A report was released the other day by a UK firm showing that Australians are one of the largest TV pirates in the world (15.5% of all tv piracy in the last 12 months).

The Australian guy mentioned in the SMH article has done a lot of work on TV piracy in australia but he doesn't seem to think that the current method of going to a BT site and clicking a link is 'user-friendly' and that it will become a much bigger problem once it is easier.

JJJ's Hack did a small story on Australian TV piracy in today's edition

Just thought some of you might be interested.

Its because TV takes 3billion years to be aired here. Maybe if they werent 3billion years behind we would wait and watch it on aussie tv.

Yeah. If you didnt have to wait so god damn long we would have to download the stuff. Although I still would anyway.

8-)

Not suprising, if the f***ers would air shows that aren't a year late then we wouldn't have this problem.. you bunch of stupid f***s :)

There are some things I download even when they're on TV here just so I can watch it when I feel like or with ads. That said now that I have Foxtel IQ that is changing a bit since I can just set them up to record and watch them whenever I want.

There's a number of shows I've just waited until I could buy the DVDs though, and I still like to own the real DVDs whenever possible.

i'm with rev on this one. I'd download it anyway even if they aired at the same time over here. couldn't be f***ed saving the same time every week to watch tv.

australian tv is 115.5% more f***ed up

All they need to do is make the show like $2 to download in avi format that can be saved on your HDD. Or maybe $1 because I get a bit of stuff.

Hehe

It's fairly unanimous, but i'll add that I agree completely with the whole "we're behind" argument.
Why the hell can't these people put two and two together and realise that most of the shows that are being downloaded are for exactly this reason..
In fact, I bet alot of movies are due to the same reason (DVD releases in the states before it's even on big screen in AUS).

It's equivalent to the bart simpson + electrocution and hamster comparison.
They see the reason people are downloading, and see the clear solution to release at the same time here (or very close to it), but they keep on pressing that buzzer and whinging that someone should stop electrocuting them.

no tivo, f***ed up airing times, shows shown seasons behind other countries, more adds, skipped episodes, some shows not even shown or given up on half way thru showing etc

Yeah I find those statistics really surprising :)

In addition to all that they keep showing the same old reruns of various shows over and over again.
Look at the simpsons, I have seen the same episodes of that on tv for 10+ years now when they could maybe rerun right though some of the later seasons rather than 3 and 4 (maybe 2?).

*looks around for BSG season 2* ... oh thats right, It's not on yet!

BSG tanked in aus tv, so i wouldnt expect it any time soon.
Pretty annoying that tv stations seem to have filled the traditional "b grade sci fi" time slots (11pm+) with news, repeats, and other crap. Lucky for bt then.

last edited by Bah at 20:18:15 13/Feb/06

Something i read somewhere had an interview with either 7 or 10 representative, who said that downloading shows was illegal, but that with their blockbuster shows they had not seen a decrease in ratings, and don't believe that tv piracy is cutting in to their ratings yet.

Hopefully, one day, they'll fix the ratings system and realise that the shows they think are popular, aren't, and that people change the channel during their advertisements so the ratings numbers they have aren't the advertising eyes they think they are.

I download a lot of TV, i also buy a lot of that TV when it comes out on DVD and re-watch it. But I do think that TV seasons are over priced in Australia, especially when they rip us off by splitting season box sets in to two parts and charge full price for both parts (West Wing, CSI, etc), which isn't necessarily done like that elsewhere in the world.

The TV networks here have proven that they can deliver shows in reasonable time when they need to, such as with Survivor, where they run it within days of episodes airing in the US and with the finale airing just hours after the US finale.

I'm all for $1-$2 a pop for episodes, available immediately after the US airing, provided they leave it in a format where I can watch on my XBox (i.e. not some low quality crap format streaming.)

At the moment NBC has released two episodes of The Book of Daniel which you can stream from their website, since the religious conservatives in the US got it cancelled from a lot of local TV stations, but they have no downloadable version, so you've got to sit at the net connected PC and watch. I would happily pay to watch the rest of the season of what was looking like a very good show, but there's no opportunity for that :-(

Most of the shows burn in AU because the AU TV Execs put them on at stupid times or in bad combinations. The idea of having "Sci-Fi" night on Fri's or Sat's with 3 - 4 popular shows in a row could prove sucessful in changing those ratings as everyone would get their fix in 1 night.

Sure it would compete with sports, but of the geek community that generally watch those sort of shows I think that a night of BSG, SG1 & SG:Atlantis or 24, Alias, Lost & Prison Break would easily see greater numbers than the avg. sports game. Hell, they could even have The OC, Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars and Las Vegas on one night to compete against Blue Sheelers, Mclouds Bushpigs & All Saints on one night during the week.

That being said though, the attraction for me is the no ads and the watch it when I want factor. And sometimes I wanna watch an ep again if there's been a long break in viewings.

And while I agree with the whole AU is far behind US threory a little, I think it will only really make the AU amount of downloads more on par with other countries at best.

If the shows aired at the same time in Oz as they did in the US, it would be impossible to DL them, wouldnt it. Show the fukers at the same time, prob solved.

I don't feel like I'm stealing anything when I watch a tv show off the net. and I've thought about it a lot since it's the industry I want to work in...

You can buy some episodes on download from iTunes video I thought? I know one of my friends currently working in the middle east was doing this with Lost at one stage

http://www.apple.com/itunes/videos/ claims they have NBC, ABC and Disney shows at the very least

Because Australian TV is s***. And they put s***HOUSE shows on during prime time and slot the few good shows in at some random hour which is good to no one.

I think the itunes TV show download is US only, i've checked a few times and not been able to pay for shows, but there's plenty in the US press about it.

Blue Sheelers, Mclouds Bushpigs & All Saints

lol, indeed put on some good shows on not this garbage, leeching tv shows of the net ftw, also noticed smallville is back to little to late methinks 2 seasons behind, only other show worthy watching is supernatural atm rest is crapola, waiting for battlestar galactica and atlantis.

smallville is 2 years behind because 9 had the rights and wouldnt sell them. thank god the contract ended and ten picked it up.

last edited by ravn0s at 21:30:01 13/Feb/06

Soz, I thought BSG was compete arse ... same with SG Atlantis.

I thought Firefly had merit.

bsg is ass. atlantis and firefly rock

like everyone else in this threads i download tv shows cause im sick of waiting 9-12months for them to air in australia, i also pay a small fee to access usenet so i get it at a reasonable speed.

nothing better then grabbing lost/24 an hour after its been aired in HDTV.

and i dont think im stealing as i recomend the shows i download to friends who watch it when it airs in australia, i know atleast 10+ people that watch prison break just on me recomending how much of a kick ass show it is who would normally flick on a tv to watch a show.

I never watched the firefly series but saw serenity and liked it.
Would watch firefly but it was axed, dunno if it was ever aired here but if it was, I missed it :/

I wouldn't feel bad about downloading tv shows, s***, it's FREE to air anyway, and when I rarely do watch a TV show, I don't sit through retarded ads anyway, channel surf during them, so hardly lost $$ if I were to download them.

groydis speaks the truth, pretty much every series I watch is recommended by him heh

it's FREE to air anyway

not really, the tv station pays money to air those tv shows, the money they use to pay for those shows is made by companys who pay to play there ads during those shows. i generally dont channel surf when i watch free to air because i simply dont see the point,

cable stations such as hbo/fox pay to actually make the shows and the money to make those shows again comes from people paying to place those ads during the shows air time.


i sit down to watch a tv show, not watch a tv show and 10minutes of some other show.

so technically you are stealing.

but how you feel about stealing depends on the guilt trip you lay apon yourself.
like anything i obtain from the internet if it is truly good enough and warrants the deserving people to be rewarded by me actually purchasing there products and thus me giving them money to continue there good work i will, which can be proved by my dvd tv series collection and massive legit music collection.

i wont purchase everything because most of it isnt worth it, but that which is worth it i will purchase.


in my perfect fantasy world id like to see commercials removed from tv and replaced with product placement, like what they did in the island. i see no problems with product placement, you could argue that its planting subliminal ideas in your head to buy there products but tv has always done that since day one so meh.

men in black 2. now thats f***en product placement.

not really, the tv station pays money to air those tv shows, the money they use to pay for those shows is made by companys who pay to play there ads during those shows. i generally dont channel surf when i watch free to air because i simply dont see the point,

so technically you are stealing.

Unfortunately, it's not a perfect world, technically.... it may be stealing, yes.

Reality is, I would never watch ads, just the show... Cost effectiveness for them is identically the same as if I downloaded it with the annoying every-5-minutes-for-5-minutes ad break intermissions removed.

Much like taping it to VHS when it's air'd to watch it later - you fast forward the retarded ad breaks... (or if someone is taping for you - they pause it in ad breaks so when you watch it they're gone)
Only real difference here is you're getting the TV shows ahead of the stupid australian-lag-tv.

It's something that can be argued back and forth, depending on which side of the fence you look at it from.

last edited by Loki at 01:53:20 14/Feb/06

Isn't also part of the problem that the ratings periods in the US and Australia are different? In other words if Aus TV networks were to show stuff at the same time as the US it would be in our non-ratings periods?? Don't know, just asking the question...

Also some shows I can't seem to find back catalogues for, like Top Gear, so I've no choice but to download it if I want to watch it.

I think that it is bulls*** to have a couple of months of non-ratings in the first place.

All of a sudden there is all (/even more) this rubbish on tele, ridiculous. What do they need it for, they collate the ratings everyday.

Because Australian TV is s***

Quoted for truth.

Reality is, I would never watch ads, just the show... Cost effectiveness for them is identically the same as if I downloaded it with the annoying every-5-minutes-for-5-minutes ad break intermissions removed

Same.

I rarely watch regular TV, but when I do I mute the TV the instant the ads start. I really hate TV ads that just scream at you to buy some mundane crap that you don't need nor have the money for. In fact, at some level I despise any products that I see ads for.

So yes, I'll continue watching my TV shows, on TV or on the net, both without viewing the ads. It's not like I'm preventing "banner views/clicks" or sapping bandwidth (tapping the EM spectrum doesn't affect them) and depriving the TV stations of revenue. My viewing makes no difference to their revenue stream.

Coupled with the fact that TV shows here are 3 billion years behind (as mentioned in ctd's post), they are pretty much asking me to download episodes.

last edited by parabol at 13:20:27 14/Feb/06

i hate how ads are louder in volume than the shows.

ps 24 is out today

i hate how ads are louder in volume than the shows.

That's cause the ad's are played at normal volume and everything else is at reduced rates.

I also hate it

i see no problems with product placement,

I have problems with it if when it alters the story line or is out of place. As I understand it in a recent episode of Alias they promote a car during a carchase + phonecall, that is really out of place with what is happenning with the story.

If the main character needs a drink and choses Coke, I have no problem. If they can write products in to the story credibly, like the un-openable brief case in Lost, it's all good. But if it can't be tied in to the story properly, it shouldn't be done.

In season 4 of 24 the terrorists were using an Alienware laptop.

I have problems with it if when it alters the story line or is out of place.

I once saw a 2 hour long iPod commercial called "Blade Trinity".

thats a good point natslover, which i never took into consideration.

most product placement hasnt been so in your face as of yet, though i have noticed it being getting alot stronger aka the reference you made to alias.

i think its kind of cool though that something could be funded from product placement alone, it would help alot of independant tv shows get off the ground if they were given a less restricted place to air the shows. kind of like community television but less sucky then bris31