Submission + - Free Distribution Can Help DVD Sales (smh.com.au)
hereschenes writes: The Chaser's War on Everything is a popular satirical\comedy weekly show on Australia's public broadcaster, the ABC. The current season is amongst the nation's highest rating TV shows across all networks, and 'vodcasts' of the episodes are freely available for download after it airs each week. The broadcaster also allows users to freely distribute clips via YouTube. Interestingly, this practice seems not to be harming DVD sales of the series; according to the ABC's Courtney Gibson, the reality is quite the opposite:
Gibson added that ABC's decision to make the show available as a free download from its website had actually increased, not threatened, sales of the show on DVD. This contrasts with the views of most commercial networks, which go to extreme lengths to control the distribution of their content.
