Video-on-Demand Success in France Deters Piracy

njondet writes "The Hollywood Reporter reports that TF1, the French broadcaster of the hit TV show 'Heroes' has welcomed the success of its video-on-demand (VOD) offering. The service allows French internet users to watch episodes of the second season of Heroes just 24 hours after their original US broadcast. With more than 50,000 paid viewings of the first episode in three days, it is by far the most successful VOD product in France. And although these figures still pale in comparison with the estimated 1.5 million illegal downloads per episode for the first season in France, TF1 is confident that it is building a viable alternative to piracy."

Comments

Are you astroturfing?

[Rix]

Because searching out and downloading videos is trivially easy. Head to ISOHunt or The Pirate Bay an hour or so after broadcast, and there will be hundreds or thousands of people seeding any tv show. They come in standardized formats and there isn't really any variance in quality.

However, you're right about people doing this as the only option. I don't subscribe to cable and I have no intention of ever doing so, so bittorrent is my only option.

On the other hand, pricing and product quality may make these services useless. I expect at least as high quality as I would get from bittorrent (meaning DRM is right out), and I expect to pay significantly less than DVD pricing.

Re:hm

[suv4x4]

With 24 hours after the US episodes they're probably 23 hours behind the pirates.

Uhmm, are you telling me you'd rather pirate it rather than wait 24 hours? Jesus.

Delays are a big problem when the series/movie come 6 months to full year after US release (or even more). That has made me pirate within days after US release.

But 24 hours. What will you think of to say if they start releasing it at the same minute?