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Aussie TV Networks Fight BitTorrent
An anonymous reader writes "It seems impatient TV viewers have discovered BitTorrent in Australia mainly because the networks there are so slow; programs are at times behind by up to 8 months! According to an independent study, it takes an average of four months to watch the latest episodes of top-rated shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives. There are now calls for TV networks to consider offering episodes for download at a small cost."
I'd gladly pay a feww dollars/month to download TV eps (sans commericals)- if I don't have to mess with torrents (and it comes down at my full 3meg/sec)
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
If you were as much a farscape fan as I am, you would understand the frustration in not being able to get the peacekeeper wars by any legal means in Australia.
The dissapointing thing is that there is no reason why this shouldn't be available in Oz right now. Its not even like film, where the latest releases only have a certain number of reels to go around the world.
If I can get a high quality copy easily over the internet, why can't the networks figure out how to do it for a profit?
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
New Zealand has the exact same problem. There are shows I've heard about that were on in the US 3-4 years ago that will never show here...
Ah, television - teacher, mother, secret lover. Why must you treat me so badly?
If the TV networks did decide to offer downloads at a cost, would they still include advertisements in the download, or would the cost of the download be sufficient to make up for the lost advertising revenue?
I'm fairly certain it takes 8 months to change all instances of "Hello" to "G'day!" and all instances of "fries" to "chips." Really, aside from that, Australian people aren't so different after all.
It's not just things being 8-12 months (on average) behind, say, the US or UK, it's also the insistence of the commercial networks (specifically Channel 9) to drop series without notice, schedule program episodes in the wrong order, or change the scheduling of episodes at the last minute.
I'm not surprised that people are taking television programming into their own hands in this country...
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I got StarGate Atlantis because I didn't think they were going to show it at all. However, now they have (gah!). That's not the only reason I'd use it though: the networks are notorious for rescheduling shows at inconvinient times - or they drop them altogether! So hence we need to use BitTorrent.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I don't understand how media companies can be so far behind on figuring out digital distribution over the internet...
We are one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. Back to you with the weather, Bob!
With my dialup internet connection, it would take an average of four months to download it from Bittorent!
riveting stuff... of course american networks should just make their tv shows available for a fee, and allow international customers with a valid credit card or paypal to purchase the content too. I'm sure however, that the networks make far more money hawking the tv shows abroad to other networks after they've had their run in the states.
Yay me! ^^
"programs are at times behind by up to 8 months" whaaaatttt??? I guess I can still go there and watch the last episode of FRIENDS being aired for the first time :)
fuvoo: watch something
I didn't know australians had television....isnt that an island full of convicts?
Yes, sort of like the US, NZ and every other country that the British once colonised.
Thank you for your valuable contribution to slashdot.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
Its not like we dont have these satellites and stuff that can beam programming around the planet in the course of a few seconds, especially for english speaking countries like the UK and Australia... even if its a few days behind, its better than 8 months.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
My limited knowledge of Australian TV has shown me that Aussies prefer BBC programmes over what's showing in the US.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
so whats the reason for their networks being so slow? I wouldnt imagine distance or anything like that... Yet this is really nice, maybe they can start some high-bandwidth web-tv type thing:) Maybe that can be the next big this (yes it may already be there but not really efficient or widely used)
Typical Corporate response: Fight the technology, instead of the real issue. Lets say they can defeat the torrent, then what? You have to fight every other method of downloading the episode, and then just for fun lets say they succeed at that, you'd have to fight someone in another country sending someone a tape of the episode.
The correct answer is: If this is truly affecting your business, then you need to provide the customer with what they want, in a way that will allow you to realize a profit. Get the episodes on in a timely fashion, and they will watch.
Don't Tread on Me
These spinoff shows are getting more and more ridiculous.
Still...could be a winning combination. The desperate housewives lost on a deserted island slowly getting killed one by one, interspaced with plenty of swimming in lagoons in bikini scenes. Any TV execs out there listening?
If it takes 30 years for a prog to reach alpha centauri surely Ozzies can wait 8 months. And you call us Poms whingers! Join the bloody queue mate.
Which is the greater evil: ignorance or apathy? I dont know and I dont care.
I thought it was kinda funny. I'm pretty sure that was his intention in which case, people need to lighten up.
Four roommates. No microwave. You do the math.
Why do Aussies need to watch Lost?
They can just walk out the back door to see people die from the Outback.
Hopefully there is some entrepreneuring Aussie television network that understands this market and can use their leverage as a broadcaster to quickly get this media to those that demand it. Or they could be non-capitalists and just complain about this and ask for legislation, but I wouldn't expect a business to do this... C'mon boy's, go get 'em! There's gold in them hills!
"If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, A hope-er, a pray-er, a magic bean buyer
Sounds suspiciously similar to the way movies are released around the world. Granted, things have been improving recently, with major releases being almost simultaneously released. But not too long ago it would often take several months before a movie released in the US would make it overseas.
I had downloaded and seen the full season of Stargate: Atlantis a whole 3 months before Channel Seven decided to screen it.
I'm doing it now with the new Doctor Who and CSI as well, as the free to air TV channels are all filled with repeats.. Pay TV is only slightly better.
To NULL or not to NULL.
There are a number of articles that describe a process known as "broadcatching." Basically it uses RSS feeds from certan TV torrent sites and a BitTorrent client. EnGadget has an article describing this, and how to do it. It's what I do and I don't even live outside of the US! Shows usually come out an hour or two before they broadcast in my local area, which means, for example, I can download the HDTV version of my favorite show (without commercials) and finish watching it even before it starts in my time zone. Amazing!
Movies too. Some of the most interesting movies get released at the same time world-wide, but for others we're up to six months behind the northern hemisphere - I'm in NZ, not Australia, but the problem is similar.
In the case of NZ, though, there is an extra obstacle in the form of a telecommunications monopoly keeping a stranglehold on all ISPs so that all broadband accounts are capped -- usually at 10 GB per month -- though some allow downloads beyond that limit, only at dial-up speeds. This means that downloading isn't quite as viable an option here as it is in Australia.
If Canadians weren't largely capable of getting American satelite signals on the grey and black markets for the last 2 decades then chances are we could have wound up in a similar pickle where if CTV or CBC or Global didn't pick up a show, we'd simply not be able to see it for months. Although Canadian cable and satellite offer ABC, NBC, and CBS the primary US Networks, and have for decades. Thank goodness for geography.
Anyway, as far as Bit torrent goes, I don't think Australia will be the first country to authorize it's TV stations to go with Bit torrent "broadcasting". I predict it will be a Scandanavian country that will break the mold, and pave the way for TV distribution for the next 5 years before the next best thing comes along.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
The West Wing is currently stalled about halfway through Season Five in Australia on free-to-air. The last episode of Season Six screens in the US this coming week. The channel that has the rights over here won't even state whether it's coming back at all, let along when. Pay TV (cable or satellite) isn't a solution - one cable channel is currently screening repeats of Season One). In addition, I own the first four seasons on DVD and intend to purchase S5 and S6 on DVD as soon as they become available. So, you'll just have to pardon me for not feeling particularly guilty about having seen ripped episodes that are yet to air down here.
yes, hence the nickname OZ.
mainly because the networks there are so slow; programs are at times behind by up to 8 months!
Or sometimes not at all.
I don't know what's worse... not getting the shows at all or getting one or two episodes before the network decides to air it at 2am every second Tuesday, which ends up being a repeat anyway. And then finally taking it off the air without even so much as a "Fuck you, we're outta here."
As an example, it took four years to air two seasons of Scrubs and that was with about six randomly omitted episodes. Then they showed three episodes randomly from the first dozen episodes of season 3 and then took it off the air completely.
If I had to pay a few bucks a week to get my regular shows as non-stream, non-DRM files, I'd gladly fork out for it. I travel a lot so I like to transfer stuff onto my laptop so I have something to watch to pass the time; If I have to be constantly streaming something or can't transfer the file to another computer I own, then forget it.
Your comment is entirely accurate, except with respect to New Zealand: people came here willingly, because they were trying to escape from Britain. Thank you for your attention.
Yep, that most definitely pisses me off (though I don't tape). StarGate, even a few years ago, got shifted around ridiculously (it happens to be one of my favourite shows). I can see that this same thing is going to happen to BattleStar Galactica. Time to start downloading!
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I never understood the concept behind either paying for TV show downloads, or for the broadcast networks rejecting the medium. Last I checked, broadcast television access was free. It's free because they show several segments of advertising in the middle of the show. Why would the medium matter to these companies? Why stick with television sets?
The advantage of downloading stuff is that you can watch it whenever you want. My schedule may not permit me to watch the shows I want. If you give me the same exact show with the same exact ads over the internet, I will gladly watch it! With the ads! I don't give a damn about the show not being ad-free, and I don't give a damn about them even developing a technology preventing you from fast-forwarding past the advertising. I'll watch the damn advertising, just like I watch it on TV. Just let me watch the damn show at the computer if the need strikes me! You lose NOTHING. Even if someone does fast-forward through the commercials, someone else will watch the same file TWICE, thus increasing their exposure to the advertising. Is this not an acceptable trade-off?
UNIX: A computer user is defined as a programmer. WINDOWS: A computer user is defined as a consumer.
This has not yet appeared on fairfax web site but is in their print edition (ed. heavy weight newspaper publisher in Australia).
Online ads embarrass big companies.
HIGH-profile Australian companies are advertising on peer-to-peer websites that facilitate piracy of programs,
Among those found to have advertised on such sites such as Pirate Bay and TorrentReactor are Foxtel (ed. major pay TV network) (owned by News Corp, Telstra and Kerry Packer's PBL (ed. owner of most popular TV channel and may print magazines)),
Yeah, we don't want people thinking that the nickname "Oz" comes from the pronunciation of the first syllable of "Australia" or anything.
- Chuq
The title is a bit misleading in its current form , after reading the artical i find that it should be "Aussie TV Networks sit around doing little ". ,German TV dubs programs and i hate dubbing(that and i dont own a TV anymore though i do have access to one if needed).
. ,People hate adverts (20 minute shows that last 45 minutes due to 25 minutes of intersperced Crap for things that i do'nt need or want and am less likely to buy after being forced to view the tripe that they purvay) and finaly its just so dammed cool at the moment ( i ran out of good reasons).
This is a world wide phenominon and i personaly download some TV shows , One simple fact why i do it here
Its more than just the fact the TV shows are not broadcast in a region in a timely fashion or that they want an origional show when they want it
DVD-/+R/rw and CD-r/rw are far cheaper than comparitive vhs tapes , Having the show exactly when you want it without having to worry about setting the recorder (etc) is relaxing
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
There are far more high rating American programs the British ones. The current top twenty are all American or Australian. "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" are the current heavy hitters with various CSI variants continuing to have a solid impact too. Data for the last ratings period.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
They've been doing that for years now. They did it for the X-Files as well - as a consequence we're always behind from the U.S.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
that other English speaking countries are unable to make their own TV shows and must therefore import everything from the US (especially stuff like the West Wing).
Not that the US would run their shows (except rarely on PBS) , but maybe they could make something successful at home.
The beacon of Western civilization.
Farmix
I am an australian who has been using bittorrent for many months now *over 1 year I think* and I use azureus + the RSS feed pluging to auto scan btefnet.org and grab all the latest episodes of the Simpsons, Desperate Housewives, Medical Investigations, Battlestar Galactica and others. No adverts and easily faster than the commercial channels, For example, I STARTED downloading the FULL battlestar galactica first season PLUS the two 'mini series' shows AFTER if had completed airing in the US, and I still had all 5.0Gb downloaded before the free to air channels started the mini series.
DSLIP Web Design and Content Management Australia.
I thought it was kinda funny. I'm pretty sure that was his intention in which case, people need to lighten up.
If you look at his posting history you will see that for whatever reason most of his posts seem to end up at -1. So its probably not just my perception of this post, its that of a lot of people who had mod points. Maybe he doesn't intend this, but he certainly achieves it in his posts.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
? I thought it was due to the yellow brick roads , emerald citys and perhaps the sounding of AUS(Oz)trallia.
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
They START at -1.
That means few mods ever see it, and he'll likely spend the rest of that account's life in the hole.
Your comment is entirely accurate, except with respect to New Zealand: people came here willingly, because they were trying to escape from Britain. Thank you for your attention.
My apologies, I was actually unaware that the British never sent anyone to NZ - I just presumed, incorrectly as it turns out.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
It's really pretty easy to find torrents of shows produced here in the US, but what about shows produced in Europe (or anywhere else, for that matter)? I have been able to find BBC shows and other British specials, but non-English is few and far between.
Granted, I'm probably in the minority, but people looking for U.S.-based content have it pretty good compared to those of us looking for original non-English content.
When one of the comercial networks DOES decide to show some SF, it generally put in a terrible timeslot (10:30pm, 11:00pm, even 12:00pm), which moves around by up to an hour (I'm not kidding) and gets bumped at the slightest suggestion of a sporting event or third-rate special.
now we see how tv networks are similar beasts to the movie and music industries.
what's that saying about don't ever change and wither and die?
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
I'm proud to be the "owner" of all 9 seasons of stargate (including atlantis) and be 10 episodes out ahead of "ALL NEW LOST EPISODES ON CHANNEL 7!!!!!" why? Because I want to view quality TV, minus the ads, when they're officially released, not when channel 7, 9 and 10 say so. Now, how can this be "illegal" when commercial TV shows them for our viewing "pleasure". Seeing as we dont pay for commercial TV etc. However if i recorded them off the TV with the VCR or DVR, without the ads, theres no problem at all. I say screw paying for TV. Screw paying to download new TV eps. Thats just stupid. How about Aussies send the commercial TV stations the message, and download all the TV shows they want to watch? why? because theres nothing like running a 12 month late TV series only to find noone is actually watching it. Cmon you pussies, pull your heads out your arses and fight it! paying more to watch TV isnt gonna solve anything, but boycotting idiocy is.
Not to knock the parent post's choice of commercial watching...but..
I learned the behaviour of muting commercials from my parents, and didn't really notice other people didn't mute until my later teens or so. Hell, I totally zone out when it's a commercial.
Even on TV I don't bother watching ads I grab some food, talk to someone, or whatever.
Anyone else out there that mutes ads?
:wq
Seriously. Just a lot of conscientious Australian slashdotters? What causes the fascist undercurrent in Australian national policy?
Seriously, I'd give you all my mod points if I had any and it was possible to give more than 1.
SF television programs have never been treated seriously by the television stations here in Australia. Babylon 5 was initially shown *out* *of* *order* and the "Footy Show" would routinely displace following SF shows by up to half an hour because the show was running over time. When I was a kid, it took several summer holidays to *never* see the entire television adaptation of "The Tripods" because the station would just pull the series when regular programming returned. Even now, any SF series that do screen are on late at night, and delays of more than a season are common (i.e. Buffy, Ange, X-Files). This delay means the Internet is loaded with spoilers.
For these reasons, we would originally get friends to send video tapes from the USA. For these reasons, a lot of people now use the file transfer technology du-jour (Napseter, BitTorrent, Direct Connect, whatever) to grab shows.
As the networks have for a very long time shown that they do not value SF programming, they have absolutely no sympathy from me. If the shows had screened in a timely manner, not been relegated to graveyard slots and not been chopped and changed, people would have not bothered with all this effort and just watched live to air. And I'd get cable TV if it was any good, try getting a cable package that *doesn't* include sport and a bunch of other junk I don't want). If we got to keep SBS and ABC, I'd gladly sacrifice the lot to the FTA as I am bloody well sick of lifestyle and reality shows.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
On the commercial networks like Channel 7, 9 and 10 most of our content is Amercian, not British. If you watch the ABC (govt controlled and owned) you get more British content. And no ads in the shows.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
They keep repeating old eps of Frasier and wont show the new eps... why ?? To quote a channel 9 programming exec, " Why bother showing the new eps when the old eps rate so well ! " Don't get me started on Duckman !!!!
I think the real unsung heroes of this are the kind souls who actually do the capture and encoding, ready for the torrents to start flying about the world.
Case in point: Doctor Who: The End of the World
The most recent Doctor Who aired 7:00 pm Saturday night, UK time. By Sunday morning, Australian time, there were enough torrent seeds to have it a high quality 350MB DivX on my hard drive in less than an hour.
Given the 11 hour time zone difference, that's a very quick turnaround, and a very professional piece of capture and encoding. I don't know who originally sourced it (not even an ugly watermark to quench his/her ego!), but my warm thanks to you. There's no sign of the local broadcaster acquiring it for at least the next 6 months.
Yeah, I guess you're right. He probably meant to be a prick, I just saw a possibly funny interpretation of it. Oh well.
Four roommates. No microwave. You do the math.
This is a complete non-surprise to anyone in Australia that a) wants to watch TV and b) is aware of this Internet thingo and c) has heard of BitTorrent.
Not only do we often have to wait months, if not years to actually GET a series (assuming its not exclusive to one of the cable TV services, which STILL aren't available in many areas), they often find ways to screw them up.
Examples:
- Season one of Scrubs was shown by one of the networks. Season two started - six episodes into the season, if I recall correctly.
- Desperate Housewives just returned last night, after a three week break because there was something else on the networks wanted to cover
When you can download the entire season (probably in HDTV) and watch it without ads and without having to wait weeks for the networks to get their shit together (and without having to pay AU$60/month on cable, if you can even get it, which I can't, whine!), its not surprising.
(Add me to the list of people that would happily, ecstatically, and joyfully shell out money to buy fairly priced xvid/divx versions of US TV shows that I simply can't watch over here - shit, I'd probably then go and buy them on DVD as well)
And reality television shows. I can't believe we're going to get ANOTHER freaking Big Brother. How boring can one show get? That shows caused the IQ of Australia to decrease over a 10 week period.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Someone mod that up!!!!
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
For those in Australia who have cable tv, can you tell us how much earlier you get your shows compared to free tv? I remembered when pay tv was introduced in Australia, it felt like some shows (e.g. the simpsons) were delayed for free tv even longer (it's probably just me though).
If local TV channels offer HDTV show for download, I certainly like to subscribe instead of having cable TV. Certainly beat the sometimes it work, sometimes it doesnt due to TV signal not strong enough
:)
Yeah, and like TV show - watch it once is enough
You know how much Australian TV SUXS???????
All that I can watch is the Simpsons which runs for 30 minutes and more often than not it is a re-run! Everything else is the crappy "realty" TV or "American Idol" rip offs.
It's bloody annoying mate.
The explosion of BT has shown that the net now has enough bandwidth to distribute TV shows.
Surely a custom, encrypted and DRM'd player and torrent style client would now work for downloading TV shows. I'd pay a buck or two for each episode of BattleStar Galactica if I could download reasonably quickly and without hassle.
Most if not all HD programs filmed in the US are downgraded to 576p, if not worse for viewing on australian TV.
Plus the 5.1 soundtracks are downmixed to 2.0 on the majority of programs.
Believe it or not, but Lost on my 62" DLP TV looks ** BETTER ** on the 350mb avi downloaded from the net than it does when broadcast by Channel 7 in so called 576p "HD".
Isn't SBS partially government funded?
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
After spending a week in Melbourne, I found myself scouring the net back in San Francisco for episodes of John Safran vs. God -- probably the best television I've ever seen, although it doesn't have much of a chance of ever playing in Bush's America.
And yes, I bought the DVD (AFTER watching everything on BT; the quality was better, and I wanted to support John), even though I had to ship it overseas. So did a friend I introduced to it.
There are at least three things certain in life:
When cable TV was beginning to offer premium channels in the U.S. the expectation was that since you were paying for the channels, you wouldn't have to watch commercials.
That didn't last.
Now, commercials are even being shown in many movie theaters in the U.S. The commercials are shown during the time advertised as the start of the movie, so it's not like you only see them if you're early to a show.
I'm not surprised one bit that people are retaliating against the sensory overload of obnoxious product propaganda, both in TV and in the cinema.
According to the article I read at lunch time, it's because they use a third party marketing company to do this. They weren't aware of this till recently - they'll get taken down soon.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
nah, you missed the final Friends.
The final ep of Everyone Loves Raymond airs soon.
Mongrel News all the news that fits and froths
Well, economics for falling viewership will impact them pretty badly also.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
It makes more sense to buy the show from the producer and cut out the middleman
We can already watch, archive, and rewatch these shows for free under the current advertisment system. It is should not be hard to extend the current streaming media systems to include advertisment tracking for per view ads like on normal television. The costs for setting up and running a webcast are signifigantly smaller than setting up and running a broadcast system.
So then why are networks going absofuckinglutely apeshit over the thought of an ip based telecast (ie streaming video). It has many benifits over the current system, with fewer drawbacks, and has no new drawbacks.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
These two shows are an interesting example of Aussie TV hegemony. Channel 7 airs them both and for some reason put them on a two week mini hiatus over easter. Presumably because it works nicely for their schedule later in the year. I wonder how many desperate housewives here went to their husband/son/boyfriend/daughter/workmate etc and said "you know how to get TV shows off the internets don't you???"
The networks might get away with it this time but they'll get burnt sooner or later.
Thanks, lame non-US broadcasters!
You've contributed hugely to the popularity of BitTorrent, making it easier for me, an American, to download episodes of the West Wing. As always, the misery of people overseas works to my benefit! I hope Australian TV continues to suck.
Speaking of lousy TV: I can't even get NBC without subscribing to a pay service. I live in San Francisco. KRON-4, formerly the local NBC affiliate, decided they didn't need NBC anymore, or something like that, and *poof*, Channel 11 in San Jose became our local affiliate. San Jose is 60 miles away, and San Francisco's hills impede reception. So now, instead of the West Wing, we get locally produced filler such as hastily thrown together archive footage of the 1906 earthquake and such. Yay.
I used to subscribe to digital cable, but now it would cost me like 80 bucks a month to get all the channels I want. And there's really only 5 channels I want, but of course cable is structured so that you also have to pay for a bunch of channels you don't want. In better times I would have sucked it up, but these days, if I have to choose between DSL and cable TV. Well... it's not a difficult choice.
The reason we download TV shows here is simple - the networks don't have their shit together!
The world according to Networks Australia:
The TV guides are just that - a rough guide to what we think we might be airing, but don't take it as gospel, we will alter it at a moments notice and air your favorite programs at 3 in the morning when we suddenly discover every other crap has been played 4 times already.
When we do play a season, we will constantly move its time slot and play them back to back to finish it when the footy season starts.
Once we discover a program that earns good ratings we will repeat it at every opportunity and buy all the spins offs and flog them to death until you are sick of it. See CSI as a good example.
We will try new program material at 11pm when nobody is watching. When it starts to build a following we will move it to 4:15am every time the planets align. When you find it again we'll axe it citing poor ratings.
I am sick of trying to find my favorite programs (what the fuck happened to West Wing?) and decided to download them and watch them whenever I have the time or inclination. (side note - we have Tivo type technology that will automatically record shows I like whenever they are on - dammit).
Stop bitching about the customer and give them what they want!
I don't make predictions, and I never will.
I'm one of those Aussies. I watch several shows a week via torrent. Here's why:
- Lost is 11 episodes behind;
- Alias Season 4 hasn't begun;
- 24 Season 4 hasn't begun;
- The West Wing has been cancelled partway through Season 5 (which was begun after Season 6 started in the US!) and has always been shown after 10:30PM here.
Same goes for many other shows, most of which I don't watch, or don't care enough about to download. The HDTV rips I can watch on my computer, and the quality is excellent. Sometimes I cut to SVCD if my wife wants to watch them as well (she will sit in front of the PC, but isn't a fan of it).I watch them, and then delete them. I'll be buying then on DVD as soon as they are available to me.
Frankly, Australian free-to-air networks haven't the faintest. Then again, nor does our (essentially one only) pay-tv provider, which I subscribe to onlyfor the 24x7 news and Super 12 Rugby.
Who'd pay to be advertised at? (OK apart from sky subscribers.. :-\ )
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The Aussie TV networks are not fighting Bittorrent. They probably didn't even consider the impact until it started rearing its head in the news that people could do this. Perhaps you could point out where they are attacking TV Bittorrent? Like the MPAA and RIAA, they aren't going to attack the problem until it becomes too big to ignore.
TV in Australia sucks. I only watch it for the news nowadays. I also can't be bothered so rearrange my schedule to sit in front of a TV for one of my favorite shows anymore. I also can't stand waiting for next weeks show of a popular series when I know its already out there. And you get a lot of cred with your peers for seeing the show before it airs. When people say to me "Hey Battlestar Galactica is coming on to TV", I can say "Watched it AND the subsequent TV series a few months ago."
Channel 7, 9 and 10 can bite me. Channel BT ownz j00.
I live in Australia, and countless times have I been in a situation where I am sick to death of being 6 months+ behind the US timetable to fit in with our crappy Australia network schedule.
All these times I have gone to their US site, whether it be HBO or NBC or whatever to see if they have pay download prescriptions. I for one would definately pony up money to watch pay per episode just to see the damn thing.
We still havent seen the end of Frasier!
How many damn repeats have we seen of Frasier....
Sopranos also has been laging badly behind.
I usually end up just going to script sites to find out what happens because I loose interest too quickly.
US Networks - build a pay system and you'll get a flurry of watchers begging to get streamed content.
However, if they don't get viewers, they don't get advertisers. If people use BitTorrent to get shows they want to watch because they won't show these tv shows, then tough to the networks.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
If the commercial networks don't want me watching then that's no major loss for me, but I own a part of ABC, as does every taxpayer in the country. I like their content and the way they are pushing new technology in terms of broadband video on demand, digital radio, and digital television multicasting. Not only is it a bloody shame they're neglecting their viewership, but it's our responsibility to let them know that we don't like it before it becomes the norm (the excuse they used was that "the other stations are doing it").
I urge everyone who is as offended as I am to contact the ABC and let them know how you feel. With a large response to the watermarking they _will_ look into it. You can contact the ABC here.
Here's what I sent:
You may use that as I guide if you must.
C'mon Australian Free to air actually do something intelligent ??? hell no they can shows with high ratings and put on "Unreality TV" and run the whole season even when it's ratings suck ! anyone remember hot house ! or the current X-factor.
That didn't flop. Hellboy did I think.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I've been ordering DVDs of my favourite shows on Amazon. This is technically illegal and costs me money. Pshaw!
I’m old enough to remember 16K of memory being described as “whopping”
8 months for a TV show to get here would be *very* good. Usually it's a lot worse.
Take this example, Star Trek: Voyager. I believe the final episode aired in the US in mid 2001? We saw it late last year... That's getting close to FOUR YEARS BEHIND.
It's really quite sad.
And to top that, our two main Pay TV operators here, Foxtel and Optus are even worse then the free-to-air broadcasters when it comes to airing new shows.
Not to mention that the networks are going all insane over PVRs, doing *everything* possible to make sure their guide data does not go near PVRs, including sending cease and desist letters to PVR groups dedicated to Australian users. These groups have had to take more borderline legal approaches in order to have their beloved devices to continue working here.
Then add into the mix that all the main free-to-air broadcasters usually "mistakenly" go over their allocated timeslots by a minimum of 8 minutes, a lot of the time closer to 15 during prime-time, and I'm not talking once or twice, I'm talking *every* weeknight
I'm starting to get the feeling, "Why bother"? Now, time to find a torrent for a TV show...
</rant>
If the networks are so slow, what good is ANY kind of p2p software?
or else!
Don't spend the money. You're welcome.
Now if only I'd take my own advice and ditch this worthless cable package.
Your post makes no sense.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
We get shows months late, the networks cut out parts of each popular show to fit more ads in, the country is sports mad so they will pre-empt a show for even the stupidest sporting events and worst of all for me, I have to watch the shows when *they* say I have to. With my job I'm lucky if I'm even near a TV when most things are aired.
:-)
I live in Sydney, I pulled my antenna out of the wall a year ago, cancelled my foxtel pay tv and used the money to rent a server in the US. That server runs a bittorrent client that uses RSS to auto grab the TV shows I watch as they are released. I log in and download them from my server at leasure. The server rental includes over a terrabyte of transfers, while my local ISP only gives 10GB of transfers a month then they shape you to dial up speeds, however if you get the timing right you can pump 40gigs through before they hit you with that.
The upshot of all this is ad free, DVD quality shows in widescreen available hours after they air in the US (and UK, thanks to uknova.com) that I can watch whenever I want, on whatever I want. I have a HTPC connected to my TV but if I want I can watch stuff on my work PC, laptop or even my PDA.
I haven't seen a commercial in 13 months, or missed a single episode of any show I like. Hell some of them I don't even watch - I have over 100 hours of downloaded shows I still have to get to someday. I only watch a few hours a week, now the computer watches them for me I don't have to
.. I live in a regional area. You don't know how good the capital city guys have it until you're limited to two or three channels, all of which have as little variety as humanly possible (Football, Cricket, Cricket, Football, local fuzzy news..).
I have pay TV for the nights when I'm too damn tired to do much else. I pay $100 a month for this service, because it's the only way to get the movie channels and the science-type channels all in one package. I can easily say I'm not getting my moneys worth, but with bandwidth being so damn expensive out here (currently paying $60 a month for a 1.5meg ADSL link with a 10 gig limit..) cutting the pay TV out and going to a download-only system doesn't do me any favours either. Pay TV lags behind the states a hell of a lot and it's about 60% repeats (I shit you not, there are entire channels dedicated to repeats..). We're still getting first run seasons of Everybody Loves Raymond and other such crap on a regular basis.
I just wish I had the will to cut TV out altogether, but I'll be honest and say I'm not that kind of person. I do enjoy the news channels, the Discovery channel gets a lot of airtime in my home, I just wish I was getting value for money instead of paying stupid amounts of cash because I have no other option...
Television is an antisocial virus that is affecting peoples brains. Remember patience is a virtue.
Reading the posts here, it seems that people are just oblivious to the logistics of importing a (US) TV Show.
The biggest problem isnt the distribution (tapes can be sent the same week). What about local ratings and decency laws? What about text for the hearing impaired? And think nothing of the varied cost structure linked to how "old" the series is (8 months old is much cheaper to license!).
Take that into consideration when you effectively steal a show (that is, with advertising removed)!
=== huff ends ===
We don't download them to watch. As part of the free trade agreement between the US and Australia, we are providing you with off-shore storage in case of disaster.
Its all about disaster recovery these days and being the caring nation, we're just trying to do our part.
fish and pipes
Maybe, but if everyone bought their TV programs straight from the networks in the US, then all the TV stations in AU would go out of business.
I'll let you decide if that's a good or a bad thing.
According to an independent study, it takes an average of four months to watch the latest episodes of top-rated shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives. Four months is impressive. It would take me much longer to make it through an episode of "Desperate Housewives."
Now we have something called the "X Factor" - the same thing only on a different network. Basically, Australian television networks don't do ANYTHING original. They just regurgitate UK and American crap. For instance, we're about to get Big Brother AGAIN - I hope that it damages Channel 10's ratings so badly they never do it again.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
Smallville. Fuck you, Channel 9.
Don't know what you mean by "local ratings", but the U.S. has far stricter decency laws. For instance, we can allow swearing on television. From what I understand you can't do that on American network television.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
That was me at one point. Now my karma is excellent. Go figure.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
10-15 odd years ago i used to watch TNG. Channel 9 kept moving it around until finally settling on a timeslot around 11pm. I say around 11pm, because it was never actually on time. Sometimes it didn't start at all. Sometimes they would play repeats. There is no justification for repeats in the middle of a season when we are already seasons behind the US. So i gave up and stopped watching! I only started watching it again lately since i can download it.
AFAIK channel 9 and the aussie networks brought this on themselves. I have a long memory and i'm sure many other people do to.
No, no, no. It just seems like four months when you're watching it.
As a capital city person I think you are thinking the the grass is greener on the other side...
I live in a suburb in Brisbane (3rd largest city) and the same sat broadband would cost me $90 due to the fact the government only subsidises it for rural users.
I live in a townhouse complex (mostly due to cost) which gives me the joy of being connected to my local exchange via a RIM and thus can't get ADSL.
Also neither cable company will cable into a townhouse complex so we probibly have the same sat dish as what is on your roof.
I would gladly trade you 2 free to air channels for $30 cheeper broadband.
Theres no reason why the networks can't show stuff earlier, I say keep downloading until they get their act together - people want to watch things and they don't care where they watch them, either put them on YOUR network first or loose viewers.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
I'm sure I've heard of other BT sites being taken out by other organisations.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
In your area, you no doubt have easy access to perhaps several movie cinemas, entertainment districts, a few theatres maybe? Entertainment isn't all that thin on the ground I'm sure. Suffice to say if I was in Perth (for example), I wouldn't even bother with PayTV. There's plenty of other things to occupy ones time in a capital city.
On the edge of a desert we have one cinema (often several months behind in the lackluster selection of films screened on its 'falling apart' screens..) or going outside to kick a bit of dust around. When it's 43 degrees (C) outside for days on end and you don't feel like dodging big lizards for a laugh, Pay TV is where it's at.
Really I'm just pissed their plans are so inflexible. $100 a month is not good value, and when bundled in with my other Telstra services, I'm paying almost $400 a month to those bastards and getting approximately dick in value.
My only other option? Go with other providers and get nothing. So us country guys are left with a bad option, or a worse option.
I don't think yanks realise just how hard any kind of comms of broadcasting can be to get down here.
Foxtel, one of the Australian Pay-TV providers, is also terrible. You pay $60-$100 for a huge amount of useless channels and the few tv series you actually want to watch, do not necessarily play in the proper sequence.
- Desperate Housewives just returned last night, after a three week break because there was something else on the networks wanted to cover
No ratings are recorded over Easter, ratings == advertising dollars, therefore there is no point airing the big shows.
It will show them. Go to the pub, learn to play some music, invite some neighbours over for tea, whatever.
I read that on average in the western world people watch anywhere between 2h and 4h of TV a day. These days it means 1h or so of commercials. Isn't there anything else to do?
If its eight months when they have a revenue stream let's see how long the wait is once all these short-sighted warezing idiots have their way.
I'm still waiting for Stargate SG1 season 2 to air in Sweden. :P
One thing people forget is that Australian's and NZ'ers get shows later is simply because we are in the southern hemisphere. Our non-rating summer session is in the middle of the US/UK winter. Prime northern hemesphere TV viewing. Also the networks like to save some series for later in the year because most shows dont make 50 episodes a session. Many only make 20 or so, enough only to last 5 months.
I'm Australian. I don't even watch TV anymore because it's so filled with utter crap, because I can't stand the commercials, and because I see the few things I care about at friends places months and sometimes years before it hits TV here.
Pay for downloaded shows? At decent rates, with guaranteed quality and no stuffing around? HELL YES, even if it's a buck an episode or something (adds up compared to renting the DVD later). <i>But only if there are no ads.</i> They grate on my so badly I just can't stand watching TV now, and that wouldn't change with downloaded episodes.
I'd like to think the service would not be DRM'd up the wazoo (given that the episodes can be obtained easily enough with bittorrent etc anyway, so it's not like they'd actually be protecting anything much), but I doubt we'd be that lucky.
Work 2 to 3 hours a day, and live fat and happy in a comfortable climate. What's the point of inventing agriculture, let alone science and engineering if things appear they'll stay this way in perpetuity?
None. They need enviromental pressure. And along came the internet.... It might be a curious little mammal preying on insects, eating seeds now, and surfing for busty asian porn but give it time.
As an expat working in Africa, it's next to impossible to watch any decent tv. I've watched many series - like Farscape, Stargate, etc *entirely* off the Internet. Whenever I travel, I bring my dvd collection up to date of the series that are available, and trash the divx's. The point is, I'd do this even if I was still living in the UK! I want to watch stuff when it's convenient for *me* not for the tv company or to fit into a prime time advertising slot. What's more I'd be happy to pay for it. "Piracy" isn't as simple as "theft" any more. It's about filling a consumer demand, and it's about time the distributors recognised this.
Sharing of information through the internet has become a real nightmare for the establishment: it offers the possibility to severely hit the mammoth profits of private corporations. That means the internet brings more democracy on the table. If the internet did not bring more democracy, the establishment wouldn't fight it. Some wise man has said that 'if democracy could change the system, it would not be allowed'. Well, it seems the internet may be able to change the system, so it has to be (at least) controlled.
Other countries have to run behind the US due the the insane American custom of spreading 22 new episodes out over 44 weeks (or thereabouts), and alternating a few new episodes, then a few reruns. No other country's TV-watching population would tolerate this, so they can't start to show a series until it's already been running in the US for six months, to ensure that they can actually show a 22 episode season over 22 weeks.
that the TV studios who make the shows sell them around the world. The stations that buy the rights don't automatically buy the rights to a show as soon as it airs in the USA. They need to know that it's successful and popular. They need to judge whether there is a profitable market for it in their home country. Then also the makers of the shows don't always offer the shows out for sale right away. Then there is the matter of TV schedules that are planned months in advance sometimes. Networks like to air certain shows at certain times of the year when the audience will be larger like the autumn or spring. It's no wonder that the rest of the world doesn't get to see everything at the same time.
In the US there are dozens of channels airing all these shows. In other countries there are a smaller number of channels for all the programmes to be shown on so not everything makes it through right away, or indeed at all.
Interesting side-note:
Some time ago one of the networks wanted to start a new channel. This would have meant that less mainstream shows (including the 'geeky' ones that we all get into) could be shown at reasonable times. They were attempting to respond to consumer demand.
The application went to the regulatory body and, you gessed it, it was refused. The reason given wasn't technical, or social, or reasonable. The reason was that 'there are enough channels already'.
Just my two cents...
Here we pay for Video On Demand and there is a cool "series" section where I can choose to see Star Gate Atlantis episodes 1-20. It plays them without commercials. It's great and none of the standard stations play them.
(Cogeco in Canada)
All TV should be VOD.
This is also the same for banks, insurers and other financial institutions. The traditional customers are not the customers anymore, the shareholders and investors are.
As far as the average joe goes, there seems to be no compitition in the banking industry. Across the board fee's are high, service is poor, and interest on savings is virtually nonexistent...
I remember a Current affairs program in Australia that did a test where they opened and account at each of the 4 major bank in Australia. Over the period of a year they withdrew and redeposited a certain amount of money each month and watched the balance shrink.
-- Cut and paste is not code re-use!
... are going to fight this, it'll be the American content producers. Many posts here have bemoaned the appalling treatment of shows, presumably this will give the Aussie TV networks less incentive to show stuff like this and then put on stuff they know will perform better instead. Of course, they'll buy less and less content from abroad because those who want that stuff badly enough are going to download it. Who does that hurt? The people who rely on TV exports to make their money back/profit from making a show. What I don't understand is why there aren't people rushing to at least try to make money on this. I'd love to be able to pay a set fee per month and download TV rather than wait for UK stations to pick things up. The TV show makers can be compensated from the funds that subscribers provide according to what shows are downloaded. As for current TV stations - the two methods of delivery are quite capable of co-existing! Television on a box isn't going anywhere for a while, this helps diversify productoin of shows as well help spread the risk - if stations see Show X performing well online, they can pick it up for broadcast on "normal" TV.
If you ever meet someone with an "Australian" accent ask them if they come from NZ if they do they will be pleased you noticed the difference and if not who worries about upsetting Australians.
kidding I like Australians except when there betting us at sport (which means I don't like them a lot of the time ;))
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
... considering Fox is owned by an Australian.
It is the commercial stations who are bound by legislation to show a certain amount of Australian content.
P.S. New Zealand content counts as "Australian".
The TV networks might get shows unedited - but it doesn't mean they show them unedited!
... ah, a little short. They dropped a few episodes, and edited others, to remove references to "Stargate: Atlantis" - so Ch 7 could run it after series 8 finished, rather than concurrently.
In case you didn't notice, the last series of "Stargate" shown here was
Mind you, that's actually fairly thoughtful for Ch 4:3. It's the only thing they've done in living memory that could even be remotely construed as "viewer-friendly"...
What part of "a well regulated militia" do you not understand?
Sure globalization is great. Corporations outsource high paying jobs to keep higher profit margins. But, when globalization interferes with region based releases it's a problem. I know it's a stretch to compare the two but it is all about a connected world.
"When I die, I want to go quietly, like my grandfather, in his sleep... not screaming, like the passengers in his car."
If you want to watch TV that badly, move to the USA
If you ever meet someone with an "Australian" accent ask them if they come from NZ if they do they will be pleased you noticed the difference and if not who worries about upsetting Australians.
You know that works for Americans and Canadians, too.
-- Nick "Hallo this is Beel Gates, und I pronounce weendows as
For those who do not know, the best site for TV torrents is BT EFNet. You can download many popular shows that have recently aired.
Always handy to know.
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
You'd end up with low budget crap shows. That's what happens in Canada, the odd good show but most are embarassing.
This is why Me and My wife don't watch new shows that much.
It kill continuity and the feel of the shows.
This is why DVD releases of TV shows are so popular.
Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
I live in the USA. Reverse the senario, but the shows I am watching (mostly) will never get airtime in the USA... Apparently shows in the USA get aired overseas a bit more often than the other way around.
For example, I've been watching "My Restaurant Rules" religiously via BitTorrent, and it's a breath of fresh air compared to the shoddy production value, plain silly reality TV shows here in the USA.
Also, I watch the UK version of "The Apprentice." It's much more interesting compared to the USA version, in my opinion.
These shows (and others I watch on a regular basis) will NEVER make it to the USA, and products marketed by the commercials have little to no target market in the USA.
Watch shows from overseas is great, regardless of the "legal" implications, because I doubt there are any -- and honestly, who gives a rip if some Aussie watches LOST 4 months before schedule? It's not a big deal.
Another example, "Dr. Who" -- I watched this show as a kid on PBS, and now after many many years new episodes are being produced again, which is AWESOME. I figure Dr. Who will eventually make it over here to the USA.
Eventually there will be MASS-MARKET video on demand via the net services, and they'll take off rather quickly...
Services like <URL:http://www.saltwaterchimp.com/> and <URL:http://www.everyshowsucks.com> are great, but need much more variety and backing from content providers before they take off in a bigger scale.
http://www.fsckin.com/
As I understood it downloading shows is only illegal if you aren't in a broadcast area.
To all those suggesting that networks should offer downloads at a price - its not going to happen. Until shows have worldwide simultaneous releases networks will not sacrafice the chance to sell broadcast rights. The amount networks could make from selling episodes is chump change compared to advertising & licensing.
And no, networks in country XYZ won't be offering downloads anytime soon as they haven't licensed for it. Until US networks make the content available online it won't be possible elsewhere. (Well, as far as US shows go)
If you ever meet someone with an "Australian" accent ask them if they come from NZ if they do they will be pleased you noticed the difference and if not who worries about upsetting Australians.
Ok, my turn to dispel the presumptions here.
I am actually Australian.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
This sort of thing is becoming more common. In the old days, the major networks paid their affiliates to carry the network's programming. The economics of television broadcasting have changed over the years, and the affiliates have lost much of their bargaining power. This has led the networks to push for revised affiliate agreements that reduce, eliminate, or reverse fees paid to the affiliates by the networks.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
well my presumation was american but im not worried about upseting you ;). I was told that joke by an Australian temp who managed to make up (or reuse) an insult for everyone in the office, Good times.
Saying Apple is better than MS is like saying Botulism is better than rabies.
First one that says Crocodile Dundee or Neighbors loses a testicle. Fosters is a kiling word. Penalties for others are too terrible to consider.
Sometimes at night I imagine the darkness is filled with horrible things with too many teeth, like Julia Roberts.
The advertisers are.
So, should I forward my cable bill to the companies I see hocking their wares on TV?
haha "8 months" is an understatement and only applies to the most popular shows.
Foxtel (our cable provider) is advertising Dead Like Me, a show that ran for 2 seasons and got cancelled in the USA as a "Whacky NEW show".
It's a bad joke and I have absolutely no conscience about any of it.
According to an independent study, it takes an average of four months to watch the latest episodes of top-rated shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives.
I must have even more lag in my over-the-air one-way distribution network. When did a show about housewives who are lost and desperate start airing?
I know, I know.
Mod away: (-1) Dumb Joke.
Goodbye.
Here in the netherlands, we kan watch all the shows on the public channel for free @ www.uitzendinggemist.nl
There's a theatre chain around here (Century Theatres, actually) that proudly states "No Commercials!" before movies.
They *used* to have the ads, but people complained about them.
In other news "King Canute fights tide".
Companies who don't learn how to operate in a web enabled world will perish. No matter how big or how small.
For any audio/video/media based business the cost of replication and distribution (via the internet) are now near zero (not including bandwidth costs).
Just think what will happen when we have full scale wireless community intranets ? Even more so when these all start linking to each other. On these networks there'll no longer even be central ISPs which can be regulated and bottlenecked. Throw in some as yet uninvented encrypting/stealthing technology and, unless you know about them (i.e. you've been invited to participate), you won't even realise they're there.
Sorry but record/radio/TV/film/media companies can cry, and bitch, and legislate, and fine, and scream etc. all they like. The simple fact is that they're going to have to adapt or die.
For all I know TV may shortly be replaced by locally produced amateur dramatics broadcast via wireless webcams. After all how many times have you opted to watch some god awful low budget crud rather than some hi tech, effects riddled crap ? I know which I usually prefer as there's more morbid yucks in the lo-fi stuff.
The magic powers of binary 1 and 0 have totally changed the playing field. You cannot hold back the tide or wish the genie back into the bottle.
Watching their increasingly silly antics is like watching a bunch of caterpillars yelling at butterflies to come back to the chrysalis (note to self: hammer nail into foot for making such a horrible "cutesy pie" analogy)
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
Why? I could think of no good reason. It takes days to ship packages around the world, but media (something that is usually transmitted by fiber optics or satelites) takes months?
No! It's a *SIG*. Keep the Special Interest Groups away! (Con joke!)
[momentary speechlessness]
What the fuck? That has to be the lamest justification for "piracy" ever.
It's not like most TV shows are brutally tied to real-world time. Lost? Not that I'm aware of. 24? Clearly not. We're not talking about TV news with tsunami reports taking eight months before they get broadcast. So Australia's TV programs are time-shifted forward by four months... poor Australians! That obviously makes experiencing those shows worthless. I mean, come on, without the Internet supporting cross-continental communications, how would you ever even know? So how can these even matter for the typical non-rabid fan? (Heck, a six-month delay would make the seasons match up.)
Yes, I realize from other comments there are other bad things about Australian TV; I'm just amazed at the anonymous submitter who had this as their only complaint, and even hammered on it twice. I mean, people griping about not seeing a program at all, that makes me remark on their apparently clueless entitlement and clueless lack-of-sense-of-proportion. Seeing it late? I don't even know what kind of cluelessness to accuse.
I guess that makes me a troll, but really. I mean, I often wait after a new book is released until it comes out on softback to buy it. That time delay has never noticeably hurt my experience in reading it. So... yeah. I don't get it. What's the actual problem with seeing a TV show four months late, other than envy and ingratitude? I mean, sure, I only saw Buffy on DVD, so I wasn't able to talk to my friends about it when they first saw it "in real time"; but assuming most Australians' friends are Australian, that can't be it.
"I was told that joke by an Australian temp who managed to make up (or reuse) an insult for everyone in the office"
Insulting people from other countries is a national sport for us Aussies!
Poms and Kiwis especially. It is fun to insult Yanks, but they just take it all so seriously.
Must... Resist... Power Puff Girls... Reference...
Broadcast Television is financed by commercials.
So Downloadable Television®, could also be financed by advertising.
Once the episode has finished airing, offer it for download (via bandwidth free Bittorrent).
Have commercials already in the file/download.
Come up with a "locked" format so that it will be difficult to edit out the commercials (but still allow fast forwarding!)
I think it makes alot of sense. I mean, with the advent of BitTorrent allowing limitless timeshifting, I actually watch MORE Television then I ever did. But I never turn on a TV Set! With their current model, shows must compete against each other (and for advertising $$$) in a set number of time slots!
If you allow individuals to download shows, to watch *when they want*, they will watch more TV, and watch it over and over.
People will share episodes, which essentially means they are doing your advertising for you.
Commercials will just be cut out, you say? Yes, episodes will be cracked, and edited. But it will take some effort. The General Public(TM) generally will not care to go the extra effort, and will just download the standard studio one. It's not DRM, we are always used to commercials, we can fast forward them if we want (high percision forwarding on computer media players is tough, so the majority won't bother, and just let the commercials play).
People watch MORE TV, and see MORE commercials, yet are MORE happy because they can watch anything they want, whenever they want, as much as they want.
If I was someone, like the Sci-Fi channel, you bet I'd be doing this. All it takes is a few leaders, and the major players will have no choice but to follow.
Aggies
it takes an average of four months to watch the latest episodes of top-rated shows like... Desperate Housewives.
I can vouch for that. I watched an episode of that network soap-opera schlock here in the U.S. and it seemed like a goddamn eternity.
all I can say is that I am glad in the UK we have BBC1 and BBC2 which have no adds what ever..ahh bliss. It was odd (but very very good)wathcing the box sets of friends that are colleting at my house, no breaks, its great
Visit My Blog at http://spaces.msn.com/members/chrisharries
Yes, sort of like the US, NZ and every other country that the British once colonised.
You seem to believe that the US, NZ, Austrailia, Canada, etc. are no longer British colonies. I contend that you all are still bending over for them. What some consider "investments", I call plain ol' colonialism. They're using money as the whip now instead of bullets. It provides for a very nice illusion, and most of you are falling for it. Jolly good show, I say.
We here have Sky satellite tv. the channels that Sky import are sold/leased to our only cable provider, TelstraClear.
So there is no choice in programming. You watch free-to-air, or whatever Sky decides.
When I could afford broadband, I used to download shitloads of TV shows off the net. Stuff like Firefly, Dead Like Me, Deadwood, Striperalla, etc.
So far, Firefly and Deadwood have made it to NZ TV, but they were a very long time coming. Now that I'm on dialup, I don't even bother.
Having said that, Sky have done one thing right, which hopefully is a promise of more good things to come. They just aired Wrestlemania XXI LIVE!
Originally they imported WWF/WWE and we were one month behind. Lots of people started complaining because of the delays. Even the magazines imported monthly were sometimes ahead of what was being aired here. It was an absolute joke. You couldn't view the WWE website because it was too far ahead.
Eventually Sky cut it down to a two week gap, and now it's spot on - we get it the same week.
But everyone in this country is at Sky's mercy.
I don't know how the TV execs don't understand that they are promoting the piracy. play it at the same time globally, and everyone will just watch TV.
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
Not to mention the issue of the big TV stations repeating shows in timeslots where, previously, only new episodes aired. Also their penchant for randomly changing timeslots to suit whatever dumbass Renovation Blitz Rescue BBQ Assault Force Grounding episode was doing up an old granny's footpath. How do they make money through advertising when they're driving viewers away? My family only watches cable channels now, where at least the repeats are MEANT to be there.
I've recently discovered the pleasure in downloading, medium,lost & stargate atlantis episodes. This way, i can watch the shows when i want and when my schedule suits me. This is fantastic. That means, if i've got important home work, but my favourite show is on, i can just download it and watch it later.
All downloads i get seem to be HDTVed, which is awsome. I'm luv'n it.
I haven't actually used BT for downloading TV shows, but I can think of a good reason for doing so over here (in Australia). Several of the networks (examples of Ten and Seven come to mind) have cut series midway just because the ratings trailed off a little. These were shows I was into and then all of a sudden they're gone, with not even a single announcement to say so. If the TV stations treat their loyal viewers like this then no wonder we'll turn to BT to pick up where they've left off.
The US has a population of more than 295 million " 295,814,290". according to the US census bureau. While you may think 250 vs 295 what is the difference? Think about it, that rounding error is TWICE the population of Australia.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Then Apple comes along and demonstrates indeed you can get a whole lot of people, many of whom already know how to easily get it elsewhere for free, to pay cash money for intellectual property if you come up with an alternative method that is more convenient and easier to understand and use, they will come and pay to use it. If you build it, in Apple's case an easier way to procure music and in the Australian case a way to download something otherwise not available for months, they will come and pay.
Glad to see that these television executives tackling the problem by means of legal threats (like the MPAA did), but of a better product that makes it more appealing to consumers (in this case I'm guessing) offering them to download it from fast and reliable servers without any risk of clicking something named West Wing and finding out they actually got an old Fraggle Rock episode, also possibly letting the user select the resolution and frame rate they want based on how fast their internet connection is and how long they want to wait. Whatever they do, if it's easier than tracking down another suprnova site, people will pay and it will be successful to a good degree. With all due respect to any of you who are lawyers, you are weak and not needed in this market.
You looking for the brite yellow "L" to be inked on your forehead?
-- zack
I'd downloaded and watched the first 12 episodes of CSI:NY before it was even on NZ's TV3. I like the hi-res format on the PC screen, great sound and and no ads. An episode takes barely 45 minutes to watch. Saves me time. A key point here is: I live in a rural area and free-to-air reception is crap. I don't want to pay $50 / month for satellite TV because you MUST take a squillion channels you don't want and it poor value for a guy like me who watches maybe 4-5 hours / month of TV. Had I not been able to see it this way, I would likely not have watched it AT ALL. If they would make these programs viewable / downloadable for $2-$3 each.....I'd probably pay for the ones I like or that I think I might like.
Only boring people are ever bored.
Australia has the infrastructure, that's not the problem. Lots of people I know have 8mbit DSL connections - i have a 1.5 megabit but will upgrade to 8 soon. The prices of these connections are very reasonable, too - price of a few coffee's a week for an 8 megabit link with say 20gig limits (shaped back to 1.5mbit after you go over 20, or you can pay extra, etc...) Things get better really fast too, soon that will be a 40gig limit and so on...
/. calls the "Joe Sixpack". JS likes TV because it's simple to use. Our most successful TV station (inventively titled "channel 7") is well known for finding the lowest common denominator, then dumbing it down a few more points again. Most of their TV is aimed at people with an IQ roughly equivalent to that of road kill. Especially their "news".
The problem is TV is marketed at what
Now these people aren't going to push the envelope on anything. They're the kind of people who buy the Australian rights to Futurama, then DON'T AIR IT. Simply to make sure that "Channel 10" (yes, they rack their brains over here for names) couldn't show it with the Simpsons.
You see - their demographic (the 50+ right wing kind who would vote republican if they lived in the US) simply won't watch a cartoon - it must be a kids show you see. I know this because i work with them and i saw what happened when channel 7 did try to air futurama - for about 2 weeks at 11pm...
Australia's TV market isn't driven by cutting edge shows or by pushing the envelope. It's driven by crap local drama like "Blue Heelers" - the number 1 show for years, in which a bunch of local cops solve petty crimes in a small town, where EVERY SINGLE WEEK the out of town visitor is the culprit.
Ads are moronic (the kind where people scream "bargain!bargain! I've gone CRAZY!!" over and over). And yet all the while the population isn't really that dumb. It's really odd but what it comes down to is most people watch TV to sit down and turn their brain off. Nerds like us watch it for something else but we're happy to download shows etc, no matter how hard or easy.
The TV execs need to see nerds as a viable market, not just something to make fun of. Time will do this, as they see the internet as something not just for nerds but for now, the single most likely way an Australian TV network is going to allow downloads is if someone else does it first and makes money and the Financial Review talk about it.
They will inovate nothing if there's no need to do it.
I want TV (scifi channel + simpsons + south park + PBS), anime, music, news, comics (and manga), software, and games all downloadable.
So far, we are legally at music (non-iTunes), news (free), software (mostly free). There's a limited amount of games and TV. It's also legal to download anime before it's licensed in the US.
But, there's no good, legal way to get mainstream TV, mainstream music, movies, or licensed anime. By "good" I mean "doesn't use my upload bandwidth" (because I'm on half-duplex), "saturates my download bandwidth", and "uses open standards" (or at least lets me use open source).
I make an exception for games. Use whatever proprietary shit you want as long as I can get the game under Linux without using upload bandwidth, and saturate my download bandwidth. It'd also be nice to let me transfer game content manually between accounts and computers -- I wouldn't be able to play without a legit account anyway.
The good news is, we're halfway there! There's magnatune, mindawn, megatokyo, red-vs-blue, steam, matrix online (I think), a ton of open source software available via HTTP, and bittorrent on unlicensed anime (which is often better anyway).
So hear me, O content providers! Finish the job!
Hear me, O Internet providers! Cheapen the bandwidth!
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
During the Sydney Olympics a mate of mine and I would hunt out Americans, and start chatting.
"So where do you come from?"
"The USA."
"Where's that?"
(Mate interrupts) "I heard about that country. Isn't that just south of Canada?"
Let me tell you, the look we got kept us going with the same gag for two whole weeks...
Cogito, ergo sig.