Massive Leak of Pre-Air TV Shows: Piracy or Promotion?

Written by Ernesto on July 24, 2007 

Several TV shows from the upcoming TV season have leaked to BitTorrent over the past week. Weeds, Chuck, The Sarah Connor Chonicles, Pushing Daisies, Californication, Brotherhood and Dexter, to name a few. It makes you wonder, Is this the work of hardcore pirates or just a new form of promotion by the TV studios?

weedsMost shows are rips from preview and review DVDs sent out by the studios to several media outlets and TV editors. Even though there is no hard evidence that these shows are leaked on purpose, the leaks will definitely get the hype going on the Internet. Unofficial, pre-air reviews are already popping up at several places on the Internet.

The Sarah Connor Chonicles, Pushing Daisies, Californication, Reaper, and Chuck are new TV shows that are about to start on their first season. The leak of The Sarah Connor Chonicles, highly anticipated by fans of The Terminator, stands out because this show is scheduled to launch in 2008. All the other leaks will air within the next few months.

For Weeds, it’s the second time that episodes have leaked before being aired on TV. Last year, exactly the same thing happened and thousands of people downloaded and watched the first episodes before they aired on TV. TV studios already offer a number of pilot episodes on the iTunes Store for free. Would it be too big a leap to assume they do the same on BitTorrent?

Here’s a list of the TV shows that leaked to BitTorrent this week, including the ‘offline’ air date:

  • Weeds: (season 3) scheduled to air on August 13, 2007
  • Chuck: (season 1) scheduled to air on September 24, 2007
  • The Sarah Connor Chonicles: (season 1) scheduled to air on early 2008
  • Pushing Daisies: (season 1) scheduled to air on September 26, 2007
  • Californication: (season 1) scheduled to air on July 24, 2007
  • Reaper: (season 1) scheduled to air on September 25, 2007
  • Brotherhood: (season 2) scheduled to air on September 30, 2007
  • Dexter: (season 2) scheduled to air on July 29, 2007

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    77 Responses

    Pages: « 1 [2] 3 4 » Show All

    26 Jul 26, 2007 at 15:30 by jayrodathome

    dexter prereleased the first two episodes to dvd then it was ripped and put on torrents. I just watched them both today and it was great. It’s definitely one of better and creative shows around today.

    27 Jul 26, 2007 at 16:12 by Steve R

    There’s a pretty good piece on this here:

    http://allyourtv.com/0708season/falltvpilotsonline.html

    Basically, talking about the fact that it’s happened before, and giving some pretty educated guesses on where the leaks are coming from.

    28 Jul 27, 2007 at 17:57 by SantaBJ

    Yeah, I love pilot season…for some reason, most - at least half - of new pilots, and for some reason often the most hyped shows, will leak. Now, I’ve been through two years of these leaks as part of #EZTV; and even though we’re technically outside the arena where the actual leaks happen (ya know, those “Scene” guys…long robes, hoods, big *cough* tubes) I believe I’m justified in voicing my suspicions that the leaks are indeed intentional on the part of the copyright holders.

    Think about it - what better way to gain hype? They have nothing to LOSE on leaking it; no commercial income will be lost, and with the leaks people will get a feel for the shows before they even begin on TV. Of course, I can’t be sure - but it does make sense. Oh, and naturally they can’t talk about it. Duh. That would be, like, acknowledge that piracy has potential as a hype building mechanism… and we can’t have that, can we. -.-

    29 Jul 28, 2007 at 08:37 by DeistDennis

    I’m a regular poster to Showtime’s Weeds message board and we have been talking about the “leaks” for almost a week now, telling other posters where and how to download the BitTorrents. They are VERY particular as to what can be said on their message boards, citing copy write policies, etc… so I found it strange that we could talk so freely about the shows being online, courtesy of BitTorrent. But post a comment that these “leaks” are not leaks or piracy at all but a promotion by Showtime and that post/thread is cut as fast as you can put it up.

    Their actions silencing people who speak truth only speaks volumes about themselves. Playing the public for idiots in order to gain more subscribers to their network is nothing but stupid business; but then politicians play that game successfully all the time…

    30 Jul 28, 2007 at 18:43 by deptaro

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    31 Jul 28, 2007 at 19:21 by twanbiz

    first off, these arent released to bittorrent, its called the scene and release groups like sitv have been providing these rips, it eventually gets spread down to bittorrent but trust me these networks arent releasing these eps online, and they are furious that they are there, especially showtime.

    32 Jul 28, 2007 at 20:54 by drumnbass88

    weeds! theyre great

    33 Jul 30, 2007 at 06:44 by Elle

    The pilot of Lipstick Jungle is on EZTV also

    34 Aug 01, 2007 at 04:39 by AnneR3

    Sites such as Netflix have agreements with some networks to preview their shows online (Californication is available to subscribers of the service via their ‘watch now’ option). For people like me (who can’t afford cable) this is great… Promotion, promotion, promotion…

    35 Sep 17, 2007 at 05:25 by Christopher

    Stargate Atlantis S04E01+E02 also leaked (unfinished promo preairs, just like the rest of em). And I downloaded, and chuckled at the crew members having to shout “BANG!” or “beepbeepbeepbeep!” because they add all the SFX in post :D but it was still enjoyable.

    And I’ll still watch it when it airs on TV.

    Preairs own… The 24 preairs earlier this year were probably the most exciting ones (at that point), I can’t wait for more! :D

    36 Sep 19, 2007 at 11:37 by arkivx

    Don’t forget about the first the episodes of the fourth season of Stargate Atlantis.

    37 Sep 28, 2007 at 16:10 by secured mastercard

    proscenium responsively nonextensible beget remembrance unintended …

    38 Oct 25, 2007 at 23:46 by reviews

    pends.feathery:halves recommends generalizing interpose

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