Aussie TV Networks Fight BitTorrent

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."

Commercials

[elbenito69]

If the TV networks did decide to offer downloads at a cost, would they still include advertisements in the download, or would the cost of the download be sufficient to make up for the lost advertising revenue?

Not just late, but...

[kgbspy]

It's not just things being 8-12 months (on average) behind, say, the US or UK, it's also the insistence of the commercial networks (specifically Channel 9 [ninemsn.com.au]) to drop series without notice, schedule program episodes in the wrong order, or change the scheduling of episodes at the last minute.

I'm not surprised that people are taking television programming into their own hands in this country...

Why not have worldwide simultaneous airing?

[doormat]

Its not like we dont have these satellites and stuff that can beam programming around the planet in the course of a few seconds, especially for english speaking countries like the UK and Australia... even if its a few days behind, its better than 8 months.

Canada shielded from the "non-American" effect

[saskboy]

If Canadians weren't largely capable of getting American satelite signals on the grey and black markets for the last 2 decades then chances are we could have wound up in a similar pickle where if CTV or CBC or Global didn't pick up a show, we'd simply not be able to see it for months. Although Canadian cable and satellite offer ABC, NBC, and CBS the primary US Networks, and have for decades. Thank goodness for geography.

Anyway, as far as Bit torrent goes, I don't think Australia will be the first country to authorize it's TV stations to go with Bit torrent "broadcasting". I predict it will be a Scandanavian country that will break the mold, and pave the way for TV distribution for the next 5 years before the next best thing comes along.

Re:Four months?

[Virtual Karma]

With you dial up it would take you even more from other sources than torrents. hey... with a dial up why would you even attempt to download any video content?

"Up to 8 months"? Pfft.

[lpontiac]

The West Wing is currently stalled about halfway through Season Five in Australia on free-to-air. The last episode of Season Six screens in the US this coming week. The channel that has the rights over here won't even state whether it's coming back at all, let along when. Pay TV (cable or satellite) isn't a solution - one cable channel is currently screening repeats of Season One). In addition, I own the first four seasons on DVD and intend to purchase S5 and S6 on DVD as soon as they become available. So, you'll just have to pardon me for not feeling particularly guilty about having seen ripped episodes that are yet to air down here.

Re:Absolutely

[tymbow]

I got really annoyed with Stargate and channel 7 - it was on again, off again, changed times, off for a few weeks while some crap was on. Eariler in the year they started running the X-files from EP1 which was kind of fun to see from the start and then after about 6-7 weeks it dissapears with no explanation. Same thing happended with Dark Angel - you could never be sure if it was going to be on and at aht time. While I'm ranting, what is with the program times now? TV guides say program X starts at Y - but what they don't tell you is it really Y +/- 20 minutes. Man that's annoying - especially if you are taping. The only thing that runs near to US release are things like CSI Crack Whore Unit or whatever re-incarnation of the same crap is on now.

Delay

[darkitecture]

mainly because the networks there are so slow; programs are at times behind by up to 8 months!

Or sometimes not at all.

I don't know what's worse... not getting the shows at all or getting one or two episodes before the network decides to air it at 2am every second Tuesday, which ends up being a repeat anyway. And then finally taking it off the air without even so much as a "Fuck you, we're outta here."

As an example, it took four years to air two seasons of Scrubs and that was with about six randomly omitted episodes. Then they showed three episodes randomly from the first dozen episodes of season 3 and then took it off the air completely.

If I had to pay a few bucks a week to get my regular shows as non-stream, non-DRM files, I'd gladly fork out for it. I travel a lot so I like to transfer stuff onto my laptop so I have something to watch to pass the time; If I have to be constantly streaming something or can't transfer the file to another computer I own, then forget it.

Indeed.

[ta bu shi da yu]

Yep, that most definitely pisses me off (though I don't tape). StarGate, even a few years ago, got shifted around ridiculously (it happens to be one of my favourite shows). I can see that this same thing is going to happen to BattleStar Galactica. Time to start downloading!

Re:Aussies

[ozbird]

In the case of Mythbusters (shown on SBS), for some reason they've actually replaced the commentary with an Australian dub.
The comments are identical to the US version, which I had no trouble understanding. What's with that?

The Real Heroes

[michaeldot]

I think the real unsung heroes of this are the kind souls who actually do the capture and encoding, ready for the torrents to start flying about the world.

Case in point: Doctor Who: The End of the World

The most recent Doctor Who aired 7:00 pm Saturday night, UK time. By Sunday morning, Australian time, there were enough torrent seeds to have it a high quality 350MB DivX on my hard drive in less than an hour.

Given the 11 hour time zone difference, that's a very quick turnaround, and a very professional piece of capture and encoding. I don't know who originally sourced it (not even an ugly watermark to quench his/her ego!), but my warm thanks to you. There's no sign of the local broadcaster acquiring it for at least the next 6 months.

Re:Why not have worldwide simultaneous airing?

[Anonymous Coward]

1. The tv stations have to buy it.

2. So to release it all at once they'd have to sell it to every country simultaneously.

3. So you wouldn't have a competitive market.

4. So the seller wouldn't want that.

Re:Not just late, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I gave up on watching Battlestar Galactica on Ten a few week ago, when they screwed up. In Queensland, we had to sit through 2 minutes of "We'll be back soon... Seriously!", then eight minutes of ads before it started. Then we had an adbreak, and afterwards the show restarted... from the beginning. Eventually we jumped back forward, but we'd missed a chunk of the show.

Apparently, it was even worse down south, with Galactica and Everybody Loves Raymond somehow being mixed up (i.e. show Galactica, adbreak, show Raymond, adbreak etc..)

Also, the 4 month estimate is only for the absolute top-rating shows. We're a year behind with Enterprise, for example. Hell, we were still getting 'new' episodes of Voyager LAST YEAR.

Sometimes, networks (particularly Nine) won't show shows in widescreen, or if they do, will change from week to week. Malcolm In The Middle is a good example of this. Halfway through season 5, we were getting widescreen episodes. Then the show was dropped for a few months in favour of Two And A Half Men. Then it came back in widescreen for one episode. The next episode, it was in 4:3, then 16:9 again, then back to 4:3 where it stayed... or at least for a couple episodes. I stopped watching at that point, and went and downloaded the rest of the season.

It's gotten to the point where the majority of the television content I watch (around 75%) is downloaded. All I watch on free-to-air TV anymore are daily reruns of Frasier (while I'm eating dinner).

Seven, Nine, Ten: If you screw up this much, don't expect people to tune in rather than download shows.

Re:Aussies

[lushman]

The reason for the dub is that it then becomes "Australian Content" and fits into the broadcaster's quota for local programs.
Channel 10 did it a bit to. Ever wondered why Sandra Sully had to "present" a wildlife documentary? Those minute-or-so spiels she would give at either end of the program were completely pointless to the viewer, but to the regulator, they made the program "Australian".

Not to mention watermarks

[BlastM]

When Seven introduced program watermarking it was annoying to the extent that I stopped watching that station all together. But now every single channel, bar one (SBS, which is partially government-funded and has a lot of foreign movies, news, etc) place a big logo on the screen. Even the ABC, the Australian equivalent of the BBC in terms of programming and funding, has started watermarking. This looked even more ridiculous on high and standard definition wide screen where the logo appeared on the screen TWICE! once off centre and once in the far right corner, although admittedly they've fixed that so it's just the one watermark.

If the commercial networks don't want me watching then that's no major loss for me, but I own a part of ABC, as does every taxpayer in the country. I like their content and the way they are pushing new technology in terms of broadband video on demand, digital radio, and digital television multicasting. Not only is it a bloody shame they're neglecting their viewership, but it's our responsibility to let them know that we don't like it before it becomes the norm (the excuse they used was that "the other stations are doing it").

I urge everyone who is as offended as I am to contact the ABC and let them know how you feel. With a large response to the watermarking they _will_ look into it. You can contact the ABC here [abc.net.au].

Here's what I sent:

ABC program:

Date of program:

Contact type: Complaint

Location: NSW

Subject: Logo Watermarking

Comments: The introduction of the watermark on ABC TV is offensive and detracts from the program. This is particularly apparent on widescreen digital when the watermark is out in the middle of the screen.

ABC Television's greatest draw is the quality of its programming. ABC shouldn't have to use in-your-face self-advertising techniques to attract viewers. It is that very inundation that drives people away from other networks.

Your's in viewership, Hamish Brown

You may use that as I guide if you must.

Re:Aussies

[G-funk]

The big question is - why oh why doesn't the dickhead australian voiceover bloke use Meters and Kilograms instead of feet and flamin' pounds?

Re:This is an opportunity

[thetan]

Exactly right.

Since setting up the HTPC, there are two competing digital content pipes into my house. Either way, it all ends up as MPEG2 files that I watch at my leisure, so I'm indifferent about delivery method.

First pipe: Cost is AU$70/month. Speed is 512kbps. (Sort-of broadband ADSL connection.)

Second pipe: Cost is free. Speed is is some 100+Mbps. (FTA digital tv).

It takes a special kind of incompetence from the media businesses to make the former a more attractive proposition.

Channel 7's behaviour around Arrested Development and Scrubs has cost them several hundred ad exposures to my household of four alone! Idiots.

TV content is too important to entrust to the network programmers and their devious schemes.

-Thetan.

Re:Heak! it would even work in the US.

[ozmanjusri]

Actually, someone here on an iiNet DSLAM would probably get close to those kind of speeds if they were close to the exchange.

I'm on one of those and on their 8Mb/sec plan. If you can find a server that'll keep up, it'd be close, but normally other bottlenecks step into play.
Nice when it works though...

Re:3 things certain in life

[azrebb]

Cinemas in Australia have had commercials at the start of the session since I've been going (15+ years). To be honest, I don't mind as much as tv commercials as you only see them at the start of the movie and normally they're those fancy ones that companies have paid ludicous amounts of money to some marketing firm to make something a)funny b)intelligent c)full of hot scantily clad women or d)all of the above.

Re:Typical

[Ed_Moyse]

Yes, but why does it have to be this way - all the TV companies want is to make money, so if they get it from us buying downloadable content, rather than from advertisers, who cares?

I think it's incredible how short-sighted these companies are being... there was a story a while ago about how Sony want to make an iTunes for movies. THIS is the future - give the pilot episodes away for free, use an iTunes-esque DRM, and make people pay a small fee for the actual episodes.

Re:Heak! it would even work in the US.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've always wondered if Australians are offended by the way Steve Irwin panders to Australian stereotypes.

Re:Absolutely

[_Hellfire_]

I got really annoyed with Stargate and channel 7 - it was on again, off again, changed times, off for a few weeks while some crap was on.

They did the same thing to 24 Season 3 (I'm a BIG 24 nut).

They switched the timing around 3 times, and had some stupid sport special on and delayed the series a week. For a show that ends on a cliffhanger every episode that is fucking annoying.

Guess what the big surprise twist in 24 Season 3 was? The fact that Nina Myers rocks up when you're least expecting her. Shock factor++ for fans. What does channel seven do 5 seconds before the show starts? Voiceover: "Nina Myers returns to 24...Now!" - show start.

I almost threw something at the tv. I spent the entire episode wondering how they were going to bring her in and I wasn't surprised when she showed up. Thanks a lot.

Add to that the fact that Channel 7 can't even tell us when 24 Season 4 is going to be aired, and I've had enough.

Well, they're up to episode 15 of 24-S4 in the US. Guess how many episodes are sitting on my hard drive courtesy of BitTorrent.

Fuck em. If they're going to screw around that much, I can't be bothered putting up with their shit. That's my reason for using BT and if they want to stop that, they can clean up their act and I'll start watching the TV and muting the ads like I used to.

Not The TV Companies' Fault

[mikeplokta]

Other countries have to run behind the US due the the insane American custom of spreading 22 new episodes out over 44 weeks (or thereabouts), and alternating a few new episodes, then a few reruns. No other country's TV-watching population would tolerate this, so they can't start to show a series until it's already been running in the US for six months, to ensure that they can actually show a 22 episode season over 22 weeks.

Re:Like the Peacekeeper wars

[Anonymous Coward]

Economics is only part of the story.

Australia does NOT have a TV Network. We have a few lame, protected stations, that broadcast 22 minutes of commercials per hour - truely 3rd world standard.

Content is late, and uncertain - and not to 'best practice'. Thanks to easy, electronic access, punters will not tolerate such slackness.

The stations pay 300-600% MORE for programs (per viewer) than they do, in say America, then compound the situation by trying to get 'Sports', and 'exclusivity', plus movies by 'Cable' companies to siphon even more content. Australians have a lower disposable income, so advertisers get poor value indeed.

Unsurprisingly, the reaction of punters, um er viewers, is to cancel cable ($72 month for about a dozen channels and with commercials) for a $30 all you can hire at the local DVD outlet. Fast-Forwarding and internet options are attractive options.

Aussie TV is dysfunctional, inefficient, protected, coddled, commercial ridden, and saddled with overpriced long term movie house agreements.

Downloading has many pluses. Telstra makes bucks, and the TV stations have REAL reasons for getting content cheaper - because their viewing audience is declining, because they can't negotiate back to profitability. While they mull, more and more will use internet to get their fair share or free to air, with a long antenna.

Re:Aussies

[imroy]

Perhaps because it's made and distributed by 'Beyond', the Australian company that started by making the once-great 'Beyond 2000' program (I'm old enough to just remember when it was called 'Towards 2000' and on the ABC). I wonder if SBS requested the aussie dub or if Beyond had done it for other reasons.

Re:Absolutely

[virtual_mps]

To be fair, the same schedule-mangling bullshit happens in the US. Shows are preempted all the time for baseball games and such, or moved around so that the networks can put their most popular shows in a head-to-head deathmatch.