Despite Global Release, Breaking Bad Heavily Pirated

tlhIngan writes "One reason that many people pirate TV shows is 'it's not available in my country until months after it airs.' Which is why the second episode of Breaking Bad's final season was aired globally within a few hours of each other yesterday evening. Despite this, many users still decided to download it than watch it when it aired locally. Australia users we the top, perhaps because it was on FoxTel. This was followed by U.S. and Canada (who obviously got to see it when it aired), and the UK where Netflix had it within hours of the U.S. premier. Fifth on the list was the Netherlands, where it had aired hours before the U.S. premier on a public channel. It's obvious that despite the global release, the show was headed to top its previous highs in number of downloads. Could this spell the doom to future global releases, since the evidence is people just pirate them anyways?"

Comments

How many knew that it was a global release?

[Anonymous Coward]

There would be no need to pirate it if everyone knew that it would be on TV. How many knew that this was the case?

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[Jane Q. Public]

"There would be no need to pirate it if everyone knew that it would be on TV. How many knew that this was the case?"

Then there is that other issue, for which people used to use their VCRs. It's called "Time Shifting". Which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled was legal...

BUT almost nobody records on tape anymore. And most DVRs are, sadly for everybody, linked to a particular service.

So what "time shifting" option do they have these days? Unless it's something on Netflix, It's called BitTorrent...

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[Jane Q. Public]

I'll add to that:

The "content" companies created this situation themselves. They don't want people recording (even for legal timeshifting purposes). They want people to stream (which is terribly inefficient) or rent, or otherwise pay royalties. Even on TV shows.

Well, this is what they get as a result. They have nobody to point fingers at but themselves. The hell with them.

And the really shitty part is: they'll complain that this is yet more evidence that people are dishonest. When in reality, it's only more evidence that trying to lock people in to their corporate bullshit profit-and-power-mongering has consequences.

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't pirating it have all the same issues that you have listed for Netflix here?

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[bfandreas]

I live in Germany and I wasn't aware of it. If something like this isn't heavily publisized then the old habits prevail. They should have taken out ads on Pirate Bay and gone to the popular media if they had wanted a proper test case.

The Internet has no oceans. Yet they still think that dividing the world into regions is still viable. The other heavily pirated TV show that I am aware of is the British Top Gear. They can not release the full show on DVD even though they'd love to. they can't do it because they use a lot of music. The executive producer of that show said that it is nearly impossible to negotiate deals with the music industry for a global release on DVD. They'd have to talk with so many rights holders they wouldn't know where to begin.
Another annoying habit that stems from this region thinking is what they did in Germany. They sold(and still sell) DVDs with the German audio track only. Sometimes if they sell them with the English audio track they have German subtitles that can't be swithced off(VLC ignores this madness). All for publishing reasons.

So the Breaking Bad experiment failed due to lack of publicity(making front page on /. is not publicity). And the publishers tried to sell overcoming regional releases as something new while we have been blissfully ignoring it for years.

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[Opportunist]

C'mon, they didn't want a "proper test case". They wanted a "see, pirates pirate anyway, even if we reach out to them".

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[bfandreas]

C'mon, they didn't want a "proper test case". They wanted a "see, pirates pirate anyway, even if we reach out to them".

My point exactly. The whole thing was a dishonest publicity stunt.

Re: How many knew that it was a global release?

[JaredOfEuropa]

Same here; I had no idea for the simple reason that I have given up on TV. Watching at set times, being force-fed endless commercials, and no way to catch up on a series that has been running for a while already. HBO is available here and I got a subscription because I watch a lot of their stuff, but even in that case it is so much more convenient to get old and current episodes through Sickbeard.

I look forward to the imminent introduction of Netflix here in the Netherlands and I hope that they will offer some of the top series.

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[Thanshin]

Unfortunately, to joe public, a sample size of 1 (AKA an anecdote) is enough evidence to base their bias on. The media know this so they'll milk it for all it is worth.

Aiming at influencing the opinion of the retarded majority is easier and has the greatest in legislation and its enforcement. Welcome to democracy. The worst system except for every other one.

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[wbr1]

From one post:

The Internet has no oceans. Yet they still think that dividing the world into regions is still viable.

From another:

We need to move to global licensing for music, but I can't see how that will ever happen because of the wide variations in laws and licensing rules between countries. Europe would never accept the US system and vice-versa, and China has completely different ideas.

I submit that -this- is the ocean we must cross now. There are no real physical boundaries on the internet, but we must still span the sea of greed and sail the oceans of unfairness and lack of understanding.

Re:How many knew that it was a global release?

[Savage-Rabbit]

I'm from the Netherlands and I did not know it aired on a public channel on the same day as in the US. I can't find any information about it either. All I know it airs on a premium channel 5 days after the US release, which is still not bad!

I live in Germany and I wasn't aware of it. If something like this isn't heavily publisized then the old habits prevail.
They should have taken out ads on Pirate Bay and gone to the popular media if they had wanted a proper test case.

It's not just that people don't know about the global release. If you want to subscribe to the channel airing your show you can only get it if you buy som dumbass package with another 24 assorted sports, celebrity, lifestyle channels,... etc ... most of whom you never watch but that you get to pay a big fat markup for anyway. What I want is zero day global releases through a service where I can download it rapidly, in consistent quality, malware free and on demand and I'm prepared to pay for it.

commercials

[Anonymous Coward]

maybe people are sick and tired of stupid commercials interrupting their viewing pleasure.

Re:commercials

[anubi]

AC posted posted my first impression of the problem.

Ads.

Countless amounts of legal and technical efforts go into trying to make us ingest a nauseating pill. Its like trying to get a cat to swallow a pill. If you have ever owned a cat, you know this routine.

I have seen ads that were entertaining, but very seldom.

Most ads are delivered with all the finesse of a panhandler trying to bum the price of a beer off some restaurant's clientele - and if the beggars get too annoying, the clientele goes elsewhere just to get away from the beggars.

Since a lot of decision makers read Slashdot, I'll offer up this bit of feedback... instead of trying to coerce your audience to watch your ad through skip-resistant technologies, frequent interruptions, punitive and legal means, and other highly annoying tactics and threats.... instead how about getting some artisans to work on your idea to make it entertaining... something people will hold their pee for.

Look to Google. I note they apparently are doing research on ads.

On YouTube, the ads are often skippable, but you know what? Some of the ads are better done than the thing I dialed up in the first place - I end up watching the whole ad and then skipping the video when what I had originally intended to watch turned out to be a disappointment.

My guess is Google figured it was probably better to let people skip the ad if it was simply annoying to them, lest they leave the website completely; ramming a ad onto someone non-receptive to it is completely counterproductive. However introducing a new product to someone interested in it is the ultimate goal. The problem is matching them up. The cat does not like the oats which interest the horse, nor does the horse find birds of culinary interest.

TL:DR You are wasting your time trying to force people to watch your ad. Make them interesting!!!

False.

[Anonymous Coward]

They also doubled their viewership. It's obvious piracy is not a problem.

Well duh

[readingaccount]

If you've been pirating TV shows for so long and have become accustomed to its benefits (no ads, offline watching at any time and not just when aired/networked, encoded in cross-platform, DRM free formats for easy transfer to multiple devices, etc), it's very hard to go back to traditional methods of watching TV shows.

Re:Some reasons I would "pirate" include...

[gsslay]

Let me fix points 2 & 3 for you.

2. I get stuff for free.

3. Everyone else pays for it.

You have to agree it's a compelling argument, if you're selfish and can fool yourself with the "they're all rich anyway, so that's ok" argument. Unfortunately, if everyone followed your reasoning no-one would get paid, and no-one would make the TV you want. But I guess you're special and should be allowed to freeload.

Re:Season 5 has not aired yet in Australia

[nedlohs]

If you only count free to air TV then it hasn't aired in the US either.