How Battlestar Galactica Killed TV

Don Melanson writes "Following up on the MPAA going after torrent sites, you may be interested in Mindjack's latest feature - Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV by Mark Pesce. It includes a post-script written in reponse to the recent Torrent site shutdowns." From the article: "While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for 'word-of-mouth' to spread about Battlestar Galactica."

Comments

Typically Lame Thinking From Thieves

[reallocate]

>> ...Piracy made it possible for 'word-of-mouth' to spread about Battlestar Galactica.

Typically specious and lame thinking from jerks who want to steal and call it sharing.

What evidence exists that this show's ratings are atttibutable to pirates?

Their argument goes like this:

1. People pirated the show.
2. The show is popular.
3. Therefore, piracy made the show popular.

Got that?

Re:Great Show

[orthogonal]

As to why it is your problem, it means if you don't watch the show in a way ACNielsen tracks it, the show is more likely to go away.

So you're saying we should only trade bad shows over BitTorrrent, in hope they'll go away? That's just zocky!

You've convinced me! I'm going to reformat one of my harddrives and stock it full of NBC's Bible-based miniseries Christ vs. Satan smackdown, Revelations .

Uhm, do Fundies waiting on "The Rapture" know how to use BitTorrent? Maybe we could hand out CD-ROMs at Sunday schools and Revival meetings?

Maybe I'll have room for Fox's paean to the effectiveness and morality of torture as an everyday (every Day, get it?) tool of extra-legal terrorist hunting, 24. (Yeah, it's a decent show, but its pernicious message is, only naive Democrats don't enjoy breaking fingers for Patriotism.)