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Grand Tour 'Most Illegally Downloaded TV Show In History' (theguardian.com)
Jeremy Clarkson's new motoring show has become the most illegally downloaded television programme in history, figures suggest. Amazon paid a reported $160 million for three series of The Grand Tour, which stars former Top Gear presenters Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, after Clarkson was sacked by the BBC in March 2015. From a report on The Guardian: But figures from Muso, data analysts of the piracy market, suggest unprecedented numbers of people are avoiding paying $90 a year to sign up for Amazon's online streaming service, Amazon Prime, and instead downloading the show illegally. The data, shared with the Mail on Sunday, suggests the first episode was downloaded illegally 7.9m times, the second 6.4m times and the third 4.6m times. British viewers made up the largest percentage (13.7%) of the total number of illegal downloads.
Morality has gone down the tubes.
People inviting friends over to watch television, and not compensating the content creators.
People using sling, and other illegal "time shifters" to avoid paying compensation.
People inviting other people to watch their streaming content, and not compensating the content creators.
People sharing their netfix passwords with other people, and depriving people of compensation.
People "archiving" and "ripping" CDs, instead of purchasing multiple copies, people are not getting compensated.
Look in the mirror to find out the reason the economy is down the tubes, dirty pirates.
What if you watch it at a friend's house.. does that count?
You really should be paying for even thinking about it.
There is no way for them to know how many times something was downloaded or pirated. This is more of the same crap the RIAA/MPAA used in the US to try to convince politicians they were losing insane amounts of money. These figures are completely fictional and this article is a joke.
The 2nd episode felt overly scripted, but the 3rd and 4th felt more like Top Gear was. We were laughing through the entire episodes (though they can probably just get rid of the joke of killing off celebrities every episode).
AFAIK Prime Video is only available in United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Austria. Leaving much of the world without a way to watch the new show. I don't consider it an excuse to pirate it, but i can certainly understand why so many would download it illegally when they have no legal means of acquiring it. Prime Video used to be in the nordic countries but was close in 2014 for unknown reasons (probably not that popular). I hope Amazon can see a potential in this widespread piracy and start offering it through legal means to more people. It worked for HBO with GOT in the nordic countries when they started offering their content through "HBO Nordic".
Your argument would make sense if watching Grand Tour was the *only* thing you could do with a Prime subscription. But it's not, so I have no idea what you're even rambling about.
Dunno why. It's someone tossed all the worst bits of the old Top Gear into a concrete mixer with a tonne of Jeff Bezos' pension fund. The episode with the sci-fi style reboot army thing was just embarassing. And I say that as someone who liked the old Top Gear.
I had a dream, bright and carefree, but now there's doubt and gravity
It's not the same without Chris Evans.
The 2nd episode was just plain bad... 3rd and 4th are showing promise again. Hammond in the Challenger had me laughing so much! And yes, the killing celebrities bit got old in the 1st episode and is just stupid. We get it already.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
Top Gear was the top watched 'factual' show, it was also syndicated in 214 countries. Now consider that Amazon's video services aren't available in most countries and its pretty easy to imagine it would have significant downloads.
"Sign up problem
You may continue with this billing address, but Prime Video streaming, Prime Music, and the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library won't be available outside of the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Prime shipping benefits are available to shipping addresses in the contiguous U.S."
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
Hammond in the Challenger just seemed too much like a badly scripted, badly acted sitcom. None of their reactions seemed genuine.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
Streams just fine on my Roku
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I use a Roku box in one room and a TV that has Roku's software integrated in another and have had no problems with Amazon Prime. Are you using an Apple device? Apple has a habit of not playing nice with others.
I actually found the last season of Top Gear with Clarkeson was almost phoned in.
How can you watch that stupid special ops crap more than once? Heck I couldn't even stomach it the first time. I skipped over after they ran the same joke way past the punchline. To quote Monty Python, "GET ON WITH IT!!!"
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
My only hope is, that Amazon doesn't ever open a distribution or other brick and mortar physical presence in my state, and force me to start paying sales tax for purchases from them.
Don't hold your breath. Utah just negotiated a deal with Amazon to voluntarily collect sales taxes for the state even through Amazon does not have a physical presence in Utah. In return, Amazon gets to keep 1.31% of taxes collected (with allowances of up to 18% according to the law).
With $29 million unpaid sales taxes for Amazon sales to Utah in 2015, that's $400,000 of free money for Amazon. This kind of deal will spread like wildfire to other states.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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Agreed. I know they've set up Hammond as "the American" on the team, what with his penchant for muscle cars and dislike of snails, but this was going way too far into absurdity. It was a harsh caricature lacking any sincerity and was just unnecessary and embarrassing.
I really hope they hit their stride, but so far I'm not sure they will. The celebrity killing bit should have ended after the first episode and the new Stig who is definitely not the Stig is neither funny nor clever. Most of the show comes across as trying too hard to be Top Gear while also being very clear that they are not Top Gear. They should have kept the format, changed names were required, and carried on.
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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I don't want to sign up to ten difference services so I can watch one series/sport on each one of them.
Then... don't?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.