I downloaded them or not, I wouldn't have seen the original ads.
I also certainly wouldn't buy a DVD set for a TV show that I've never seen before, but I've bought a couple for shows that I originally downloaded. I've got all of NewRadio on my computer, and I can't wait until they finally get around to releasing the set.
With a movie, you download it, watch it, and maybe if you REALLY like it, you go and buy it anyway. With TV, it's totally different. You get hooked, and come back for more (usually on the TV). You can easily make CDs for friends and get them hooked too (I got a whole bunch of people to start watching Arrested Development that way).
It's free advertising. They are morons if they don't see that.
TV Piracy is a godsend... (Score:5, Interesting)
There are reasons why people do that (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm living in Germany and I don`t have any opportunity to watch the series in the original language. You probably won't understand how horrible it is to watch a translated comedy-show compared to the original one. Wordplays: gone. The quality of the series itself is simply not the same.
Another thing is that we have to wait for a long time until the new series from the U.S. are translated and running on TV here. (for example: The last season of "Sex and the City" is still running here. Or "Scrubs": Season 4 runing in the US - still waiting for Season 3 to start in Germany.)
I'm sorry for being unable to support my favourite series in the US by watching the channels they are running on, but i simply don't have an other chance to do that.
Re:There are reasons why people do that (Score:3, Interesting)
Admiral: "What do we want most?" Homer: "Peas!" Admiral: "Exactly. Peace! And how do we get peace?" Homer: (trying to reach the peas with a knife) "With a knife!"
It just doesn't work in German, especially since they translated it literally.
Care for another one? (Movie, this time):
"He jammed the radar!" ... Do anything, but don't translate it as "Er hat das Radar mit Marmelade verschmiert" (he dirtened the radar with jam).
Ok, th
The next craze! (Score:5, Funny)
Sheet Music piracy.
After all, everything else is being shared already.
Introducing Cleffster a P2P utility written in C# especially for the sharing of scanned sheet music.
(And if that network really exists I'll eat my tinfoil hat.)
Re:The next craze! (Score:3, Interesting)
authorized downloads with ads inserted? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ads could be inserted with an overlapping, rolling, three-week schedule, for example - at any time there'd be - say - three different torrents of the same show, differing only in ad contents. The ad contents would get updated on a weekly bases then, thus serving fresh ads all the time, while not breaking away too far from the well-working torrent distribution model. It's been said many times before: all other industries would be overjoyed by getting free distribution of their product - how long until the TV industry figures out how to do ads online and start providing free highquality downloads?
By the way, you can watch a recording (in various formats) of Larry Lessig's interesting and entertaining talk on Free Culture in Helsinki in May 2004 here [arki.uiah.fi].
All those Startrek, Stargate and Galactica Geeks (Score:4, Informative)
Major TV series are usually broadcast in the US well ahead of their UK and european dates. When "Enterprise" first aired in the states, months ahead of its arrival in the UK, there was considerable traffic in DivX copies of the episodes. The same thing didn't happen with the latest series of Stargate because of the lack of reasonably small copies.
The "protection" that DVD producers have to stop the US discs playing outside the US didn't stop online sharing. Now the same thing is happening with regionally transmitted TV.
The TV producers are also worried because so much content goes on on subscription channels, so free access costs them profits.
It interesting that the BBC, who provide programs free here in the UK are worried by transatlantic access . They are about to provide free access to their program archives but have two problems..
1) The UK taxpayer pays for the programs to be made and expects that non-UK viewers should pay for access.
2) the BBC is very good about paying appearance money to actors appearing in old programs reshown on TV. They want to find a way of compensating actors for online distribution.
TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:5, Insightful)
A: "Have you seen [movie title] yet? It's really cool"
B: "Cool. I'll go to the cinema next week and see it"
A: "Have you seen [TV series] yet? It's really cool"
B: "No. Come ask again in a few years, when it'll be on TV here. That is, if it is popular enough to be internationally sold at all. And if it is priced so reasonably that some TV channel picks it up."
A: "Wanna download it from me?"
The movie industry has understood this. The TV industry has not. Gun, meet foot.
Kjella
Re:TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:3, Insightful)
You misunderstood the term. Globalisation is for corporations to maximise their profit.
Globalisation is not for you (vide the intention of dvd region coding), and your attempts to use globalisation for your convenience or profit will meet strong oposition and prosecution with new laws written especially for that purpose.
Robert
Re:TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:5, Insightful)
Globalisation is aided and abetted by consumers and workers (who *gasp* are the same people). You buy a French wine in the US... you're supporting globalisation. Heck, you read a US web-site like Slashdot in the UK... that's globalisation.
Globalisation is an inevitable consequence of a levelling of the playing field (Indian programmers can now compete with US ones; good for them) due to falling costs of transporting goods and information. You can erect barriers if you like (Bhutan has), or tear down the technologies causing globalisation - but don't forget that when you buy a Sony TV, or a Dell PC, or a piece of Fench brie, or a Gabriel Garcia Marquez book.
Yep, you're supporting and encouraging globalisation.
Corporations have a duty to their shareholders to make money. This is nothing new.
Re:TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:3, Insightful)
Globalization wouldn't be so bad if there was a level playing field, as there is between Japan, Europe and the US. But it is wrong to support regimes and companies who stomp all over human rights and environmental policies to lower costs a few cents so their shareholder
Re:TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:3, Interesting)
Spare me the cultural-imperialistic, greedy bastard nonsense please.
- When I can buy a DVD at the same bloody time you can, you will beright. Now you are not.
- When Terminator 5 is brought out over the world, AT THE SAME DATE, you are right. Now you are not.
- When iTunes offers service globally, you are right. Now you are not.
THAT is what anti-globalists see. There is nothing anti-kapitalist about it. There is a -difference- in globalization for -people- and globa
Re:TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:TV is actually worse than movies... (Score:3, Interesting)
My current tv annoyance is sport (hmmmm... posting on Slashdot about sport, uh... try the Wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org]?). I'm from Australia, and I'm currently in Canada. I
Evolution (Score:3, Insightful)
What TV probably cannot stand is the fact that people will now filter away all inferior quality products that this medium keeps sending out (including commercials - and bad gameshows). It's just those products that will *not* get pirated - and it's just those products that tend to form the majority of television today.
People downloading television shows (or series) want the creme-de-la-creme of television - and they want it all: 24, ER, CSI etc.
Instead of keeping these television series off DVD to make sure the (international!) re-broadcasting rights are safe, television-producers should choose to publish the stuff on DVD almost simultaneously as they do on television. Waiting almost 4 years (ER) for the DVD is way too long - and will promote this kind of behaviour even more.
As for the choice between DVD and pirated series: I would choose DVD - it's all-in-one, has the same standard of quality and it contains useful commentaries and background information.
But please, if you do publish a DVD, don't be a cheap-*** and skip the music because the rights cost too much [killermovies.com] - either give it all or keep it all...
The BBC? (Score:3, Informative)
Currently i watch the News online through the BBC website, and often their documentaries and other shows that they put online (Panorama, Question Time). These are very poor quality, although with these shows i'm interested in the content and not the picture.
Actually I have tried. (Score:3, Insightful)
I even asked a retailer when I was in London if it was possible to be a subscriber when I lived in Sweden and he said no.
I pay for the channels I look at here in Sweden, don't get me wrong now, and I would gladly pay to be able to see SciFi/SkyOne etc as well.
The result is: I cannot get Battlestar Galactica/Enterprise/Stargate etc here in Sweden in any other way other than downloading them from the Internet.
Re:Actually I have tried. (Score:3, Informative)
I even asked a retailer when I was in London if it was possible to be a subscriber when I lived in Sweden and he said no.
My sister (UK resident) obtained a Sky subscription for my Aunt and Uncle (French residents), then took the Sky box out to France for them. Likewise, on holiday in Spain over the Summer the hotel I was staying in had Sky. I suspect the trick is not to tell Sky where you live ;)
Good luck!
I'm seeing a trend in the posts (Score:4, Insightful)
Now if only the companies could see this *sigh*
Instant solution (Score:5, Insightful)
i am a tv subscriber, i am your customer, if you dont provide me a viable means to watch what i want to watch, when i want to watch it, i will find someone who does. the only question for you is are you going to piss and moan about it, or will you join the 21st century and continue to do bussiness with me and people like me? whether you like it or not, unless your job title is "old wooden shoe maker" you are in an industry of changes, where the survival code is adapt or die off...
I am a couch potato, and this is my manifesto...
Ahem, hello? http://tvtorrents.net/ (Score:5, Interesting)
Just check the site the day after airing, and pull down the torrent. The HDTV-LOL versions are some of the best for Galactica, Lost, all the hot shows.
According to my friend, that is.
JP
German TV forces me to do it (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only the voices (I could tolerate that - there are only so many good dubbing artists), but also the translation - it gives a whole new meaning to the term "lost in translation". I almost smashed my TV to pieces once when I watched a dubbed episode of Futurama, and they translated "Dungeons&Dragons" with "Drachen und Kerker", "Deep Blue" with "Tiefblau", "urban legend" with "Vorstadtlegende" and so on. All literal translations that don't make *any* sense in the context.
So, if I want to watch a bearable version of these series, I can either wait a few years (2-5) for the DVDs, or download them right after they are out in the US. Easy choice.
Sorry for the rant, but this is a pet peeve of mine.
Someone needs to contact these idiots.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Bittorrent + RSS (Score:3, Interesting)
There's advertising and then there's advertising (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure the TV moguls will conveniently forget about that when they eventually end up buying a legislator or two to fight the "new" TV piracy menace.
If its broadcast, how can you say its pirated? (Score:3, Interesting)
I consider that time-shifting.. Just because you didn't record it that particular night, shouldn't mean you cant get it later.
Same goes for music too. If it was on the radio, and you download a radio copy later.. it still should be legal.
I guess until they can mandate pay-per-view rules on all broadcast audio/video. They we are all screwed anyway.
Availability (Score:5, Insightful)
This is particularly true of the SF shows such as Start Trek, Stargate SG-1 etc. which are often considered "niche" compared to comedy or soap opera. As an example, where I live, the local networks either don't bother to buy the shows or sometimes buy one season, show it at a ridiculous time like 11am or 12pm, then axe it while complaining that nobody watches it (happened to SG-1, Voyager, Nikita). Unfortunately that way everbody loses.
What the producers don't seem to understand is that they could actually profit from putting these shows online themselves, bypassing the local networks, either at a nominal fee (one or two USD) or even with advertising included (which could be generated automatically and targeted to the downloaders's region). Alternatively, using Bittorent or the like their bandwithd and distrbution costs would be minimal and they could push mechandise (T-shirts, DVDs whatever) as a profit source.
With the right model there is a a huge market and a lot of money to be made, just the networks seem to be stuck in a mental rut, anthe rest of us download TV rips
Need to embrace digital media distribution... (Score:3, Insightful)
Entertainment groups should be required to embrace and fully utilize digital media distribution, not vilify it.
Why is this even a problem? (Score:3, Insightful)
All they have to do is use strait bit torrent downloads encoded in the same or better quality than the people ripping them, and make them available when the show ends. Hell, put a small add saying "Friends telling you what happened before you had a chance to watch? See this show on FOX every Monday at 5:30!" or whatever at the beginning of each show. The people that are going to skip the adds are the same ones in the bathroom while its showing so what exactly is the problem?
sports (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Question (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Question (Score:5, Insightful)
The next question is; if this is legal, what happens if you download it before it is aired, but don't watch it until afterwards? Again, from a black-box user's perspective, this is no different from using a TiVo or a VCR. In fact, it is more similar than the first case, since you are performing the time-shift action before the airing as you do with a VCR or TiVo. I would very much like to see this defence used in court. If the court views it as legal then it could almost certainly be extended to include any song that has been broadcast on public radio or film that has been shown on TV.
Of course, the question is moot if you are downloading things that have not been broadcast on channels you to which you are subscribed.
Re:No DVD (Score:3, Insightful)
For the record I paid the Amazon prices
Re:No DVD (Score:5, Interesting)
The difference is only in mechanism, not result. I have a friend who managed to tape every episode of st:tng, now if he were to transfer those to computer and clean all the comercials out watch them off the hard-drive, how is his result any different than someone who downloaded those episodes?
How is one copyright infringement (for him), where the other is leagaly allowed time-shifting which the supreme court upheld as fair use. Or rather how does it make sense to have the distinction.
The tv show's producers made thier money by selling advertising when it was originally broadcast. Unlike movies (well recently they've added blantant comercials, and they've had 'product placement' for some time) which derive thier revenue from theatrical release and sales of individual copies.
Mycroft
Re:No DVD (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure. If they're willing to sell it and one wants it, by all means, one should pay for it.
On the other hand, if they're willing to broadcast it over the air (or on cable) for free, but then not sell it, I have a hard time thinking it's somehow eeeeevil to go download a "pirated" copy. It seems so simple to me: If you
Re:It's a bit late (Score:3, Insightful)
SciFi frequently took very long mid season breaks in airing Farscape in the US... all the while they continue airing on SkyOne.
SciFi does this often sadly... the new Battlestar Galactica series, 'coming to SciFi in January'... has already aired 5 episodes on SkyOne.
Not that I download such things... but I wonder if SciFi's slowness to broadcast could be considered inducement of copyright infringement... t
Re:It's their own fault. (Score:3, Insightful)
This is also a good way for a broadcaster to lose viewers who would otherwise be watching "live".
I suspect what most people want with TV series is a fixed timeslot with episodes in the order the writer intended them to be in.