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.
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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?
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Who let the daleks out? No he didn't!
...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"?
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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
It did not suck. The new doctor acted more like the doctor should act than some of the other doctors. The female lead (unknow to us americans, so i won't call her by name) acted like the typical Doctor sidekick: confused, panicky, causing more trouble than she's worth. Read the books, watch the old televesion serieses, and it's apparent that this new cast is quite in line with the previous generations.
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.
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.
It was even on the headlines of the Six O'Clock News. Seemed odd to me that they were so pissed off about the leak that they decided to announce it to millions of people.
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!
but thinking about a new Dr. Who makes me so excited, my nose runs.
The one where he always has to rescue his female accomplice from certain doom every single episode?
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.
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.
Calling the BBC a "government organisation" is simplified to the point of innaccuracy.
Here it is! Every BBC story on /. always has somebody incorrectly making statements about the Beeb are a government org paid for by taxes. *sigh*
Like this?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
You remind me of Macbeth, Act I, Scene III:
Knock, knock! Who's there, in the other devil's
name? Faith, here's an equivocator, that could
swear in both the scales against either scale;
who committed treason enough for God's sake,
yet could not equivocate to heaven: O, come
in, equivocator.
Try watching BBC in the UK without paying your license. If you push it far enough, men with guns will show up and escort you to gaol.
Sounds like givernment to me.
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Seriously? Which episodes have you seen?
I only know the Tom Baker episodes, but I seem to recall The Doctor having to save an assistant at least once every story. Specific examples...
Talons of Weng-Chiang:
Doctor saves Leela from bad guy sucking away her life energy.
Seeds of Doom:
Doctor saves Sarah Jane from being forceably transformed into plant monster.
The Sontaran Experiment:
Doctor saves Sarah Jane from experiments performed by alien.
Which Doctor are you familiar with who never once ends up saving the life of one of his female companions?
Happy people make bad consumers.
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.
Rose: You would have failed miserably without me.
Doctor: Yes, I would have.
The episode was named, scripted, and structured specifically to introduce Rose as one of the "active" companions (like Ace), rather than the old Victoria-style screamers.
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.)