Aussie TV Networks Fight BitTorrent 550
An anonymous reader writes "It seems impatient TV viewers have discovered BitTorrent in Australia mainly because the networks there are so slow; programs are at times behind by up to 8 months! According to an independent study, it takes an average of four months to watch the latest episodes of top-rated shows like Lost and Desperate Housewives. There are now calls for TV networks to consider offering episodes for download at a small cost."
And New Zealand is just as bad... (Score:5, Informative)
Ah, television - teacher, mother, secret lover. Why must you treat me so badly?
Broadcatching (Score:5, Informative)
And not just TV (Score:4, Informative)
Movies too. Some of the most interesting movies get released at the same time world-wide, but for others we're up to six months behind the northern hemisphere - I'm in NZ, not Australia, but the problem is similar.
In the case of NZ, though, there is an extra obstacle in the form of a telecommunications monopoly keeping a stranglehold on all ISPs so that all broadband accounts are capped -- usually at 10 GB per month -- though some allow downloads beyond that limit, only at dial-up speeds. This means that downloading isn't quite as viable an option here as it is in Australia.
Re:Commercials (Score:2, Informative)
You knowledge is indeed limited (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not just late, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Futurama was shown completely out of order, Farscape was tossed around from one timeslot to another before finally being shown consistantly in an afternoon spot and Buffy and Angel were never in sync due to things being shuffled around for sports or other 'specials' one night of the week, so crossovers would never match up.
A great example just recently was that Channel 7 stopped showing Desperate Housewives (and Lost?) for three weeks 'because of Easter'. I don't know anyone who took three weeks off for easter (even the schools stayed open save for the public holidays) so I'm not sure why they would do this.
It's so much easier to just download things (and later buy them on DVD) than to try and figure out what's going on with the show you want to watch. Make it easier for us (either show it on tv in good time or let us download it for a fee) and maybe more people will watch tv.
Re:Aussies (Score:5, Informative)
Its actually happens the other way around - some lines in "Crocodile Dundee" were changed for Americans - I think 'stickybeak' became 'busybody' or something obscure - but that whole movie is a stereotype anyway. In "The Castle", 'rissoles' became 'meatloaf'.
Re:Broadcatching (Score:1, Informative)
Re:And not just TV (Score:3, Informative)
Re:"Up to 8 months"? Pfft. (Score:2, Informative)
Ch9 are still showing old Frasier, I bought the final season (s11) on DVD from Amazon, and downloaded s10 (its not available on DVD yet)
Ch9 are still showing s9. Thats 2 and a bit seasons behind.
No sympathy for Australian networks (Score:5, Informative)
For these reasons, we would originally get friends to send video tapes from the USA. For these reasons, a lot of people now use the file transfer technology du-jour (Napseter, BitTorrent, Direct Connect, whatever) to grab shows.
As the networks have for a very long time shown that they do not value SF programming, they have absolutely no sympathy from me. If the shows had screened in a timely manner, not been relegated to graveyard slots and not been chopped and changed, people would have not bothered with all this effort and just watched live to air. And I'd get cable TV if it was any good, try getting a cable package that *doesn't* include sport and a bunch of other junk I don't want). If we got to keep SBS and ABC, I'd gladly sacrifice the lot to the FTA as I am bloody well sick of lifestyle and reality shows.
Complete non-surprise (Score:5, Informative)
Not only do we often have to wait months, if not years to actually GET a series (assuming its not exclusive to one of the cable TV services, which STILL aren't available in many areas), they often find ways to screw them up.
Examples:
- Season one of Scrubs was shown by one of the networks. Season two started - six episodes into the season, if I recall correctly.
- Desperate Housewives just returned last night, after a three week break because there was something else on the networks wanted to cover
When you can download the entire season (probably in HDTV) and watch it without ads and without having to wait weeks for the networks to get their shit together (and without having to pay AU$60/month on cable, if you can even get it, which I can't, whine!), its not surprising.
(Add me to the list of people that would happily, ecstatically, and joyfully shell out money to buy fairly priced xvid/divx versions of US TV shows that I simply can't watch over here - shit, I'd probably then go and buy them on DVD as well)
Re:Not just late, but... (Score:3, Informative)
Good point. I was discussing this with an American living here in Australia and she believed that you wouldn't get away with that crap in the U.S. except for perhaps the Superbowl.
The way she put it was that in the US, if the TV Guide says a show is going to be on at 10am, it will be on at 10am precisely. In Australia, the scheduling is a pretty loose arrangement. There's little chance your show will come on at the scheduled time and no guarantee it will be shown at all.
It's a pretty sad indictment of the slack-arse multi-billion-dollar tv industry in Oz.
I must admit I don't care: I very rarely watch tv these days. The Internet has a lot more to offer, especially insofar as getting multiple perspectives on an issue.
Cheers
Stor
Re:Aussies (Score:3, Informative)
The entire original Mad Max was redubbed with Ameican voices -- it was a big shock to hear this when I saw it on TV outside Australia. Insensitive clods indeed.
Australians BT because Australian TV SUXS! (Score:2, Informative)
All that I can watch is the Simpsons which runs for 30 minutes and more often than not it is a re-run! Everything else is the crappy "realty" TV or "American Idol" rip offs.
It's bloody annoying mate.
Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars (Score:5, Informative)
All perfectly legal, all perfectly legit.
The trade practices act of 1974 and the copyright ammendments come together to make the zoning of DVDs illegal in Australia. All that's needed is a court decision to make it law.
Any thing that restricts choice is illegal(Trade Practices) and we are allowed to parallel import(Copyright amendment). To the best of my knowledge neither have been negated by the further amendments.
No bloody wonder! (Score:3, Informative)
The world according to Networks Australia:
The TV guides are just that - a rough guide to what we think we might be airing, but don't take it as gospel, we will alter it at a moments notice and air your favorite programs at 3 in the morning when we suddenly discover every other crap has been played 4 times already.
When we do play a season, we will constantly move its time slot and play them back to back to finish it when the footy season starts.
Once we discover a program that earns good ratings we will repeat it at every opportunity and buy all the spins offs and flog them to death until you are sick of it. See CSI as a good example.
We will try new program material at 11pm when nobody is watching. When it starts to build a following we will move it to 4:15am every time the planets align. When you find it again we'll axe it citing poor ratings.
I am sick of trying to find my favorite programs (what the fuck happened to West Wing?) and decided to download them and watch them whenever I have the time or inclination. (side note - we have Tivo type technology that will automatically record shows I like whenever they are on - dammit).
Stop bitching about the customer and give them what they want!
That's all well and good. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars (Score:5, Informative)
Canada has a population nearing 30 million, and a land mass significantly larger than the US. Yet, we have two Satellite television providers. In the province I live in (Saskatchewan) anyone in a city with a population of around 1000 people has access to high speed internet. The local telco has also started offering wireless which means anyone living within I believe about 30Km of selected spots, will also have high speed available.
The thing is, around here, a lot of money was invested in the infrastructure for many years. If the copyright holders would begin to allow us to download our favourite shows (for a fee) then we certainly have the infrastructure to support it.
As for Austrailia, if the government can (and has the money to) get involved, there are a lot of new technologies coming out such as WiMax that can begin to offer high speed internet without the infrastructure costs normally associated with something like expanding DSL to a new area.
Re:Four months? (Score:1, Informative)
Both of these were being shown twice a week by the networks, so that people who missed them could watch them at the more convenient time...... then the networks decided to screw the viewers and put them on at a single inconvenient time. So now I don't bother.
A dialup connection can do 100Mb in 5 hours. A typical episode is 300Mb. That's only 15 hours, that's nearly two episodes a day!
About time they figured it out (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars (Score:3, Informative)
Check out who owns the local stations and do a trade mark search on the Foxtel. The contracts for the Aussie market is just part of the standard contracts for much of the TV production and there is no major reason not to run most US tv shows within 24 hours in Australia.
You bought into the "Rural Australia" theory that isn't true. Melbourne is bigger than Chicago now and Sydney is even bigger. South Western Bell has a lower service density the areas that Telstra cover and what used to be Mountain Bell is much lower.
Re:Its interesting.... (Score:2, Informative)
If you ever meet someone with an "Australian" accent ask them if they come from NZ if they do they will be pleased you noticed the difference and if not who worries about upsetting Australians.
kidding I like Australians except when there betting us at sport (which means I don't like them a lot of the time ;))
Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars (Score:3, Informative)
9,631,419 km [wikipedia.org] isn't THAT much smaller than 9,984,670 km [wikipedia.org].
Given how much of Canada is a wasteland, i'd say the size difference is rather insignificant.
Re:Aussies (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars (Score:3, Informative)
Australian TV is truly horrific.