Downloading TV Shows leads to more TV watching
Written by Ernesto on November 20, 2006A CBS poll shows that people who download TV shows actually watch more TV. People miss less shows because they can watch their favorite shows whenever they want, and this results in more fans.
Earlier this month we estimated that almost a million viewers get their latest Lost episode through BitTorrent. TV broadcasters are now beginning to realize that making shows available for download is helping their business, instead of hurting it.
CBS’s chief research officer David Poltrack said that online distribution services like YouTube and BitTorrent are friends, not foes.
Poltrack is not too keen on the paid distribution model iTunes offers right now. He thinks that TV shows should be available for free via ad-supported models. In a panel discussion at the Future of Television Forum Poltrack said that “if [consumers] are going to steal it, give it to them anyway. But also make it easier to access and present it better than YouTube or BitTorrent or anywhere else.”
Poltrack is probably right. TV broadcasters should come up with a product that can compete with the “illegal” TV torrents in order to see a decline in pirated downloads. This will only lead to more views per show, and thus higher advertising revenues, like the CBS poll indicated.
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15 Responses
I don’t mind at all to watch “Lost” or “CSI” episodes even with ads! :D
DID they really have to have a poll to figure this one out?
looks like a lady
dfhfcvb
U dont need a genius to figure that out allthough.
David Poltrak is the new captain obvious. I recently downloaded a CSB show I missed only one hour after it aired, an I was in a swarm with about 3,000 other peers. CBS is just now figuring this out? c’mon Poltrak, what do you get paid for? get with the program.
and they could make a good business modell if they would do the following:
1 minute after the regular TV airing time is over they set up a torrent with 1 or 2 really highspeed initial seeders offering a version like the release groups only do significant time later e.g. with NO in-film commercial breaks, but to make a business modell for you guys for example with ONE(!) trailer at the beginning, ONE(!) trailer [for half the price of the first?] at the end and instead of having just the tiny nondisturbing station logo showed the whole episode they could sell that space as “ultra high super duper recognised” advertising space specially for bittorrent distribution.
(This idea is intellectual property of some guy in australia if I remember correctly what I have seen in a lecture about the success of battlestar galactica)
Now FOX and CBS and ABC ect. go and sell this business model to your advertisers! I bet they would give you huge money for a WORLDWIDE viewed 40+ minutes advertising logo!
I discovered a lot of tv shows on YouTube that would have never cought my eye on TV.
Yeah I got cable, but I don’t think I hardly ever have it on unless I’m watching sportscenter. If I feel like watching a show I allways turn to torrentz and my lovely DivX enable DvD player.
When you live in another country than USA you have to wait months before you can watch the new seasons of Lost, prison break, my name is earl, desperate housewives.
Alexi
only if you have no bittorent client ;-)
If you have, you only need to wait ~1-3 hours longer then those people that can recieve american airwaves directly :-P
I agree with this completely. For some of us ex-pats, the only way we can get our weekly shows is through torrents.
I think it’s worth the wait for shows to come out on dvd (that’s if they’re big enough to)…then you can just get better copies without any logos. Of course if you can’t wait you’ll probably end up with some watermark/logo on the bottom corner though this isn’t too bad when watching the video. I seem to forget it’s even there most of the time.
If they do start this marketing scheme with putting advertisement logos in places of the TV station logo, I’m sure it will get out of hand or just straight out annoying. …what I mean is, companies will probably have a lot of annoying animated logos and would there be a limit on the size of the logo?!
This is why I think it would be better to wait for it to come out on DVD..so you can get a clean ad free copy…just not sure how long it takes for them to come out.
Well I do watch the downloaded ones obviously, but it doesn’t lead me to watch more TV. I’d do anything to avoid the ads, but even though some shows are ad free, downloading gets them more in advance for most countries. Plus I can’t record them until I get a digital TV.
[quote comment="24013"]I discovered a lot of tv shows on YouTube that would have never cought my eye on TV.[/quote]
Lol they wouldn’t cough in my eye either Camille! Actually you can get some good shows there if you search, but it’s difficult if you don’t know what to look for. They can be lower quality of course, but at least they are smaller file sizes.
And so if we ever see the DVD we might consider buying it if the price was right.
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