‘Heroes’ Causes BitTorrent Boom
Written by Ernesto on September 24, 2008Two fresh episodes of the US hit series ‘Heroes’ were released Monday night. In the day that followed each episode was downloaded well over a million times by BitTorrent users all over the world, making it the busiest day ever on many torrent sites.
An example of the BitTorrent traffic boost was reported yesterday, as Mininova got 10 million downloads in a single da. A record breaking figure, in part thanks to the debut of ‘Heroes’ and several other shows. Other BitTorrent sites report a similar increase in traffic.
It’s Heroes that breaks all the records though. Our statistics show that, across all BitTorrent sites, the two episodes from Heroes’ season opening were downloaded well over a million times each – in just one day. The vast majority of the downloads come from outside the US (92%), where shows usually air weeks, months or even years later.
The show was downloaded the most in the UK (15%), where the official season opening is scheduled for October 1st. Canada, France and Australia complete the top 5. Although most TV-broadcasters won’t be happy to read these figures, one could argue that BitTorrent has actually helped TV-shows to build a stronger, broader, and more involved fanbase.
Jesse Alexander, the executive producer of ‘Heroes’ told TorrentFreak that he thinks this is indeed the case. “People watching shows such as Lost and Heroes on BitTorrent is the present world reality. TV networks have to recognize this, give their viewers more ways to interact with the shows, and find ways to generate revenue from every member of the global audience,” he said.
Let’s hope Alexander will be heard in Hollywood. Below is the TV-show download chart of the past week, Heroes is not included in the list, but it will surely appear in next week’s chart.
Top Downloads September 14 – September 21
| Ranking | (last week) | TV-show |
| 1 | (1) | Prison Break |
| 2 | (new) | House |
| 3 | (2) | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles |
| 4 | (new) | Smallville |
| 5 | (6) | Fringe |
| 6 | (8) | Stargate Atlantis |
| 7 | (3) | Entourage |
| 8 | (4) | Weeds |
| 9 | (5) | Gossip Girl |
| 10 | (new) | Supernatural |
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35 Responses
woot! Pirate Bay is the neeeeesh!!
TV is alive again!!! Something to watch other then weeds now!
Yo Morons, yes i’m talking to you who make TV serials, yes, you dumbass… you getting the hint here or is it still too subtle?
Once again showing how P2P is good at breaking down artificial restrictions by the industry that should never have been there in the first place.
“People watching shows such as Lost and Heroes on BitTorrent is the present world reality. TV networks have to recognize this, give their viewers more ways to interact with the shows, and find ways to generate revenue from every member of the global audience,”
–Yet, with the current course and trend in laws, how much could it believed that people are indeed changing? Change must come from bottom-up, from the will of the people, rather than from the will of the executives.
Roze
http://www.28chan.org/apstdt/
TV and Movies will find a way to make the net work for them eventually. Product placement appears to be part of their solution. Heroes is a good example of this with Nissan. Movies have also been doing this as well. Too bad for the music industry though. You can’t just interrupt a song and drop a commercial in the middle or sing about a product without it being just an annoying commercial. There are other avenues they could go but they don’t want to let go of the tried and true methods of ripping off/enslaving musicians. They’ll reap what they’ve sown.
“Product placement appears to be part of their solution.”
:(
I don’t like Heroes that much (not that it’s a bad show or anything like that). House is way better imho ^_^
Interesting that Canada is #2 considering they show it at the same time there as in the USA.
Interesting that Canada is #2 considering they show it at the same time there as in the USA.
why give my money to videotron(net/cable cie) when i can have it for free and without the pub
got your response ;)
“I don’t like Heroes that much (not that it’s a bad show or anything like that). House is way better imho ^_^”
Please tell me it’s a joke.
I downloaded Heroes, won’t be on for a couple weeks in the UK so thought I’d take a look…
It was kinda lame… anyone else thinks Heroes is kind of a poor copy on ‘The 4400′ just with out the flashy budget?
‘Heroes’ got way too boring yuk
Comment number ten,
gtfo please. House is a great show. I really enjoy it, and if you look at the chart others do too.
Im not saying it is better than Heroes (mostly because I havent watched it), but some may do. Respect them, and dont come here with some random ugly comment.
Lost owns every television show to date.
Heroes SUCKED from the Season-1 Finale. Left the show then & there.
All shows has their own fans. I like most of the show in the chart. :)
I still say they should be at least releasing there episodes first WITH COMMERCIALS IN THEM.
Yes I know, they will be skipped or a better episode will be release..
SO WHAT.. if they get it out quick enough, enough people will download it and will be BETTER THEN NOTHING.
Prison Break is the most downloaded series last week, and it’s ratings in the US are very low, this is showing only that the rest of the world doens’t think like the americans, because i don’t get that obsession with dancing with the stars, and others reality craps just like that, bleh, i hate reality shows!! =\\\
‘in a single da.’
Quite so, quite so.
bittorrent is for newf4gs
Yay and i was one of those people :)
After watching the first season you realise that nothing has really happeneded and that you have been used like a dirty crack whore. Like most of the modern American series where everything is strewn out to make as much money as possible -. Making a simple question into a whole hour long episode.
You can google me if you got something to say!!!!
But anyways yes most american TV shows are drawn out way to long thats why i watch cartoons lol(south park,adult swim)and PBS(Public Broadcasting Station between 11am-est and 3pm-est “the British TV shows”) And if I really get an itch for some great telly I just (like all of you Fudge Pirates) go the the closest Torrent site(THE PIRATE BAY, ISOHUNT, MININOVA) and get me a great movie……
who cares if you like the show, the story is about tv networks not waking up and smelling the coffee when it comes to the global market place!
I don’t mind waiting ’til October, I lost a fair bit of interest after re-watching S01&02 on the Beeb.
A good sign is that the UK release is only 1 month after the US, it’s a very small tentative step in the right direction for TV.
I don’t see why the TV companies can’t simply strike ad deals globally, and serve geographic dependent ads prior to the show. Streaming’s not the complete answer, but it’s another step in the right direction.
people still watch TV?? Why do people from other countries watch TV Shows that they’ve never heard of? If Heroes came out on US TV, how does UK or Australia know about it? Through social networking? “hey did you watch last night’s heroes” ? Is that how it works?
How are the statistics gathered? AFAIK does Piratebay only show the actual seeder/leecher counts not how many actually grabed the Film.
Why don’t we get the TV shows at the same time here in the UK?
Personally, even if it were released at the same time, I’d still download it because I’m at university and I don’t have a television.
Heroes is a TV series legend!! Its number 1!! above all other TV series superb story line, special effects, music effects, cast and crew its got everything you want in a movie!! it always keeps you thinking whats going to happen next you will never know what will happen next the thrill never ends!! >-) Or what character with special abilities will appear next.. :P I LOVE HEROES its NUMERO UNO!!
See torrents for how many thanks and comments it got if you want proof..
I am surprised. I didnt think anyone watched that show? I heard it was rather lame.
JIff
http://www.privacy.es.tc
americans are dumb
Owned.
“Heroes SUCKED from the Season-1 Finale. Left the show then & there.”
QFT. They seemed to run out of ideas halfway through season ONE, and it’s been a boring mess ever since. Hell, all TV shows repeat this formula. Make a fre fine films and let us celebrate them, stop dragging these great concepts into the ground, buncha greedy yarbles.
I got tired of the show at end of season 1. I ment to see end end of season 1 and perhaps a bit of season 2 to see if it picked up again. But i never got around to do it. I am not much into shows that never has closures on anything but leaves everything hanging like a cheap soap.
Why not just watch it on Hulu?
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