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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?"
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?
Do they still broadcast TV shows?
maybe people are sick and tired of stupid commercials interrupting their viewing pleasure.
They also doubled their viewership. It's obvious piracy is not a problem.
Could it have anything to do with the growing number of people that don't want to spend $200/mo on a cable subscription, fees, taxes, surcharges, digital tuners, HD subscrpitions/tuners, and DVRs?
Many people are simply in the habit of torrenting shows, and often have rss feeds or similar automation set up to grab them automatically. I personally wasn't aware that breaking bad was airing here, nor did i know when the rest of the season was due to start. I only found out about it when it popped up in the RSS feed, by which time it had already been downloaded via torrent.
If i had known it was on tv i may well have watched it there (or recorded it for later viewing), but i certainly wouldn't watch it via a drm encumbered streaming service.
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Yep. I know people who would rather wait and watch the download without adverts than see it a day earlier on the channel they are paying good money for but with adverts. Most say that a single ad break mid way through the show is acceptable but the 4 or 5 (or more) breaks that you typically get make the shows unwatchable.
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.
I remember once upon a time when movies had no ads before the movie itself, just trailers (which I guess could be a form of advertisement). I'll never forget the first time I walked in and started seeing ads for crap other than yet to come out movies and being highly angered.
I find it ironic that I'm a highly capable of techno geek who's capable of doing lots of fun things with technology, but I maintain only tacit involvement for most things just due to the amount of marketing, whether it's too me directly, or to companies that want to take my information to try and figure out how to better market at me. I highly resent attempts at manipulation.
I get confused looks when I pay for most things in cash, and no, I honestly don't want your loyalty rewards program. My personal information is worth alot more to me than the pittance it'll save me (looking at you Best Buy and Gamestop)
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That's the way it is in Australia I think. Not to mention if it was only on Foxtel; then thats a minimum 75 dollar per month cable subscription of 3+ year old reruns, with the odd fast-tracked show. and maybe some sport, but you have to pay extra for most of it.
TV networks here in Australia break up programmes and play them in whatever order works for them. They repeat episodes from five years ago and trickle in a new episode now and again. So of course people will just go online and download what they want to watch now. Its easier to do that than to record off the TV just to time shift it. Its easier to download than to record from the TV to watch on a laptop in bed. lets face it: The internet is closer to us than television these days.
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Even if they did I can't just imagine sit at TV on a specific date/time. This is not how it works now, I will watch it when/if I have time not when they think I should watch it.
I also like to watch multiple episodes at a time, and the legal way of me doing this (can't use hulu or netflix where I live) is ordering box set via amazon which costs 45 pounds for seasons 1-4.
No thanks, make it 10 pounds and you got a deal since it's just piece of plastic with printed out papers.
The only advantage I see in a dvd box set is that audio levels and quality is consistent across all the seasons/episodes but even this can be a non issue if you take your time searching right torrents.
Plus it will take 1 week for the DVDs to get here and would require me to go to the post office, wait in line, get back home to finally view it.
Now lets compare the other alternative that I have:
Open up the bay, type in breaking bad season, get the one with most seeds/ok quality and press magic download button. 1 hour later I have what I needed without all the annoyances.
So guess which route will I or anyone sane would choose?
It's just greed to be honest. They could probably dump half the channels on Sky with no noticeable drop in content quality. The hundreds of channels they tout are mostly crap. Hence I don't bother with Sky anymore.
I usually don't respond to the threads on /. about piracy; I don't see any point in debating it. I'm pretty much going to do it regardless until they hand over full control of me being able to do what I want with something after I have purchased it. I believe many others out there have the same reasons, so I decided I would post them.
1. It's easy. I turn on the computer, surf over to The Pirate Bay, search for what I want, click on the magnet link and a few minutes later I have it.
2. Freedom. I can then do whatever I want with the file. Put it on my laptop and take it with me, watch it on my 27" monitor, stream it to a TV or run it from a computer connected to TV via HDMI. I can give it to a friend on a USB stick. Save it on my hard drive for later. Pause it in the middle to do something else and resume later.
3. Cost. Buying a new television every few years is expensive. I don't know about you, but I want to retire early. I move around a lot because of work and having a television with me is not an option. Also, in my country of Norway, we have to pay a TV licence fee of around 500 dollars a year if we have one. I hate Norwegian television, it's boring and ethnocentric. The rest of the world seems to be in a television series renaissance, but here it's the same boring shit that no one outside of this small and insignificant country cares about. Mostly about "Big Brother" type of programming and gatherings of celebrities.
4. Advertising and commercials. I don't have to fucking watch them when I download something. Period.
5. The Man. I'm just trying to make my way in this world and I'm sick of people better off than me trying to get their hands in my pockets. I don't want theirs, I just want mine. And to keep it. Knowing that they didn't get it this time gives me pleasure and satisfaction. I will ultimately buy the stuff I really like because I support the artists/authors. I have over 1000 music CDs in storage I've bought since my first CD player in 1993. Now, I try to buy FLAC or 320 kbps MP3s directly from the bands. I have over 400 games on Steam, many from Indy publishers, most I haven't even played. Especially since I gave up computer games as my new year's resolution 2013. But I still buy them because I support what they do, and I like that I will always have them on Steam. Movies? They release them on DVD, then Blue Ray, then a special edition, then an uncut with added scenes, then 20 years later with lost fucking footage. This doesn't make me feel like they give a shit about me getting what I am paying for. Sure, I could forgo films and television series completely, but there's that social aspect of being a part of conversations at work and at gatherings that I would miss out on. I already don't give a damn for sports, might as well drop out of society completely.
If they were to figure out a delivery system like Steam for music, films and books, where I would actually own what I've paid for, I would give up downloading. Imagine buying a film in 1080p and when they decide to upscale it to 4K with new footage and features, it would automatically get updated without you having to dish out more cash. I think that's something we all want. I also want an itunes alternative, a real one, I don't support companies who bully and sue everyone.
You can't say global release is a flawed model just by the piracy numbers. The key is the financials. If AMC can get more money from international rebroadcasters by offering it to them on a shorter timeframe, then global release has some merit.
And it is possible that the content is considered to be more valuable on the shorter timeframe, because the airers prefer their content be more "fresh".
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I am to old and to set in my ways to change anymore. The content industry treated me like a leaper and thief for to long for me to now start dancing to their tune again. The old practices of charging high prices for 2 episodes on a single VHS tapes, charging 1 dollar for a single song only accepting credit cards, the endless unskippable ads and warnings on BOUGHT content, lame copy protection that only bothers paying customers have just completely turned me of paying for content. I get better, faster service for free then when I payed for it for over 20 years. Fine, I take the hint. I keep my money and spend it on other stuff.
People like me are lazy, it took a LOT for me to start blocking ads for instance, it was just to much hazzle in the beginning. But now installing ad-blocker is part of my routine after installing a new browser. And I won't change that routine anytime soon. Push me over the edge and I won't climb back up, I will stay there and nurture my grievances long after you claimed they are gone.
Oh and TV shows are STILL over priced, DVD's still have unskippable warnings and adds and songs are STILL a dollar a song AND it is still a nightmare to pay with iDeal (dutch cross bank payment system) on most services.
Oh and since breaking bad aired on a dutch public channel, may taxes payed for it whether I want to watch it or not, so why shouldn't I be able to download (it airs without commercial breaks) it? Downloading is legal in Holland anyway.
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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.
look, I checked it up and in germany it is on AXN which is a cable TV channel, and not even in the basic package, for entertain cable TV it is on the big TV *upgrade* package. So please next time you pretend it is a global release, check that it is not or pay TV. On public TV it is a global release. On cable TV ? not so much.
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So, you're complaining about someone being selfish and yet we're ina capitalist system that relies on people being selfish. There's large corporations trying to find any possible loophole to avoid paying taxes; rich people moving assets into tax havens to avoid paying their dues to society; bankers destroying people's lives in order to make a quick buck. Yet you're complaining that we shouldn't torrent a series?
I see it as my civic duty to pirate as many tv shows as possible to demonstrate the flaws in the old content distribution monopolies model.
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If you only count free to air TV then it hasn't aired in the US either.
I'm well aware. But if I'm going to watch Netflix, I'm going to watch it on the whacking great 40" TV in my lounge. Not the rather smaller 15" screen on my laptop.
However, I do not have anything that is permanently plugged into that TV that is capable of streaming Netflix. Or, more accurately, I have equipment plugged into the TV that is hypothetically capable of streaming Netflix but nothing that is practically capable in the real world. I am not prepared to jump through hoops in order to be someone else's customer, even if those hoops are relatively straightforward (such as plug my laptop into the TV). It may be a relatively tiny hoop, but it's a hoop all the same and frankly, there are too many of those in my life as it is. I will not add another.
There are already three boxes plugged into the telly (PVR, amp and DVD player), one of which left the factory with streaming capability built right in (PVR). The manufacturer of the PVR is still in business and appears quite open to discussions regarding getting content providers onto their system; it is no concern of mine that Netflix have not engaged with them.
The service integrates with what I already have or it doesn't get even tried in the first place, never mind bought.
As I said; you're special and you know it.
A lot of people bought a season pass of breaking bad during the first half of season 5. It was already announced that the season would be halved and completed this year. Everyone was thinking "Oh good I'll get the whole season"
Well no.
On iTunes it's called season 6 so you have to pay again.
Nice money grab there.
I'm sure that contributed to piracy as well. After all, steal from people and many won't feel any moral problem with taking what they already paid for.
Very smart, turn your remaining paying customers into pirates.
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What if the Breaking Bad global release was wildly profitable? Is it still a failure because it was widely pirated? If it's profitable then who cares how much it was pirated, chances are the vast majority of those people wouldn't have paid to see it anyway. Piracy certainly doesn't eat into the amount of money you've received.
BTW, this was probably pirated by people without cable subscriptions or people who wanted it in a convenient time-shifting/multi-device format.
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It's on AMC (cable-only) in the US. Would you count the entire series as having never been released here?
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Are you joking? A) People don't like commercials. B) People don't like it to be dictated to when they can watch what they want to watch. That's kind of why Amazon, Crackle, Netflix, and Hulu, and Apple TV, and the new Amazon system, and Roxio, and DVR, exist. C) People don't want to wait until 2 years from now when Netflix gets the 5th season all the way uploaded
I hate being tied to a schedule, and I hate advertising. Why am I going to spend an hour watching a 40 minute show just so a bunch of irrelevant CRAP can be screamed at me?
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Of course, many people pirated "the final season" of Breaking Bad after they purchased the full Season 5 then the retailers (Amazon, iTunes,.. ) turned the second half of the 5th season in "the final season" and charged users a second time... Source: http://consumerist.com/2013/08/12/apple-demands-another-23-because-5th-season-of-breaking-bad-was-split-in-half/