8 ms·

Doctor Who goes back in time to beat TV pirates

94 points by iProject 14y ago

killercup 14y ago
I would love to see this, but as I live in Germany, I'm pretty sure I'll not be greeted by the episode or even a video player but a "not a available in your country" message. Anyway, BBC probably already knows they could make a fortune if they offered a season for £9 on iTunes (or something like that) with no delay, so I'm not gonna call them about it.
- xqyz 14y ago
  Same here (also Germany). Worse yet, even if a german broadcaster was offering it, chances are you would only be able to get it dubbed in Germany without the option to switch to the original language.
dazzawazza 14y ago
It's good to see both the BBC and ABC being level headed about this. Serving your paying customers and enticing pirates towards being paying customers is how ALL rights holders should behave. It's been all stick and no carrot for so long.
- kierank 14y ago
  ABC wouldn't be able to do this if they were not a public broadcaster. Advertisers would be furious.
  - chris_wot 14y ago
    This is why I'm glad of the ABC. Advertisers can go to hell!
  - dazzawazza 14y ago
    Couldn't they just ran the adverts in the stream? Both ITV 1/2/3/4 (UK advert supported channels) and Channel 4 (public remit but supported by adverts) advertise before, during and after the stream. I don't know if they are regulated but the frequency and length of adverts it seem about the same as the broadcast.
betterth 14y ago
This seems ridiculous... BBC America is airing this seasons opener on the same day as BBC1 in the UK! (http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-to-return-to-bbc-america-on-september-1 http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-to-retu...) So why do we have convoluted workarounds in Australia if another ex-colony gets it fine?
- mooism2 14y ago
  Time zones. BBC America can show it on the same day as BBC1, and it's a few hours later. If ABC was to show it on the same day as BBC1, it would be several hours earlier. This might merely be embarrassing for the BBC, or it might cause a political row in the UK. "Why are TV licence fee payers paying for the new series of Doctor Who to be shown in Australia before it's shown in the UK?" "Brits paid for Doctor Who to be made, so Brits should get to see it first" etc.
  - prydonius 14y ago
    It doesn't explain why it's shown a week later though. Why don't they just show it the day after?
    - arnsholt 14y ago
      Demographics and such, probably. The people watching TV Saturday evening aren't the same as on Sunday evening, IIRC.
    - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
      I'm guessing because it will go out on Saturday in the UK and they want it to be in the same slot elsewhere in the world. The reality is that the loss of a relatively small number of people who'll watch online ahead of it's screening on TV is a small price to pay for the better viewing figures they'll get on a Saturday evening over a Sunday. I think they're to be commended for doing this - it's what we keep saying, make it available legally and most people will use that in preference to torrents and other more questionable mechanisms.
voltagex_ 14y ago
I hate to be ungrateful but I'd like to see HD versions next time - in a lot of Australian broadcast areas there aren't any HD stations over the air any more.
davidw 14y ago
I haven't watched Doctor Who since we left Austria and no longer get BBC via cable. I hadn't seen the new Doctor. Kind of a shock: wow, that guy's young. How is he as The Doctor?
- debacle 14y ago
  Originally I thought I didn't like him, but in actuality he's a fantastic doctor and a nice deviation from the Tennant/Edelsson mix. I found the writing in the last season of the show to be abysmal, though. Didn't feel like Doctor Who at all.
  - fredleblanc 14y ago
    Completely agree with you on Matt Smith. I hated him at first, but I think I just wanted more Tennant. After clearing my head and going back in, he’s now my Doctor. (Although I disagree with you on last season. It didn't feel like traditional Doctor Who, but I really liked the direction, and although Season 5 was much better end-to-end, Season 6 had some of my favorite episodes.)
    - debacle 14y ago
      Season 6 just really felt like they said "Lets try and target our demographics." There was a lot less science, it was much more earth-centric, and the level of hand-waving was obscene.
      - sageikosa 14y ago
        The standalone episodes outshone the story arc episodes. Moffet seems to have realized this in planning for series 7. I for one am all for destroying the Doctor's magic wand, since it has become too powerful. A little more science and logic, and a lot less sci-fi and paradox magic would be nice.
      - shardling 14y ago
        It was earth-centric due to budget cuts, so that wasn't really under their control.
rocky1138 14y ago
Brilliant: "The fact that it is happening is indicative that as broadcasters we are not meeting demand for a segment of the population."
debacle 14y ago
If only they were doing this when Doctor Who still had good writing.
unreal37 14y ago
Giving people what they want - to combat piracy! An innovative strategy.
dhughes 14y ago
Here in Canada the channel called Showcase airs their popular new sci-fi time travel cop show called Continuum soon after it airs. It takes a while though because Canada is so big, six time zones, only after it airs on the west coast plus a delay while they upload it which pretty much means the next day. Even with that and the delay to put up it's on thepiratebay.org about half an hour after it airs, a good 12 hours before it's officially put on Showcase's website. But Showcase does IP restrict viewers to Canada only, I don't agree with such regional restrictions.
ajtaylor 14y ago
Finally, someone gets it! Some people will always pirate, but I honestly believe a lot of people would rather use legal means (even if they pay a reasonable amount). It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can only hope that more TV shows come to Australia this way. The whole "let's broadcast the show in AU after the season already ended in the US" is such a huge pain and most definitely encourages piracy.
- RossM 14y ago
  The only real reason I have for considering pirating something is that "it isn't available in my country for months after it's aired elsewhere", so this is great news. Why on earth should I wait months before I can see it? I'm sure there's a reason advertisers do this but I don't see it.
  - paulhauggis 14y ago
    I want a lot of things, but sometimes I just have to wait. I feel like piracy has spawned an entire generation that feels the same way you do: entitled. I sell books as a side-business and I see it with college students especially. They demand things to be exactly their way or they threaten to complain or send me nasty emails.
    - rflrob 14y ago
      > but sometimes I just have to wait. Not to sound like the whiny whipper-snapper I am, but why do we have to wait? If there were a technical reason for it, that would be one thing, but I have not been convinced that arbitrary restrictions are a good thing. The one-week delay to keep it in a similar time slot (e.g. Saturday night) makes sense, but not the months that often lapse between shows being aired in different countries. Even if there's re-editing that needs to happen (especially for season N of a show that will be re-aired abroad), why not invest the time/money before the initial release to make sure that it's ready to go in short order after the original, rather than sacrifice market share to the pirates?
    - rflrob 14y ago
eightbitman 14y ago
"Piracy is wrong" morally sure, but economically I don't know. It's a complicated question, and without actual numbers the arguments for or against are totally meaningless.
- Falling3 14y ago
  I'm still waiting to be convinced on morally wrong.
Alex3917 14y ago
"Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their intellectual property." What a bunch of complete hypocrites. The only reason the show still exists is because of piracy, because the idiots at the BBC managed to most of the old episodes. So without pirates supplying the BBC and the general public with their copies of the old episodes, the show literally couldn't exist today.
- pharrington 14y ago
  Only most of the first and second doctors' runs were lost. Alot of the missing episodes that were recovered came from overseas broadcasters. The BBC always had the complete runs of the other five doctors - over 22 years of television.
j_baker 14y ago
Now if only that would happen here in the US. I simply don't understand why I should have to pay to get something the next day when I could get it for free minutes after it airs.
Apocryphon 14y ago
So, the Max Headroom hacker will be the villain? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_i...
89a 14y ago
> Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their intellectual property Already paid for it with my licence fee. I'll do what I want.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]

94 points by iProject 14y ago

I would love to see this, but as I live in Germany, I'm pretty sure I'll not be greeted by the episode or even a video player but a "not a available in your country" message. Anyway, BBC probably already knows they could make a fortune if they offered a season for £9 on iTunes (or something like that) with no delay, so I'm not gonna call them about it.

xqyz 14y ago
Same here (also Germany). Worse yet, even if a german broadcaster was offering it, chances are you would only be able to get it dubbed in Germany without the option to switch to the original language.

dazzawazza 14y ago

It's good to see both the BBC and ABC being level headed about this. Serving your paying customers and enticing pirates towards being paying customers is how ALL rights holders should behave. It's been all stick and no carrot for so long.

kierank 14y ago
ABC wouldn't be able to do this if they were not a public broadcaster. Advertisers would be furious.
- chris_wot 14y ago
  This is why I'm glad of the ABC. Advertisers can go to hell!
- dazzawazza 14y ago
  Couldn't they just ran the adverts in the stream? Both ITV 1/2/3/4 (UK advert supported channels) and Channel 4 (public remit but supported by adverts) advertise before, during and after the stream. I don't know if they are regulated but the frequency and length of adverts it seem about the same as the broadcast.

betterth 14y ago

This seems ridiculous... BBC America is airing this seasons opener on the same day as BBC1 in the UK! (http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-to-return-to-bbc-america-on-september-1 http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-to-retu...) So why do we have convoluted workarounds in Australia if another ex-colony gets it fine?

mooism2 14y ago
Time zones. BBC America can show it on the same day as BBC1, and it's a few hours later. If ABC was to show it on the same day as BBC1, it would be several hours earlier. This might merely be embarrassing for the BBC, or it might cause a political row in the UK. "Why are TV licence fee payers paying for the new series of Doctor Who to be shown in Australia before it's shown in the UK?" "Brits paid for Doctor Who to be made, so Brits should get to see it first" etc.
- prydonius 14y ago
  It doesn't explain why it's shown a week later though. Why don't they just show it the day after?
  - arnsholt 14y ago
    Demographics and such, probably. The people watching TV Saturday evening aren't the same as on Sunday evening, IIRC.
  - Tyrannosaurs 14y ago
    I'm guessing because it will go out on Saturday in the UK and they want it to be in the same slot elsewhere in the world. The reality is that the loss of a relatively small number of people who'll watch online ahead of it's screening on TV is a small price to pay for the better viewing figures they'll get on a Saturday evening over a Sunday. I think they're to be commended for doing this - it's what we keep saying, make it available legally and most people will use that in preference to torrents and other more questionable mechanisms.

voltagex_ 14y ago

I hate to be ungrateful but I'd like to see HD versions next time - in a lot of Australian broadcast areas there aren't any HD stations over the air any more.

davidw 14y ago

I haven't watched Doctor Who since we left Austria and no longer get BBC via cable. I hadn't seen the new Doctor. Kind of a shock: wow, that guy's young. How is he as The Doctor?

debacle 14y ago
Originally I thought I didn't like him, but in actuality he's a fantastic doctor and a nice deviation from the Tennant/Edelsson mix. I found the writing in the last season of the show to be abysmal, though. Didn't feel like Doctor Who at all.
- fredleblanc 14y ago
  Completely agree with you on Matt Smith. I hated him at first, but I think I just wanted more Tennant. After clearing my head and going back in, he’s now my Doctor. (Although I disagree with you on last season. It didn't feel like traditional Doctor Who, but I really liked the direction, and although Season 5 was much better end-to-end, Season 6 had some of my favorite episodes.)
  - debacle 14y ago
    Season 6 just really felt like they said "Lets try and target our demographics." There was a lot less science, it was much more earth-centric, and the level of hand-waving was obscene.
    - sageikosa 14y ago
      The standalone episodes outshone the story arc episodes. Moffet seems to have realized this in planning for series 7. I for one am all for destroying the Doctor's magic wand, since it has become too powerful. A little more science and logic, and a lot less sci-fi and paradox magic would be nice.
    - shardling 14y ago
      It was earth-centric due to budget cuts, so that wasn't really under their control.

rocky1138 14y ago

Brilliant: "The fact that it is happening is indicative that as broadcasters we are not meeting demand for a segment of the population."

debacle 14y ago

If only they were doing this when Doctor Who still had good writing.

unreal37 14y ago

Giving people what they want - to combat piracy! An innovative strategy.

dhughes 14y ago

Here in Canada the channel called Showcase airs their popular new sci-fi time travel cop show called Continuum soon after it airs. It takes a while though because Canada is so big, six time zones, only after it airs on the west coast plus a delay while they upload it which pretty much means the next day. Even with that and the delay to put up it's on thepiratebay.org about half an hour after it airs, a good 12 hours before it's officially put on Showcase's website. But Showcase does IP restrict viewers to Canada only, I don't agree with such regional restrictions.

ajtaylor 14y ago

Finally, someone gets it! Some people will always pirate, but I honestly believe a lot of people would rather use legal means (even if they pay a reasonable amount). It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I can only hope that more TV shows come to Australia this way. The whole "let's broadcast the show in AU after the season already ended in the US" is such a huge pain and most definitely encourages piracy.

RossM 14y ago
The only real reason I have for considering pirating something is that "it isn't available in my country for months after it's aired elsewhere", so this is great news. Why on earth should I wait months before I can see it? I'm sure there's a reason advertisers do this but I don't see it.
- paulhauggis 14y ago
  I want a lot of things, but sometimes I just have to wait. I feel like piracy has spawned an entire generation that feels the same way you do: entitled. I sell books as a side-business and I see it with college students especially. They demand things to be exactly their way or they threaten to complain or send me nasty emails.
  - rflrob 14y ago
    > but sometimes I just have to wait. Not to sound like the whiny whipper-snapper I am, but why do we have to wait? If there were a technical reason for it, that would be one thing, but I have not been convinced that arbitrary restrictions are a good thing. The one-week delay to keep it in a similar time slot (e.g. Saturday night) makes sense, but not the months that often lapse between shows being aired in different countries. Even if there's re-editing that needs to happen (especially for season N of a show that will be re-aired abroad), why not invest the time/money before the initial release to make sure that it's ready to go in short order after the original, rather than sacrifice market share to the pirates?
  - rflrob 14y ago

eightbitman 14y ago

"Piracy is wrong" morally sure, but economically I don't know. It's a complicated question, and without actual numbers the arguments for or against are totally meaningless.

Falling3 14y ago
I'm still waiting to be convinced on morally wrong.

Alex3917 14y ago

"Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their intellectual property." What a bunch of complete hypocrites. The only reason the show still exists is because of piracy, because the idiots at the BBC managed to most of the old episodes. So without pirates supplying the BBC and the general public with their copies of the old episodes, the show literally couldn't exist today.

pharrington 14y ago
Only most of the first and second doctors' runs were lost. Alot of the missing episodes that were recovered came from overseas broadcasters. The BBC always had the complete runs of the other five doctors - over 22 years of television.

j_baker 14y ago

Now if only that would happen here in the US. I simply don't understand why I should have to pay to get something the next day when I could get it for free minutes after it airs.

Apocryphon 14y ago

So, the Max Headroom hacker will be the villain? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_intrusion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_i...

89a 14y ago

> Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their intellectual property Already paid for it with my licence fee. I'll do what I want.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]