And People Talk About Torrents...

Rob Irwin is right. The behaviour of the TV networks is DRIVING people to explore different ways to find the stuff they want to watch and listen to. It’s creating a great opportunity for new media networks to emerge to fill the gap in programming.  

News has filtered in that Channel Seven plans to stretch the screening of both Desperate Housewives and Lost until August. You can read more about the situation here.

Now, understand upfront that I don't watch either of these shows. I know absolutely nothing about Desperate Housewives and all I know about Lost is that some people are trapped on an island - and one of them is one of the Hobbits from Lord of the Rings. So I don't have any vested interest in this particular news, per se.

But what I am disturbed about is this trend for TV stations to hook viewers on shows, then stretch them and stretch them and then stretch them some more, before screening the finales.

It's no wonder that more and more people are becoming Net-savvy enough to find torrents of foreign programs and just watching them on their PCs, months and months (sometimes years) before they are screened on local TV.

Now, does the situation make piracy right? No, that's not the argument I'm making here. What I'm trying to say is that TV programmers are underestimating the Net-savvy of their viewers if they think they can hold onto episodes of programs and wave them in the face of hardcore fans like, "Whoooooo... we've got the episodes, but we're not going to screen them..." for extended periods of time. The screening of the final episode(s) of Friends was a shocking example of this, from what I hear (having long given up on the show around the third season when it started becoming more like a soap opera than an actual comedy).

In the end, TV stations are only going to end up hurting their viewing figures, rather than enhancing them, as people reach the end of shows miles ahead of their local screenings and simply don't watch the version that gets aired. And it's not just illegal downloading, either. In some cases, I have known people to be able to go and buy DVD box sets of certain series from overseas, such is the lagtime of some shows getting to air at all. I know there's some kind of sci-fi series produced by Steven Spielberg coming onto TV soon - just can't think of its name right now - but I also know my mate has had the whole series as a Region 1 DVD set for ages. He certainly won't be watching the series when its aired later this year. And, you know what? If I borrow that box set from him, neither will I. How common is this?

TV programmers need to pick up their act and join the 21st century. This whole "We're the gatekeeper and you're just a pleb who'll watch the shows when we let you watch them..." mentality is over. But when will they realise?

[www.robirwin.com]

Comments

[Phillip Molly Malone]

I like what Rob has written here. The problem as I see it (and I am no expert on these manners) is that the TV stations aren't dumb and they must see that there is no good business model at the minute to distribute these type of things via the web. Also there obviously isn't a strong enough push from DVD's and Torrent's that the current way of doing it needs to be changed.

I know exactly the feeling, I am waiting for 24 (with Keffa Sutherland(spelling???)) to start here but still a month or more off. I watched the first 3 series on DVD and if I had a NTSC TV (DOH) would probably get the US version as I think its dues to be out before it is released locally.

Molly

[Cameron Reilly]

Molly, are you kidding me? TV stations are the definition of dumb. Look up the word in the dictionary and you'll a montage of pictures of programming execs from around the world. The problem is - we've allowed ourselves to get dumped down to their level.

[Tony]

Hi Cam,

I agree with your comments. Unlike you though I do watch Desperate Houswives and LOST so have an interest in what is happening each week. At home I have been trying to download the complete season 1 of LOST via bit0torrent (going very slowly) and looks like it is gonns be s good decision in the end.

I gave up on Friends around the same time you did but what 9 did to that show and also Sex and the city was disgusting and then they wonder why people go to the net to get these shows..it really boggles the mind.

TV stations need to get a lot smarter if they want to hold viewers for the big finales of shows that they hold off. The fact that alot of shows start in a ratings period and then finiah in non-ratings means a lot of networks will do whatever they can to ensure the big season fanale shows finish inside a ratings period and therefore they can justify higher revenue from sponsors.

I have purchased DVD's of TV series and movies from overseas also before they have aired or opened in cinemas here and if things continue the way they are a lot more people will be heading to bit-torrent and overseas DVD's to get their content because they are sick of waiting for it to turn up on our screens.

The Spielberg show I think your referring to is the 4400 or possible Taken. Both involve alien abductions I think.

Tony

[Rory Primrose]

I have issues with free to air TV as well, but I guess I have to keep in mind that it is free. The dumb thing is that I am will to pay (to an extent) but I still can't get what I want even by flashing around the cash.

Channel Nine for the last three years has aired Third Watch for about 15 of the 21/22 episodes before ditching it with no explanation at all. At episode 15, they even have the nerve to advertise what the next weeks show is going to be about. Last season was the final season filmed and they still killed it in the same fashion.

I am more than willing to purchase the 6 seasons on DVD, but unfortunately it isn't published.

Have cash - still can't win...

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Cam, Dumb or not, one thing they understand is the M word, Money. If there was more money in it another way, they would do it quicker then a Groom on his wedding night.

So the question I have is this: If theres so muh money to be made doing it differently, why hasn't some smart cookie done it yet?

Molly

[Tony]

Well Ch 9 are pretty bad at this kind of thing. I know my parents watch 3rd watch and you never know what is going to happen and when. They totally destroyed the Australian market for The West Wing by putting it on at ridiculous times and then missing it whenever they wanted I just gave up.

Channel 10 aren't doing much better with The Shield despite what some people in the Telegraph think it isn't a NYPD Blue clone in anyway or form in my opinion.

I really just wish they would think of the masses and not the bottom line as they will push people away.

I am not sure people are making money doing it differently but with so many sites out there now or torrents at least of all the shows there is going trend towards more people getting broadband with the purpose of just getting to see their shows on time and in some cases in order.

Tony

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Hi Tony,
When the numbers increase for Torrents, the only person that will win is the Lawyers! As for the shows at crappy times, its simply another thng done because its the best thing for the network, financially.

Molly

[Tony]

I guess with the networks everything comes down to money. I mostly watch Foxtel and it's the same thing in principal but at least I have bigger choice on what I can watch and they don't usually mees with scheduling as much as he networks.

I have read reports that the Yanks or at least the MPAA and RIAA have talked about going after bit-torrent but I can't really see how you can do that with the way it's designed. IMHO it's the perfect P2P program. You can shut down tracker sites but your not going to be able to shut it down completely.

The problem with MPAA and RIAA is they only see bit-torrent and other file-sharing programs as EVIL!!!! and that they are only used for downloading music and movies/tv shows. I know that I personally have downloaded 4 Linux distros in last week using bit-torrent and if I am doing that a lot others are also. It is the easiest and quickest way to get new and large programs out there.

I am getting off -track I know but MPAA and RIAA really annoy me and the way that the Aus govt basically does whatever Bush tells them to do it won't be long before shit will hit the fan here too.

[Cameron Reilly]

Molly, if the stuff people are downloading via torrent is torrent-safe, like indepdently produced video, then it won't be a problem. That's what's happening here. The mainstream media companies have got their heads firmly implanted up their asses. And while that's a drag in the short term, the tools are here now to allow us to create our own media. That's what Generation C is all about.

[Tony]

I wish I could say so much with so little as well as you Cam :)

[Cameron Reilly]

"if theres so muh money to be made doing it differently, why hasn't some smart cookie done it yet?"

Molly, business history is replete with examples of companies who dominated one era but screwed up the transition to the next, either because they didn't see it coming or they had too much tied up in the previous business model to let go soon enough. Books have been written about it. Business schools teach it. But it's human behaviour. Does that mean TPN, or any podcasting business, will succeed in toppling the existing giants? Not at all. But it means it *is* possible. And that's enough for me. :-)

Another thing - the technologies of convergence that make this all possible have only been here (at viable prices) for a year or two. This is the Round Three of "The Internet Changes Everything".

I, and many others, predicted this back in 2000.

1995 - 1999 was "A New Hope". Internet enterpreneurs battled the Empire.

2000 - 2004: "The Empire Strikes Back". Helped in large part by Microsoft's collapsing of the dot com boom, internet businesses died in the thousands.

2005 - 2010: "Return Of The Jedi". We're back baby. And this time we have the infrastructure we didn't have in the 90s. We have broadband. We have wireless. We have microchips and hard drives in hundreds of millions of portable devices. And, boy, are we pissed off. Get ready.

[Rob Irwin]

Thanks for picking up the post, Cam :)

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Guys, don't get me wrong, I will be the first to get involved in the legal stuff, but I fear (and correct me if I am wrong) that the majority (probably 90% or higher) of the Torrent traffic is in illegal things (software, Movies, TV shows and music).

Also I know and have Drank the Kool Aid of alternative media (i.e. Podcasts) and I like it. But (and I could be wrong) you are now at the point of having a great model for the listener but (and this is where I could be very wrong, but fear that I am wrong) you are struggling to turn it into a profitable business. I hope you help the people with the money "get it" (a lot of people say they don't "get it" but its my opinion that if they don't get, the people that want them to "get it" need to do a better job of helping them "Get it").

I really hope you crack the nut because I (as you know) love the podcast network and the shows on it.

Best of luck
Molly

[Cameron Reilly]

Thanks for your love and support Molly! Yeah - we aren't rolling in cash yet. But let's keep it in perspective.

1. Podcasting is less than 12 months old.
2. Podcasting as a business (starting from the birth of TPN in mid-Feb) is 4 months old.
3. Every business book I've read over the years talks about taking FIVE YEARS to build a solid start-up business. And that's in established industries.
4. When KDKA started broadcasting in 1920, do you think many people believed radio would become what it is 85 years later?

[Phillip Molly Malone]

Hi Cam,
No worries, I know its early days.

Also on the Channel 9/7 model of getting you hooked and then making you wait for the payday (i.e. finally of the serious, etc), I was looking at my RSS feeds this morning and found Claybourne in there. This made me think. What happened to the 3 Claybourne episodes a week? Are you guys setting yourselves up to be taken over by Kerry Packer by adopting his business model?

TIA
Molly

[Phillip Molly Malone]

As the old saying goes:
People in Glass houses shouldn't throw stones (or stand up in the Bath).

Molly

[Cameron Reilly]

heh, I can't BELIEVE the number of emails I've had in the last couple of days asking what's happened to Claybourne!!! It really has a fan base! I think Mick's just been pre-occupied and has slipped in putting it up.

[Josh Bowman]

I was so impatient waiting for the first episode of Lost to air that i went on Kazaa Lite Resurrection to see if anyone was sharing it. As it turned out every single episode in the US upto the week before was available to download and in HD format. So while everyone else was waiting a couple of weeks for 7 to air the 5th or 6th episode I was watching episode 20.
The best thing was that the show is made 10x better without any advertising. I did the same thing with The Sopranos.

So basically if you have a file sharing program like KLR you can pretty much leave the t.v. gathering dust, and you don't have the hastle of being messed around by station heads, or sit through mind numbing advertising.

[Phillip "Molly" Malone]

Hi Josh,
Congrats on the new job. Would be interested where the torrent for "Fritz gets Rich" is? Would love to download it?
;-)
TIA
Molly

[Josh Bowman]

Hi Phillip,
I'll see if I can get my hands on a copy once I start working there (late July).

Cheers
Josh

[husam]

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[husam]

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