Slashdot Mirror
Was the New Dr. Who Leaked on Purpose?
Static-MT writes "The pilot episode of the BBC's highly anticipated new Doctor Who series may have been intentionally leaked onto file-sharing networks to generate buzz, a source who instructed the network on viral advertising told Wired News."
Once again proving that "illegal" file sharing only helps good media and hurts bad media.
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Well if its legal, meaning, the owners of the video purposely used this as advertisting, then who cares? Its a good idea if you ask me. Should be 'Distributed' via file sharing networks, not leaked :)
Sigs are for Terrorists.
Downloaded it, watched it, and felt that they had captured enough of the original that I want more. I hope that the Beeb does the right thing for those of us across the pond (USA).
In some jurisdictions in the world companies have to be careful about doing this because they give up parts of their exclusive ownership on the copyright of the work in question.
--
WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
It was the best looking AVI I've ever seen. All the credits were there and all the introduction with no slight cut-off near the end. It was leaked.
Who let the daleks out? Who? Who? Who?
I hadn't heard that it had been leaked at all, and am still not tempted to download it. So I guess the buzz generation didn't work very well.
Bailey said although he didn't have definite knowledge the leak was official, the quality of the episode is highly suspicious. If it were an unofficial leak, it would likely be of poor quality, he said.
The BBC denied any part in the distribution of the episode.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend. Between this "leak" and the Battlestar Galactica episode available on the Sci-Fi website for free, maybe television stations just get the "net" better than the RIAA and MPAA.
.. but since its not being broadcast in my market, I'll have to look for .torrents for future episodes, instead.
c'mon BBC, fully convert to the Internet already, dang!!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
No hype can help this stinker. The good doc looked like a bad crock and Billy acted... well, no she didnt...
Agreed, this about as informative, and fun as dried paint...
M$ it's whats for diner!!!!!
The pilot episode would garner the most ratings in the overnight to judge a success? (How many series "die" after the first episode from a poor showing). So if you leak the pilot, theoretically it doesn't get watched as much so you blow the "hook" to keep viewers coming back to the time slot next week.
I suggest they may even ratchet this up a notch. Follow the intentional leak with some intentional prosecutions and imprisonments. Offer the accused to have their foreheads tattooed with logos to have their sentences overturned.
Nothing too shocking about this.
Looks like the big boys are finally catching on to the benefits of free samples of this sort (see also the free Battlestar Galactica episode).
But we don't believe him and are taking him to see the urologist.
I dont know if the leaking was intentional or not, but if the show is any good it will probably help the ratings. Battlestar Galactica came out first in the UK, and probably became the single most Bittorrented tv show before it aired in the US, to excelent ratings. The creator of BSG asked fans *not* to download the show, because he feared people who downloaded it wouldnt bother to watch it on TV. What really happened is, the show is excelent, and the buzz generated by all the early viewing probably helped the ratings a lot. In Brazil BSG started airing this month, and a lot of people who wouldnt otherwise even know it existed are tuning in to a semi-obscure cable channel because of early viewing.
Of course, if a show is crap P2P will probably hurt the ratings.
Given the BBC's reputation for sneaky reporting, I wouldn't be surprised.
Over here in the UK, the BBC was repremanded for criticising the Hutton report of its own report, their were complications, but the bottom line was the organization was acting wrongly and of its own accord (rather than by its legal charter)
However, from the BBC's point of view, the act of leaking Doctor Who, then reporting on it extensively, is quite a cheap tactic for promotion. (as opposed to TV advertising - I haven't seen a Doctor Who advert on the TV yet.)
Hey, if this were a story about the government doing something sneaky, for example installing touch-screen voting machines without a hand-auditable record, so that elections could be stolen electronically, wouldn't there be tons of cute, funny comments asking if UFO's, Elvis sightings, or the Romulans weren't somehow involved?
This move by the BBC shows how interactive P2P will replace broadcast TV. The networks know that "buzz" is the most important part of promoting their media objects, which is the most important part of promoting whatever else the media object promotes. When P2P is more useful in creating buzz than TV itself, it will eclipse TV's dominance in media. Since the Internet is already better at buzz, disproportionate to its audience size, it's already getting into TV's long-accustomed limelight. So it won't even have to get as popular, as "big", as TV to beat TV - just like TV beat radio into the margin with its own more compelling promotion platform.
--
make install -not war
Considering that the BBC website had no less than three news articles about the leak, I can't say that I'm surprised to hear that the BBC "leaked" the episode themselves.
I'm not surprised, the quality was so so, and wasn't all that fulfilling. It's a good idea, release a dumbed down version, people will see it's good, and find it's worth tuning in to when it actually airs. Good job BBC.
She's cute, but she's a bit pudgy. They could attract more geeks/attention by having her drop 30 lbs. :)
;)
Besides that, the graphics looked pretty good for a Dr. Who. Not that I downloaded and watched it or anything.
they are taking lessons from Apple. This is all part of the game these companies play. Rumours and leaks are free advertising.
I'm buzzed.
I've watched it, and some of the commercials, and think I will really like the new series.
Find a torrent of the current BBC commercials if you don't want to download, or didn't like, the leaked episode. It really does make things look interesting. (www.demonoid.com has a few versions of it, all high quality)
On Arrakis: early worm gets the bird. Magister mundi sum!
"Suspiciously good" quality is dead common when dealing with Anime. There are probably a good fifty new Anime episodes released every week, and the guys doing it have worked out the quality issues very well. If someone experienced were doing the ripping, I can believe a high-quality, completely unofficial rip is possible. This still leaves the question of how they got access to the tape.
As marketing techniques go, I think this is pretty cool, though it seems you'd only want to risk this if you're really confident in the quality of your program. If the leak generates bland or disinterested reviews, then you're probably going to hurt viewership on your pilot.
Acius the unfamous
I wish I had mod points to give, this comment and its parent are among the most insightful things I've read on Slashdot -- no, on the entire internet -- this week.
If you own the copyright on a work it shouldnt matter if you give it away for free or sell it for a million dollars - its still your copyright. How could giving away a free sample ever cause you to lose the copyright?
air and light and time and space
I can't think of any drama or comedy shows that had a very highly rated 1st episode, then a huge drop-off in the second.
Usually a large drop-off in ratings is caused by one of the following:
1. Cast changes (The Practice)
2. Genre Fatigue (Enterprise)
3. Timeslot follies (Futurama, Family Guy)
4. Jumping the Shark (Malcolm in the Middle, Will and Grace)
5. The thing everyone waited for happened (Cheers, Moonlighting, soon will happen to Lost and Desperate Hosuewives)
I would think that if the BBC wanted high ratings, the thing to do would be to get as many people as possible to see the 1st episode, then follow up with 2nd and 3rd episodes of extremely high quality. That seemed to work for Battlestar Galactica.
Having more and more people tune in each week is very desireable to TV programming people, much more so than a huge number of viewers initially due to curiosity, then a big fall-off because the show stinks and can't hold an audience.
Okay, I admit... I will probably have to see one of them shows one of them days just to find out what the fuzz is about... But until my broadband access gets fixed... can anyone answer the slightly hard-pronounced question.... Dr. Who WHO? What is this all about, anyways?
Who let the daleks out? No he didn't!
Downloading is the only way some of us can watch this sort of thing. My cable provider doesn't provide BBC stuff where I live (here in the USA).
...a source who instructed the network on viral advertising told Wired News."
Did anyone read this and think that this story itself was "viral advertising" for "the source who instructed the network"?
________________________________________________
suwain_2
1) This could be a very bad trend, if the MPAA and anti-piracy groups get their way. If the marketer doesn't do their due diligence and check with their law groups, then this "buzz" and viral marketing could get those who downloaded said video prosecuted for downloading something that was intentionally uploaded for marketing purposes. Downloading things such as fc3.x86.iso is safe because it's already known content. If i downloaded desperatehousewives.s1e21.avi, how would I know if this was a marketing release or not?
2) maybe pirate groups should create another meta tag for videos = screeners, telecines, marketing videos.
3) If it really was distributed on purpose, then there should have been a disclaimer, or some sort of "tag" at the end, a title page indicating that the full series would come up soon, with showtimes and the like. Otherwise, what's the point of the first episodes excepting to bring the viewers up to a point where they know the storyline will eventually be regardless?
4) The whole "quality of video" analysis doesn't sell me on the purposeful leak theory.
CBC will be airing the first episode on April 5th.
You sly dog: you got me monologuing! - Syndrome
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Call it Dr. Who Cares
and get sued by the MPAA or whoever, could I say I had the permission of the copyright holder since they (or an agent working directly for them) put the material on the intenet to begin with?
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
...and I know the story itself was viral advertising. For me "Wired" is the warning.
Ok, so if the leak was intentional they won't mind if someone posts links to a torrent or three. Can someone share?
can we lose the alien dude, for posts about Dr. who? I know we want to kill him, but it'd be better if you had a little Dalek or a tardis icon when speaking about our arch-enemy, k, thx.
-A concerned Dalek.
Why is this even a story? Surely the suprise would be if the BBC hadn't leaked it?
Seriously, if it was leaked intentionally, it's a brilliant move. Think of the buzz it's generated, with all the news stories about it and internet user chatter. I live in the states and would probably not have even known there was a new series, and now I'm looking forward to seeing it eventuallly... you can't buy that kind of PR.
Not that I expect CBC themselves ever advocated the action (if they know who did it, the guy is certainly out of a job and probably facing copyright infringement charges). But anyways, I had heard somewhere that the source of the leak was traceable to CBC.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Decent Episode, could bode well. Will get the other episodes as they are aired. This Doc could be good. SciFi turned down the series, it would interfere with the repeats of ManSquito.
And the BBC needs to advertise Dr. Who because...?
I think its more likely someone in an advertising company read that slashdot story and thought "hey, leaking stuff on the net as viral marketing, good idea, lets pretend that the BBC is our client and that we told them to do that so people will think we rock"
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Who's on First, Davros is on Second!
Maybe the US present administration has pushed me to be ever more cynical, but I pretty much suspected this when I first saw the news. I wonder if the Fred Durst sex video via his Sidekick thing was also intentional, following right after the Paris Hilton hack, considering nobody gives a shit about him anymore.
Software companies have been doing it for years..
hell quake 1 was distributed via ftp, i rember
the irc channel was packed (5,000 people) in one
channel
If this was really an intentional leak, to generate a 'buzz'. what would stop the MPAA or RIAA from doing the same thing? And the way they act, they would then sue anyone who downloaded a copy. They would get you coming and going so to say.
Actually a good defense would be, "Judge they put those song on the network intentionally, thus they wanted me to distribute them." Then just tell the judge this act. (Assuming this is true.)
You make a good point - but I'd pay the BBC license fee if I could download their stuff legally. Or Tivo it from PBS or BBC America (which I already pay for), should they offer it.
The idea of an "expat" license would be a really, really good idea for the BBC, but it might conflict with their current licensing schemes.
Given tht the BBC is a UK Government organization which levies a tax to produce its programs, a simple "Freedom of Infmormation Act" query ought to be enough to get hold of its work product.
In other words, nothign to see here. Move along.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
I was starting to wonder if anyone saw this the same way I do. I believe that "if" this is a leak, the intent or atleast the end result, is news regarding Dr. Who made it onto Wired, /., and other major news sources that would have most likely skipped over the series had their been nothing happen to it. Bad Publicity is still Publicity and has given some daylight to the new series in ways that wouldn't have happened if no leak had been made.
why would CBC have a copy?
Are you sure they didnt release the Curling finals on P2P instead?
Plop one of those on the telly and you'll fall asleep faster than watching golf.
And the BBC needs to advertise Dr. Who because...? ...because the previous series was cancelled due to miserably low ratings, and the 1999 telemovie tanked for the exact same reason?
(Well okay, the movie also sucked.)
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters? Like hell.
I think it's a pretty fascinating story how people and media companies are using the internet to promote themselves in very sneaky ways.
* Movie sites like aintitcoolnews.com routinely get "reviews" from movie companies trying to promote their own works (case in point, the number of positive pre-screening reviews for Be Cool, a really awful film)
* Paris Hilton's sex video leaks to the internet. Ooops! It gives her career such a boost that a second one "accidentally" leaks.
* Music companies, the sworn enemies of P2P file sharing, recover a lot of marketing data by routinely monitoring P2P traffic as a gauge of market tastes and artist popularity.
* The Blair Witch Project was famously promoted by creating bogus info sites, detailing the "legend" of the Blair Witch.
* How many people promote their own websites or products by submitting a story to Slashdot that casually mentions their site in the writeup? Too many to count!
Most of those companies are hesitant to even release their client roster for fear of giving things like this away. I hope the BBC bitches them out for this.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
By the fact that I assumed this the second I heard it'd been leaked and found the fact that someone needed to ask the question more unbelievable.
God, I'm a cynical bastard........
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
but thinking about a new Dr. Who makes me so excited, my nose runs.
That's just not any alien head, it's the alien head from another classic sci-fi series from the 1960's you may have heard of -- Star Trek.
Specifically, it's from the The Corbomite Maneuver episode.
Chip H.
...if it's been encoded with Dirac :)
That's like asking if the new Fred Durst video was leaked on purpose. Duh.
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
wait a minute, are you saying people actually LIKED this show? it reminded me of farscape. *shudder*
Great, if true, because they can't prosecute anyone for doing what they themselves did. It's "equitable estoppel" ... A type of estoppel that bars a person from adopting a position in court that contradicts his or her past statements or actions when that contradictory stance would be unfair to another person who relied on the original position. For example, if a landlord agrees to allow a tenant to pay the rent ten days late for six months, it would be unfair to allow the landlord to bring a court action in the fourth month to evict the tenant for being a week late with the rent. The landlord would be estopped from asserting his right to evict the tenant for late payment of rent. Also known as estoppel in pais.
Gee, my first novel is up on my website and anyone can just click on my web URL above and get it without paying! And I haven't talked to my webmaster to take it down yet. Woe is me...I'm going to lose a paperback sale for every download (but I'll actually claim a hardback sale if it ever comes to court). I'll get no attention from this, no buzz, just lost sales.
I really feel for Dr. Who. I feel so much, I admit I've already watched the episode. I've even talked to several people about it. But that's not buzz, I guess, a few guys in Laramie, WY talking about Dr. Who for the first time in many years, is it?
Professor of Astronomy, Author of Spider Star & Star Dragon (Tor)
Oh, then how would you characterize them? As you answer, please bear the TV license in mind.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Dr WHO?
I thought she looked damn fine.. and I like slender women.
Like this?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
This isn't a dupe. The article you linked to is saying that the episode was linked; this one, however, asks the question of whether or not the Beeb leaked it themselves as a publicity move, or not.
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
Actually the BBC does carry advertising which is why you'll see trailers for trash like EastEnders or much of their other mind numbing rubbish. Claiming the BBC has not lost a penny is also debatable.
Yes it was intentional, it gives them free advertisement and drums up support for the return of the series in the fans..
Nothing wrong with what they did, though being honest about it would have been nice. " here is a pre-release, come watch the real thing "
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Personally, I worry about the number of conspiracy theories floating around these days. Surely it can't be coincidence that after most major pieces of news, a conspiracy theory emerges? I suspect that there's a group of people constructing these conspiracy theories for their own nefarious purposes! I think we should be told!!!
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
...but I want to see some of my old favorites, via a Bittorrent download (so I can watch when I want). I'll agree to some DRM. Which ones?
I'd also like to check out a few that I've missed.
Just browsing the BBC's library would be a real trip. How about comments section on each episode and a user-ratings system?
Just imagine, I might never watch a major US network again! (Not that I watch much now.)
At least the director didn't go along with some stupid fake documentary about how he has psychic abilities.
return;
And now for part two: the report that sparks buzz around the report of it being leeked intentionally..
I just finished reading William Gibson's Pattern Recognition which is a fantastic story. It more than touches on the concept of 'viral advertising' and, in fact, goes so far with the idea that it makes an "accidental" release of an episode seem more than possible -- more like manditory. Let's hope those advertising execs haven't already read it!
/.) and casually mention new products in a favorable light. He explores the psychology of this and well, again, it seems more that plausible.
It also explores the idea of paid name droppers, employed to hang in cool places (like
By the way, I don't work for William Gibson... yet. But I will be sending him this URL and my paypal account info in just a minute!
Don
I knew there was something fishy when there was a BBC news blurb on the "leak" a few days after the /. story. They even showed a lengthy clip of the show. This was the syndicated 30 minute show that we have on our PBS station. Maybe they know that my only chance of seeing the show any time soon is through internet downloads.
The BBC used to be renowned for doing hard news but now they have descended to the level of ET and Inside Edition. Nowadays you can get more insightful analysis of Brad & Jennifer than you can of the Tsunami.
BTW. I still can't understand why the Brits have gone gone completely bonkers over David Beckham. Who the hell is he and why should I care about him. Who cares if he married a hack "singer". There are more important things to report about.
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
You need to set the "detect evil bit" setting in your p2p client. Now, if you're asking whether marketing releases have the evil bit set or not, then I'm not sure.
--Rob
Towards the Singularity.
Dang, I know the tardis travels in space and time, but I didn't think that meant 19th century south american laws could be applied to it!
I want to watch it, but haven't found the torrent.
Perhaps the quality suffered from being a PAL-to-NTSC conversion, if the source was from CBC, which would have an NTSC copy. Future leaks should come from inside the BBC for better quality!
Silly question, perhaps, but which jurisdictions does this apply in? Or is it US- (or some other country) specific?
Pretend that something especially witty is here. Thanks.
Well, technically most folks who watch Dr. Who already aren't paying for it, since it's largely broadcast on public television.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
That bitch would need a flea-dip before I'd let her near me.
The *real* question is:
Was the story about the leak of the new Dr Who being on purpose leaked on purpose by BBC management as part of a viral advertising campaign for the series?
Xenu loves you!
The annual cost (set by the Government) is currently £121. A black and white TV licence is £40-50.
NTSC people like my self need a brief explanation. PAL doesn't have provisions like NTSC for B&W and Color on the same signal. I.E. They have seperate towers for B&W users than color.
Wasn't it established decades ago that it was costing them more money to continue to provide B&W service than they had subscribers? And wasn't it also established that it would more cost effective to just buy the remaining B&W users color sets?
Is there some reason they continue to provide B&W service?
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Information about the viral marketing strategy for BBC's highly anticipated new Doctor Who series may have been intentionally leaked to Wired to generate buzz.
Major Doctor Who Fan, but it left me very cold. So cold that I'm not going to get into the details. Doctor Who is dead. There is no magic left in the modern BBC.
Exactly, the ability to take music, video, or any data and compress it and send it off on its way on various networks turns entertainment into a meritocracy.
.rar from emule). This could be very good or very bad for Ms. Mann. Fans may not like the new album. Potential impluse CD buyers are no longer buying like they used to.
Instead of having ads or 'word of mouth' tell you something is good and worth checking out, you can download it and view it yourself. Of course the downside is when people get too used to this and never pay for media. Its even worse if it hurts good media as the meritocracy system allows the cream to float to the top, thus there are lots more ways to get the good new book or album while the dreck is only available as a blockbuster rental.
In a worst case scenario, at the end of the the day, the dreck no one cared to digitize and spread made some money while the good stuff didn't make any money because it was so easy to get. Argubaly, as people become more net savvy the more DRM we'll need. How much DRM? Just enough to keep the technophobes from getting stuff too easily.
A lot of people claim that the "free meritocracy" system is self-regulating. For instance, ten million people may have downloaded the new Aimmee Mann album (you can get three of four tracks legitimatly on her site or download a
This can also be very good for Ms. Mann. If people like her music that can easily lead into much higher word of mouth value and more CD sales. Will the CD sales make up for what was potentially lost? Who knows. It may be much more or much less.
Personally from my experience, the entertainment biz has always been a gamble and now its more of a gamble with these "mixed models" of revenue. Suddenly, merchandising is very importnant because outside of a William Gibson novel you cant just download a shirt. Suddenly, touring (which has almost always been a money lousing proposition to promote the album) is shifting towards making the pricing and venues work in way to turn a profit. Word of mouth helps a whole lot in ticket sales.
Movies and books have it a bit worse. Movies need your 8 bucks to turn a profit. Then again you get the 'theater going experience' for your 8 bucks. Personally, I'd rather steal a movie and not be forced to watch 9 minutes of commercials surrounded by screaming kids and assholes, but thats me.
Book trading is pretty nasty. I dont see how publishers can gain anything from this unless they start promoting ebook readers and ebook stores kinda like iTunes ASAP. Its way too easy for me to download a book and read it on my PDA or laptop. Or in a pinch I can print it out. Sure, I now am a 'fan' of lots of new authors, but I'm probably never buying their new books as the library does that for me. But I might pay for a reasonably priced ebook. Who knows.
Now we have leaks and no one is sure if they are on purpose or not. Not sure what the trend here is, but things are changing and as long as congress doesnt step in and fuck things up I think a profitable equilibrium will evolve. It may just be lightweight DRM and a la carte sales like iTunes music store uses. There are much worse alternatives out there.
If it hadn't been for the gutsy Rose jumping onto the rope and doing a bit of gymnastics, Earth would've been absorbed into the Nestene consciousness and the plastic men would have continued their massacre.
"More trouble than she's worth." Ha!
I think Rose will turn out to be a great companion - inquisitive, quick learning, possibly just behind Leela in ballsiness.
Of course, Romana #2 (Lalla Ward) can never be challenged for sheer lovability in my eyes!
(If only I'd been an evolutionary biologist, she might have be interested in me when she dumped Tom. Oh, and if I'd been about 20 years older of course.)
I think it was Eldorado. Produced by Verity Lambert. Had zero content, unless you count an extremely top-heavy cast. Had massive ratings on the first night. That was about it, though. IIRC, the viewing figures at one point went negative.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
If I had just found out that Doctor who was coming back to the BBC, I wouldn't be interested in who the Doctor's new assistant would be. Not that there weren't some really hot looking babes on the original show on occasion, it's just that the whole point of Doctor Who is the title character and the stories he's involved in. Some of the worst seasons on the original program showed that it didn't matter how much skin any female character showed or how engaging the sidekick character was; it couldn't make up for the absence of a likeable Doctor and a good script. What "improvements" do they make to the original? They give the Doctor an "urban" look and a taste for girlie magazines, give him a female companion who looks like she walked off a street corner in the wrong side of town, copied the awful TARDIS interior design of the American special (what sort of Timelord would stay sane in a control room that looks like a run down discotecthe? ), and recycled all the old monsters of the original series. What crap. No wonder the BBC is desperate.
Sadly, none of the media players I have could handle it. I thought I saw a mention of the Dirac codec in the previous /. item; is a compiled Windows version available anywhere, or do I have to build-from-source from sourceforge? (a ridiculous concept, by the way - why should every single machine have to do the work over?)
A headline at Televisual reads: "The BBC turned down a Sony sponsorship deal to use HDCam kit for its high-profile return of Doctor Who, it has emerged. Instead, the decision was made to shoot the series on DigiBeta"
"The Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC) - one of the BBC's international production partners - investigated the leak and found the person responsible.
"In a statement, BBC Worldwide said: 'After a thorough investigation by BBC Worldwide's Canadian broadcast partner, the source of the leak of episode one of the new Doctor Who series has been traced to a third party company in Canada which had an early preview copy for legitimate purposes.'
"'The individual responsible for the leak has had their employment terminated by that company as a result.'"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_ra dio/4378881.stm
Ok just saw it, that explains why they got fired for leaking it - it was just so so bad, Billie Piper is just wrong, totally wrong. was her acting worse than the script? Im not sure..
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