Slashdot Mirror
Who's Pirating Game of Thrones, and Why?
TheGift73 writes "In a few hours a new episode of Game of Thrones will appear on BitTorrent, and a few days later between 3 and 4 million people will download this unofficial release. Statistics gathered by TorrentFreak reveal that more people are downloading the show compared to last year, when it came in as the second most downloaded TV-show of 2011. The number of weekly downloads worldwide is about equal to the estimated viewers on HBO in the U.S., but why? One of the prime reasons for the popularity among pirates is the international delay in airing. In Australia, for example, fans of the show have to wait a week before they can see the latest episode. So it's hardly a surprise that some people are turning to BitTorrent instead. And indeed, if we look at the top countries where Game of Thrones is downloaded, Australia comes out on top with 10.1% of all downloads (based on one episode). But delays are just part of the problem. The fact that the show is only available to those who pay for an HBO subscription doesn't help either."
Well you have to wait a week AND have cable television which isn't anywhere near as ubiqutous as it is elsewhere in the world...
That week is critical to not seeing spoilers online, we live in an international community, forums inhabited by users all around the world, if half of them can't see the episode for a week+ that doesn't work.
Stop using scarcity with something that is an unlimited resource.
Stop forcing people to pay for packages. Stop forcing people to pay for networks. Stop using the limited countries mindset, those are artificial political boundaries.
Start making your shows available to everyone world-wide at the same second. Start asking for reasonable prices per episode, not a higher price than buying the DVD box set which you sell after a season is over.
Stop being dumbasses and start being smart. People want to see your shows, they just won't jump through your stupid, mindless 1950's hoops anymore.
The Oatmeal has already demonstrated the problem perfectly.
...But I didn't realize it until I left. Half of all the youtube videos I try to watch are blocked for one reason or another, Hulu, Netflix, and my Amazon Instant accounts were all out of commission, and iTunes was pretty much my last resort to stream content. I hate iTunes. I also hate trying to stream videos I own on Amazon through a proxy. Suddenly BitTorrent looks mighty friendly to a boredom-induced insanity.
The week delay wouldn't matter if everyone weren't connected via instant communication. Fans discuss shows online, so those that get it first start spilling spoilers all over the place. It's easier for many to go offline for a few hours and get the download, than it is to stay offline for a week (or months in the case of some shows). The regional delay in distribution is killing TV/Cable networks, yet they insist on holding on to the antiquated distribution methodology.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
Because we live in a society where everyone deserves everything. And no puppies are killed if you do download it. Solving piracy is pretty simple to do. Instead of threatening to sue, you send them a package with a dead puppy in it.
Cable television AND a subscription to HBO.
On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
"fans of the show have to wait a week before they can see the latest episode. So it's hardly a surprise that some people are turning to BitTorrent instead"
I live in Australia as well, and it's intolerable that we have to wait for our entertainment. I mean, those lazy American's are always a few days more entertained than we are!
Some fool tried to tell me that entertainment wasn't measured by the latency between a show airing and my viewing of it - how ridiculous!?!!? What a notion?
And don't get me started on the olympics - I'm considering suing the IOC everytime the Olympics are held abroad. I, and countless others Aussies, will have to wait til the evening to get any live action, whilst the English can watch it in the morning and afternoon as it happens. Outrageous!
sincerely, Balzi
"I split coffee all over my wife's nightie
It's not about having to wait. If the issue were just having to wait then people who now keep saying they would buy DVDs if they only cost $3 would wait the 18 months that it takes for big titles to end up in the clearance bins.
It's about the social network. In our increasingly socially connected world - one which even Microsoft is going to push further by making Windows 8 not about Windows, or the apps, but about sharing everything with your friends - if you don't watch Game of Thrones within, say, 2 weeks, you're already going to be bombarded with spoilers from people you follow on twitter, your friends on facebook, the people in your Google+ circle, etc.
The more people end up on these centralized social networks rather than their own fragmented pieces (Orkut, Hyves, whatever), the more people get exposed to that phenomenon.
You can liken this to some people who watch sports just because that's what their colleagues are likely to talk about at the watercooler, and they don't want to feel left out by not knowing a single thing about what's being referred to.
So if people on your social networks are discussing the latest episode of Game of Thrones, it's not so much the issue that you may only be able to see it (legally) a week later. It's that by the time that week is done, if you were to try talking about it it'd be like saying "The cake is a lie!" and "Bruce Willis is dead people!". Your entire discussion is old news and hardly anybody will want to engage you.
That may not matter to you, particularly. I certainly don't give a flying brick. But to many, many people - it matters.
The media companies would do well to recognize this, but they would rather negotiate large sums with foreign distributors, networks, etc. According to their accountants, any lost sales as a result are insignificant compared to the lost sales, contracts, etc. if they were to try and offer their content directly to any and all who are interested for a low price.
Obviously you don't realise how many ads Australia puts in their shows. There is absolutely no chance I'm watching TV in Australia. I really don't understand how Australians can put up with it.
I can download the show before it airs here in Seattle, and often I do. I don't watch it till later that night though.
Why don't I watch on on Comcast Cable? I can, I have HBO, but the quality of Comcast HDTV is lackluster at best, and artifacty at worse. If I paid for it, I would be bummed out. The copies I download are almost always of better quality.
Here's why I think people download it:
It's a good show, but has a limited view range. Meaning, you have to have HBO to see it. So, people don't want to wait to see what everyone else is talking about. Honestly, I can't blame them, who wants spoilers? We live in an instant world now. While I can wait to see stuff, the mentallity seems to be everything now. Which is probably why people watch cams of movies.
In this day and age, making something that can be digitalize, scarce to make more money, is going to back fire on you.
Be seeing you...
In my country the delay would probably be around a year plus there's a good chance that we'd have to watch a poorly dubbed German version instead of the original English thus there's really no other option except piracy.
No, it isn't /legal/. However it is moral, and you're never going to get caught.
It is not available in P.R. China through any authorized channel. Even if it were, it would be edited to nothing. The real odd thing to me is that it has recently been featured in the national student newspaper (21'st Century) in a two page spread . The article was mostly an attempt to explain the program and to help students understand the names.
What I found interesting was that there was a full two page article on a program that is not even officially available and contains a significant amount of material that would be censored even if it were available. All that being said, it is not popular with the Chinese students that I know. The plot is too complicated for the male students and it is too violent, and overtly sexual, for the female students. However, it seems to be popular with many of the westerners here; further, considering that the article was written, I expect it is popular with some Chinese, just not here.
I already own the paper version. I just download it so I have a copy that plays on my other devices.
I'm Australian, I have Sattelite TV (foxtel) for $70 a month (because my wife and kids like it), and don't have access to watch Game of Thrones and Fringe, the two shows I actually give a fuck about. If I want to watch Game of Thrones, I need to upgrade to the $100/month package, and then watch it at the time they specify.
Fuck that. I pirate Game of Thrones, and Fringe and buy the box sets when they come out.
... wait, what?
$100?
I live in Canada. I bought Dance with Dragons the day it came out from my local bookstore. (It helped that I was taking several cross-Canada trips for work a week after it came out.) I bought every book and I've told dozens of people about the series, probably making Martin enough to buy lunch, maybe dessert afterwards.
If I would like to upgrade my service to watch Game of Thrones, I would have to do the following:
1. Buy an HD-DVR system from my oligarchy cable / ISP / phone provider ($600)
2. Upgrade to cable. ($100 a month)
3. Upgrade to HD service ($50 a month)
4. Upgrade to some package that includes HBO ($50 a month)
And then I'd have to make certain that I was home during that time. Although I would have spent $600 on the HD PVR in step 1, they are so buggy and flakey that they tend to lose settings and recorded shows. So all told, I would have to spend close to one thousand dollars to watch Game of Thrones in the off chance that I'm home, my wife is home, the kids are in bed, the DVR doesn't pixelate out, they don't have decryption problems (happened all the time during the Olympics), AND they don't lose all my settings so I could actually watch the HBO that I've spent a grand on.
Option 2 is not watch the show. I'd really rather watch it. My wife likes the show as well.
Option 3 is wait a year for the DVD release. Riiiight.
Option 4 is direct electronic import from Sweden. Like Colt 45, it works every time.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Want an example of an industry that "gets it"? Porn.
They "closed the loop" by buying up the popular streaming sites that were taking their content and distributing it for free. They then control the ads on those sites. So the ads on the free sites pay for the production of content which they then sell in a higher quality and more convenient form for people who are willing to pay.
This would be like the MPAA buying ThePirateBay and letting it keep running, distributing movies. Yeah, they're not getting sales from it buy they are making at least *something* from the ads, which is more than they were making before by letting the underground market operate independently. And people will still go to see movies in the cinema and buy DVDs.
But this would require them to admit that copyright is basically a dead letter. The suites are too old, their minds too fossilized in 20th century media biz paradigms to even think of such a thing. "My God, you mean ANYONE could use Mickey Mouse without paying us?! The horror!"
The porn industry is younger, more willing to innovate and take chances, more "liberal". The regular entertainment industry is conservative, and they don't like change (that's what conservative means). Unfortunately for them, the world is going to change regardless of their inability to keep up or respond to it.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
Option 3 is wait a year for the DVD release.
I do this. Is this really impossible for most Slashdotters? A year is nothing, really. I've waited longer than that for a game to come down to the price I care to pay. I also don't have to spend $400 every so often for the latest graphics cards.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
Let me do the math for my own little facet of the gem here.
I generally like a few shows at once. I am currently interested in Big Bang Theory, Game of Thrones, Fringe, Walking Dead and Falling Skies.
As these are shows that are aired at different season times, I will calculate the costs for a year of viewing.
To get access to both BBT and GOT, it costs me around $90 per month. Fringe WAS aired on Free to Air, although it was at a 10:30pm timeslot. Walking Dead was finally aired around a year and a half after the US release. Fox8 is airing Falling Skies season 2 "fast tracking" it to Australia just three days after an episode airs in the US.
So, for a mere $1080 per year, I do get access to these shows, if I watch them in their timeslots and most with commercials. Now, lets say that I don't want to time my life to these shows, I can get a Foxtel IQ and record these shows, it costs me $10 per month. That's now $1,200. Now, I do understand that for my money I get a LOT of other channels and shows. But where my frustration comes in is that I am simply not interested in them. Would I watch some of them if I had them? Sure. But that's no different to saying "Would I watch a DVD if I had it?" Yeah, probably, but would I buy it if I saw it at the store? Probably not.
I simply can't justify spending that sort of money for the few shows that I am interested in, furthermore, I am offended that the majority of the money I spend would go to subsidizing all the shit programming that is aired on all these other channels. I don't mind voting for shows with my wallet, but I feel violated knowing that a portion of my monthly fee is going to Jersey Shore, American Pickers or any other horrific mind throttling series.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Plus, although I haven't a gay bone in my body
Would you like one?
Option 1 Ratings fall due to piracy so HBO cancels Game of Thrones. Fans actually have the potential to kill a show in this case. HBO is hypersensitive to ratings. My favorite show was Carnivale and inspite of it making money the ratings fell and they were facing larger budgets so they canceled it after the second season with I believe four more years left in the run. If the ratings fall off on Game of Thrones HBO will kill it in a heartbeat in favor more cheap to produce comedies. Notice how few shows like Game of Thrones are on the air and how many dumb comedies? You can produce a comedy for a quarter of the money so if it gets half the ratings they figure they come out ahead. Sure I'd love to have another option than having HBO for seeing the show but my subscription is helping fund it and they aren't likely change their distribution method.
a year - by which time you've already heard the spoilers...
if you want to watch pop culture, you want to watch it at the time it is actually popular and people are discussing it
I don't know this show and am not interested in viewing it. However I can think of two models that will work.
MODEL I:
Copy iTunes or Mubi.
But it probably will not deliver enough viewers to fund the series by itself.
So, on to...
MODEL II:
1. Ideally create one global launch date for all languages/regions and stick to it. This will provide maximum social networking and minimal spoilers. This would require sales to other markets starting after the pilot is made but before a whole season has been created. In other words, a new global sales strategy. So talk to a global ad agency. The other option is to make one global launch date per language, but you may get pirate versions I would imagine.
2. Insert reasonable number of advertisements into market-specific versions, e.g. EN-US, EN-UK, EN-AU, etc.
3a. If you can just provide speedy downloads from your site and akamai then do it. But that is going to be awfully expensive.. unless you have an amazing contract with ISPs all over the world already.
3b. Instead, create a bittorrent for each format, with many seeders of the appropriate version within each region's territory. This way Australians can download the Australian version with Australian advertisements fastest due to having many seeds provisioned within its continental LAN. A few college kids could do this, but if you ask the ad agency to do it, they will charge you the same as or slightly less than the cost if you had hired akamai.
Video quality should be 720p or higher. The easier the delivery is made, the less important and moralistic will any other pirate versions (undoubtedly somebody will edit out ads and make an uninterrupted version. Maybe the honest version will only have ads at beginning end and same points as TV version, so people may still prefer it and give back to the creators.)
4. Create websites and social networking to advertise and link it all up. Word of mouth / magazine / twitter all linking there. Websites point to the torrents. Also sell via app stores, amazon, etc. Try to get fans to sign up. They can read blogs, teasers, special cilps on the website, post in forums, ask questions and maybe even help guide the series. Imagine if Joss Whedon was doing this.
5. Offer extra things to purchase, maybe Amazon wants to do a special product deal.
6. Offer DVD, Blu-Ray box sets and 1080p files as standalones or full season download via bittorrent or app stores. These products have no advertisements and will include special extras like making of clips, interviews with director and actors, printable pamphlets, maybe desktop wallpapers, 3d printable models, suscriptions to follow the different actors, blogs by the fashion designers or whatever. Pricing of the collections should however be the same price or cheaper than the current box sets if buying the digital version since no physical distribution is then necessary.
7. $$$
Game of Thrones has dialogue that's almost exactly the same as the books; most scenes are directly from the books, and just changed a bit because of the change of medium.
That was kind of true in season 1 but is very much not the case in season 2.
For instance, last week's episode had 7 major storylines; of those, 5 are pretty much created entirely for the show with little resemblance to exact scenes from the books. 1 of them (Sansa/Cersei/Hound period scenes in King's Landing) is very close to the book, and 1 of them (Theon chasing Bran and Rickon) is parallel to book scenes but rewritten because some of the major characters don't exist on the show. The show's doing a remarkable job of staying relatively true to the overarching story without really following exact scenes all that closely in season 2.
Breakdown:
Theon chasing Bran and Rickon: These scenes are altered greatly from the books because major characters are omitted. The escape is led by Meera and Jojen Reed in the books and they drive all the conversation about Bran's dreams. They don't exist at all in the TV show.
Jon Snow/Ygritte: The whole "wandering alone with Ygritte in the cold" storyline is the show's fabrication, it never happens in the books (there, Jon frees Ygritte and remains with the rangers until they're captured by Rattleshirt).
Arya/Tywin: These scenes are fabricated entirely for the show, as Arya never serves Tywin in the books. They're awesome but brand new dialog.
Sansa/Cersei: These scenes are pretty close to the book.
Daenerys in Qarth: These scenes are completely fabricated for the show; the whole dragons-getting-stolen plot doesn't exist in the book.
Rob Stark: These scenes are completely fabricated for the show; the books never show the western campaign at all and never have Rob-POV chapters. The character of Talisa seems maybe based on Jayne Westerling, but it's tough to know for sure because we never see Jeyne until after a major SPOILER event happens in the books. Catelyn is certainly not out west in the books, and her book version would never let things develop between Robb and Talisa.
Jaime Lannister: Again fabricated completely for the show, he never has any escape sequence like this in the books (he does have an escape sequence but it's nothing like this and certainly doesn't have nearly identical dialog).
rage, rage against the dying of the light
There's a difference between waiting a year or longer for a released DVD (game in your example) to come down in price, and waiting a year (or more) for it to be released at full price, and start that year or more discounting process.
When you're waiting on, for just one example, someone who bought the game at full price to put it up for sale used, any time involved will depend on what are genuinely free market factors (such as how many other people evaluate that product as worth more than you do and snap up used copies before the average price gets down to your amount "X"). But waiting on the initial release itself seems to have little or no correlation with such market factors.
I'm a bit of a fan of Fringe. I'm waiting on the DVD sets for season 4 and eventually 5, and have bought all the others. I'm rather glad that Fringe is getting that 5th season, a thing which was far from certain. However, I have no way of knowing if my choosing to buy seasons 1, 2, and 3 at full price when they came out had any effect at all on whether Fox decided to go with the 5th season. That's literally an anti free-market situation. Good old Adam Smith's very definition of what a free market is says that parity of information for all parties is what improves market efficiency and results in the greatest good for the greatest number. Fox chose to deliberately not give out information that would help fans know if they were encouraging the show to continue if they bought the DVD sets new rather than buying used or downloading them. So, add to the physical price, and to various other prices imposed such as region encoding, that I don't know if buying at full price and before a certain date will actually encourage the creators to keep the show on the air, or have no affect at all.
Now Fox treated the fans of Fringe with considerable respect in the end - much better than in several past cases such as Babylon 5. For that matter, in the end, the situation for Fringe has involved more mutual respect for various parties than we've seen for literally hundreds of other shows with mediocre to poor ratings. But that means for the more typical show, any problems the fans have in being able to plan for DVD releases and similar are going to be much greater. That's an additional price for waiting on legitimate channels to play catchup. That says the cost of doing things by the book isn't just a year (or whatever), but a year and uncertainty penalties about whether the wait will eventually terminate, and when.
Who is John Cabal?
No, that's taking the argument I made right out of context. Lets say you want to get sandwich for lunch from a shop. However, the only cafe around won't sell you a sandwich unless it is part of a "lunchtime fixed menu". However, that menu includes breakfast, dinner, a three course dessert, alcoholic bevages and a courtesy waiter who spoons it into your mouth. That Fixed Menu also costs four hundred dollars. You would go somewhere else to get lunch.
If my $1,200 per year covers 262,800 hours of programming (30 channels, by twenty four hours, by three hundred and sixty five days - and there are in fact many more channels that I would have to buy to get access to these few shows I like) and I am only really interested in watching a hundred hours, then I am paying 99.9996% of my money to shows that I think the world would be better off without. Using that math, Foxtel also thinks that my 100 hours of shows that I am actually interested in are worth $0.45 (100 hours divided by 262,800 hours multiplied by my $1,200 cost).
I really wonder how many shows would be produced if people could pay for individual series on the equivalent of Pay Per View, but at a more reasonable price.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Sure, it's illegal, but most people simply don't consider it wrong. No amount of propaganda will change this.
-- Give me ambiguity or give me something else!
Replying to do erroneous moderation (was aiming for insightful, whacked redundant instead).
The difference between "illegal" and "right and wrong" are two very different things; the further they diverge in a given society, the more dysfunctional that society appears to the broad brush of history.
And is it really such a horrible hardship to go to the bathroom during the FBI warning?
Is it really so unbelievable to you that people don't feel they should have to sit through that bullshit if they actually paid for the fucking product like they're supposed to? Unskippable commercials and previews, ridiculously long animated menus...I click my pirated file and the episode starts, immediately.
My pirated copies of the first season of Game of Thrones don't have any of that bullshit on them, they're in a file format and in a codec that is recognized on every device I have, and will play on literally any device I have without a bunch of stupid bullshit DRM standing in the way. They are literally a superior product in every single way.