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In Australia, BitTorrent is especially popular among those who want to catch up with US television shows that appear months or years later on TV down under. Mon

by froo 17y ago

In Australia, BitTorrent is especially popular among those who want to catch up with US television shows that appear months or years later on TV down under. Money is not so much of an issue for them, they simply want to see the latest Lost or Heroes episodes. I'd just like to reiterate this point. As a pay TV subscriber (foxtel), it always astounds me to have seen episodes like Battlestar Galactica and Heroes advertised as "aired in the US only hours before" (those were the exact words)- for the same episodes I had downloaded and watched about 12 weeks prior. It's not that I don't want to pay for the content, I mean, I'm a pay TV subscriber, I'm paying for eventual access to it - it's frustrating to be living in a global community and friends can be discussing an episode of one of the few shows I do watch that has already aired but due to odd licensing/distribution deals, that content is just not available legally in any timely manner, even if you WANT to pay for it. I've already ranted on this topic many times before (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569114 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=569114 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498159 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=498159 plus others), I know lots of people who are Australians and who feel exactly the same way - its not that we don't want to pay for that content, but their bad deals are kind of forcing our hands given the communication between people moves at a much faster pace than the licensing deals. I kind of saw the same sort of data the other day when I had looked at the Alexa top 100 by country and was interested to see mininova specifically come in at #37 (depending on how accurate you argue Alexa to be http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;1/AU http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries;1/AU) so seeing data like this only confirmed my initial suspicions and argument based off anecdotal evidence. Basically, get a clue tv industry...

trezor 17y ago
While I agree with your point at large, sometimes it's simply not feasible for local TV networks to air shows you might be interested in. I know this, since I live in Norway (population less than 5 million) and I tend to enjoy Japanese TV-shows. There is no way any Norwegian networks will consider it profitable to air Japanese TV unsubbed here, and even the expanded market if they spent money on getting it subbed would still render it far less profitable than regular American shows (which are basically no-cost), simply because of the huge cultural collide. As for Battlestar galactica that aired here about 2 years after it started airing in the US. If not downright offensive, that's pretty much a joke for anyone seriously interested in scifi. What the TV industry should do is embrace the fact that the internet has turned about every single person on the planet global, and that whoever interested, no matter where they live, should be able to get (for pay if it needs to be) access to TV-programming across the internet. Just one legal option instead of getting your stuff trough usenet, BT or even more obscure P2P networks.

by froo 17y ago

trezor 17y ago

While I agree with your point at large, sometimes it's simply not feasible for local TV networks to air shows you might be interested in. I know this, since I live in Norway (population less than 5 million) and I tend to enjoy Japanese TV-shows. There is no way any Norwegian networks will consider it profitable to air Japanese TV unsubbed here, and even the expanded market if they spent money on getting it subbed would still render it far less profitable than regular American shows (which are basically no-cost), simply because of the huge cultural collide. As for Battlestar galactica that aired here about 2 years after it started airing in the US. If not downright offensive, that's pretty much a joke for anyone seriously interested in scifi. What the TV industry should do is embrace the fact that the internet has turned about every single person on the planet global, and that whoever interested, no matter where they live, should be able to get (for pay if it needs to be) access to TV-programming across the internet. Just one legal option instead of getting your stuff trough usenet, BT or even more obscure P2P networks.