Europe Gets Prison Break Fix via BitTorrent
Written by Ernesto on September 09, 2008Last week the fourth season of Prison Break aired in the US with over 6 million viewers on TV. On BitTorrent the season premiere was downloaded more than 2 million times this week. The majority of the downloads go to Europe though. Poland alone is responsible for 12%, compared to only 4% US downloads.
Last week we reported that the season premiere of Fox’s Prison Break was downloaded more than a million times just a day after it was aired on TV. Fox, which offers a free and legit Prison Break stream on Fox.com for US viewers, thinks that most downloads come from overseas, where the episodes haven’t aired yet, let alone that it can be streamed online.
It turns out that Fox’s assumption is right. We decided to look into the download locations of one of the most popular Prison Break torrents and found that, based on a sample of more than 250,000 downloads, most downloaders are located in Europe.
In our sample, which represents approximately 10% of the total downloads this week, the show was most downloaded in Poland (12%). UK and France were in second and third place respectively, followed by Canada and The Netherlands. The US was sixth in the list with only 4% of the total downloads, and Greece, Spain, Australia and Brazil complete the top 10.
As we have said before, availability seems to the key issue why people turn to BitTorrent. Non-US Prison Break fans sometimes have to wait for weeks or even months before the show airs on TV in their country, and many of them are not that patient, or willing to torture themselves. Until this problem is addressed, we’re not likely to see a decrease in TV-show downloads from BitTorrent.
The 4% US downloaders that preferred to get the show via BitTorrent instead of streaming it online probably did so because they wanted to watch it on their TV or get a higher quality copy – streaming isn’t all that. Both Fox and Hulu, the two sites that offer Prison Break streams have not published any numbers, so it’s hard to compare the number of US downloaders (~100.000) with the US streamers.
We do have a new TV-torrent download chart, with plenty of newcomers. So, let’s take a look at the 10 most downloaded shows this week. The data for the weekly download chart is collected by TorrentFreak from a representative sample of BitTorrent sites and is for informational and educational reference only.
Top Downloads August 31 – September 07
| Ranking | (last week) | TV-show |
| 1 | (new) | Prison Break |
| 2 | (new) | Gossip Girl |
| 3 | (new) | Dexter (pre-air) |
| 4 | (new) | Stargate Atlantis |
| 5 | (new) | 90210 |
| 6 | (new) | One Tree Hill |
| 7 | (new) | Bones |
| 8 | (new) | Samurai Girl |
| 9 | (new) | The Shield |
| 10 | (4) | Mythbusters |
Previously: Ipernity Media Sharing Site Embraces BitTorrent
Next: BitTorrent Tracker Admin Jailed for 18 Months
44 Responses
Perhaps it’s me, but I was never too entirely thrilled with this show. I am glad the folks across the pond have access to it though.
Likewise, BT is the only way I was able to catch Robin Hood from the BBC :) In fact, I would have never heard of it otherwise….that was good stuff.
J.
This is true, shows take for ever to broadcast in the UK. Like Greek has just got into airing it’s 2nd season…
But on UK channels they’ve only aired the first 10 episodes and claimed that was the season final.
Cant think of watching this on my comp screen… widescreen, 60 inches minimum.
Same goes for serials like BSG.
who’s that guy above lincoln burrows on the image? xD
@plask
company’s mastermind :D
Polsat, polish TV station, has just started airing 3rd season of Prison Break… pathetic
That’s actually very interesting.
the same problem is in my country shows take forever to get here like on local channels season 2 of prison break just started and that is just pathetic so downloadin the episode is the only option for us
Season 4 of Prisone Break is looking pretty crap at the moment. Season 3 of Dexter on the other hand is shaping up to be pretty good, the pre-air was not bad at all.
Who is that guy in the pic with lincoln crouching?
Gossip girl LOL
Are you all secretly homo?
Just starting to air 3rd season here, and they wonder why BT is popular…
Well, always good to see our neighbors over there being able to enjoy American shows. It sounds sarcastic, but it isn’t. Take Kenny VS Spenny for example. In Canada, the show is broadcast on Showtime, which is similar to HBO or other PPV services. Comedy Central doesn’t air the episodes for at least 2 months, and they’re butchered to hell to meet US TV standards. So there you go. I scratch your back, you scratch mine.
Anon, why do you assume we are secret about it?
@ 13 – DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK.
It goes to a child porn site. Yrn that’s not funny, nowhere near.
Use these comments to talk about the ARTICLE not your sick-minded fantasies.
ON a brighter note… um… Prison Break? WHAT. THE. HELL? I swear I saw them get out of prison a few years ago. JUST DIE ALREADY! Why do they have to drag shows like this out?
For anyone looking for the best TV Series ever, try Skins.
AGAIN, DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!
Hopefully it will be/get taken down.
@14
dont scare people
i clicked on the site and i downloaded the fix there from
stop talk bs
Poland FTW! =:E
A serie from a few years ago Dawson’s Creack for the ones who remember, the final season is never shown in the Netherlands!!! I’m glad I was able to download it, otherwise I wouldn’t have seen it till now!
Dutch television buys a lot of series, but sometimes they air them a year later. Sometimes they buy it with a restriction that other channels are not allowed to air them in the Netherlands, what happens, the find out that a serie is not dowing well, so the rest of the serie is not aired, and other channels aren’t allowed to air them so they never got aired…
The Internet == Freedom of television!!!
DO NOT click that link as 14 posted it will take you to a site what been looked into…some sick MOFO’s in this word
oâ—‹ â•â•®
â•â”›â•‘
　 â•°â•â”› oâ—‹.well, i am gothic girl and . .I am looking to meet some new friends,penpals and dark love if possible!:) Male, female or couple it doesn’t matter. I run â–“ _&.Gothicloving.c o m . â–“_&.If you are interested in meeting some cool people, you are always welcome to join my club come on to share the new lifestyle~!!!I can assure you that your will be happy here.â•â˜… _&.
Interesting that Canada is number 4, yet not only is the population 1/10th the size of the USA, but Canada watches the shows at the same time as the USA.
Even if the % of the downloads was only, 1% higher than the 4% of Americans, per capita, that makes the number HUGE in comparison in the amount of the population downloads.
Then again, not sure if Global is offering the show online like Fox.
yeah this is so true, i can’t wait to get my smallville fix in just over a week via bittorrent :D
The Prison Break poster used in the entry is a spoof poster.
The bloke in the background is Mas Selamat bin Kastari a terror fugitive from escape from Singapore’s custody earlier this year.
Do an Google image (keywords: Mas Selamat Prison Break) search and you will see all the spoof posters.
Wiki it if you are interested to find out more about this bloke.
@9, WTF? Season 4 started fu&*in brilliantly. Ep 1, 2, 3 – all great, so far.
Doesn’t Sky One show it the day after the US? I.e. Tuesday in the UK?
@24 – Sky One does show it the day after it airs in the US. However as it was on fairly late last night (10PM) and I had an early start (5AM, I downloaded it and watched it at a time more convinient to me.
Yes, Sky does, but not everybody has/wants/can afford/lives in a flat which can’t receive it/etc. Sky, so therefore BT is the only solution.
You wouldn’t believe how far behind we are with Law & Order too.
And similar note, the likes of Journeyman or Middlemen may never reach here. So you get Top Gear abd Doctor Who and we get your stuff, win win!
the problem with availability is not necessarily that users are impatient, but that every day that passes between the US airing date and the european one, risk of being spoiled in the internet grows higher and higher.
Why should european users be banned from fully enjoying the Lost Experience on the net just because they’re getting the episodes too late?
Also, at least in Spain, TV networks are all but serious. They treat the shows (and thus their audience) like crap. They don’t stick to the schedules (20+ minutes waits!!!), they introduce the ads whenever they want (totally breaking the highly studied narration flow of the episodes), the hiatus they introduce between some episodes are undefined and without any sense of cliffhangers, and they make a 42 minutes show (1 hour in US TV airing) into a 1h20 exhausting experience.
Morover, I have family in France that top these complaints with a fierce censorship. For example, they didn’t aired the 2 very first episodes of House MD just because they cared about the audience not liking the main charcter (WTF!?).
Hence, only way to have a serious way of watching TV and enjoy it as much as it is meant to be, is by using this P2P ways.
The season premiere was awesome
I download them as they’re aired in America regardless of whether they’re coming to the UK, As I did with Reaper.
And WOOP! for Prison Break, it rawks.
Prison Break is one of the worst pieces of sh*t that has ever been on television.
Good thing though it’s not big in the states and will finally be axed after this season.
It works the other way around too.
I watch TopGear all the time (well not right now, as it’s in off season (series?), cause of everyone seeding to me from across the pond. :D
It’s kinda stupid how you guys have to wait for our shows, even though there’s no real point (at least change the length of time between when its broadcast in the US, and when its broadcast in Europe to something shorter… jeez)
Actually Figures are much bigger than those. The show is huuuuge in the xUSSR area. Folks around here download it constantly through local private torrent trackers (that’s because local traffic is considerably cheaper than the global.
Moreover, there are almost like underground torrent-based production studios. Some sites have communities, which translate popular shows right away, as soon as it is release.
There is no need to say that PB’s 4th season is already in Russian and torrent files where downloaded altogether around 30-50k times.
yeah everyone has to get there fix of American TV, i don’t even notice the difference streaming it to my tele via xbox 360
Our TVs here have yet to air the third season of Prison Break and the second of Dexter…
And Stargate Atlantis isnt even airing at all… let alone the fifth season.
Season 4 of Prison Break is currently being shown on Tuesdays, one day after (or about 16 hours, idk) the US.
Problem is, you have to have Sky to watch it. A lot do, but then again a lot don’t.. Like me.
Yep, I saw the pre-air episode of Dexter and this season is shaping up to be awesome.
I download copies of all my favorite tv shows from Bittorrent until I can get them on DVD. Bittorrent also comes in handy for downloading BBC stuff.
LOL< Dude I love PRison Break. Its like the best show on TV right now isnt it.
Jappy
http://www.privacy.cz.tc
@www.eZee.se
NOOB..learn to stream media!I get 1080i streamed wirlessly onto a full HD 7.2 system. And i get it for free…read up on tech dude…
by way of Nvidia logo/intro.
“The way its meant/gonna be played”
Torrents piss on TV.
This just shows that the big networks are waaaay behind the times. They really need to suck it up and change their business models.
I think it would be really smart of Fox/ABC/etc. to just upload their own torrents of their shows, with commercials. People would download them because they’d be seeded by super-fast network servers, and they’d be released sooner than pirated torrents because they don’t have to rip/edit/encode/post like the pirates.
I would gladly download a torrent with commercials if it meant getting it 4 hours faster and I could watch it on my HD projector…
Show tiz ok yaknow check out Black Lagoon anime kool also Top Gear is the stuff also Dog the Bounty Hunter- American Chopper- Monster Garage- Biker Build Off- Milwaukee Iron- Pinks -These are all too kool all state side xecpt top gear torrents to check it
Poland was mentioned :D
And I use hulu mainly, but torrents are much better then waiting for the show to air, get past all the comercials in the WORST spot they could put them in.
All entertainment is on demand now whether the distributors want it to be or not, because that’s what consumers want and expect.
Catch up, guys. We’re going ahead with or without you – you may as well hop on board.
Excellent Post, and thanks for this analysis. It’s also interesting how people that want to pay for content are still be treated like criminals…
I talked about this post and that on my show today. Thanks!
http://tinyurl.com/42gjjl
1 references to this post
Responses are closed
All remaining responses will continue to be archived. Use the TorrentFreak forums if you want to discuss something.