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Complete texts of "'24" Makes Britain a Hotbed for Illicit TV Downloads" and "Desperate Viewers Turn to Crime". Kept here because I'm sure that the story will disappear from the web and I will eventually want to reread it.
'24' Makes Britain a Hotbed for Illicit TV Downloads
By Adam Pasick
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has emerged as the world's biggest market for downloading pirated TV, driven by tech-savvy fans who are unwilling to wait for popular U.S. shows such as "Desperate Housewives."
Britain's status as a TV downloading hotspot, revealed in a study by UK technology consultancy Envisional on Thursday, could pose problems for UK broadcaster BSkyB, which is counting on high-profile U.S. shows such as "24" to draw new subscribers to its satellite TV service.
According to Envisional, Britain accounts for about one-fifth of TV downloads through file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent and eDonkey, more than any other country, followed by Australia and the United States.
"Because there's such a demand for U.S. TV, the UK is going to be the main downloader," said Envisional research consultant David Price.
Popular U.S. television shows such as "The West Wing," "The Sopranos" and "Friends" usually air in Britain months after they are broadcast stateside. For impatient fans, the Internet offers bootleg, advertisement-free programs that can be downloaded in a few hours over a high-speed connection.
Episodes of the espionage drama "24" show up on the popular file-trading network BitTorrent within minutes after they air in the U.S., according to Envisional, and a typical episode is downloaded by about 100,000 users.
The company said that "24" is the most pirated show online, with "The Simpsons," "The OC" and a host of sci-fi programs including "Stargate SG-1" and "Enterprise" also popular.
Sky and other broadcasters such as Channel 4, which air large blocks of U.S. shows, say they are monitoring the growing popularity of online TV downloads.
If the situation worsens, it may result in lower prices paid by broadcasters for shows such as "Joey," which went to Channel Five after an intense bidding war.
HOLLYWOOD: THE REVENGE
For the moment no one in the UK television sector will admit to losing any sleep over TV downloads.
"Unless you're a pretty big cybergeek, people are generally happy to watch it on TV," said an executive at one UK broadcaster who asked to remain anonymous.
Hollywood is not standing idly by. Fearful of a repeat of the rampant downloading that crippled the music industry, the Motion Picture Association of America has forced the closure of several sites that provide the links needed to download movies and television shows.
If that doesn't work, there is always the threat of lawsuits. When the MPAA shut down a site called LokiTorrent last week, they seized reams of data including logs of user data that could enable legal action against individual users.
"I'm not sure if the MPAA are going to follow that route," Price said. "The MPAA have found a very worthwhile technique, which is to go after the tracker sites and shut those down, which means the users don't have anywhere to go to get what they need."
But there is little evidence that Hollywood's counteroffensive crackdown has had any effect, according to Web analysis firm CacheLogic, which estimates that BitTorrent accounts for a staggering one-third of all Internet traffic.
"We've seen very little change, and in some cases we've actually seen an increase," said CacheLogic Chief Technology Officer Andrew Parker. "The MPAA has had no impact."
Original article from yahoo news. By Adam Pasick, Reuters (London). 2/17/05
Desperate Viewers Turn to Crime
LOUISE GRAY
DESPERATE housewives are driving ordinary Britons to crime in their tens of thousands.
With broadband making it easier than ever to transfer huge files, the UK is the world’s leading downloader of pirate TV programmes, "stolen" from the US where they are shown months in advance.
The internet monitoring company Envisional believes up to 100,000 British viewers are illegally downloading hit television programmes such as Desperate Housewives, The OC and Six Feet Under - accounting for a fifth of the all online TV piracy.
One fan was desperate to learn the fate of Jack Bauer in popular Sky series 24.
The 38-year-old web developer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "The reason I started doing it was because there were various American shows that I followed, but Britain would be a year behind.
"And I lost count of the number of times I would be browsing the web and I would read something in an American magazine that gave away the ending." Now, he downloads his favourite programmes.
Technological advances have seen the volume of illegal downloads increase by 150 per cent over the past year using file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent, which accounts for 70 per cent of television piracy.
Ben Coppin, Envisional’s chief operating officer, said downloading was easier than programming a video recorder.
But he warned: "While this brings immense power to the TV viewer, questions must be asked about how television studios and networks will survive when the advertising so essential to supporting them is deleted and syndication fees are affected."
Experts predict television companies would follow the path of record companies by providing a legal download service similar to Apple’s iTunes.
For the man who regularly downloads illegally, this would be a positive development. He said: "They need to understand that we are not stuck in the dark ages and people want modern distribution channels. I’d be happy to pay a small fee for the shows I want to watch rather than doing it illegally."
Original Article at The Scotsman International. By Louise Gray. 2/19/2005
'24' Makes Britain a Hotbed for Illicit TV Downloads
By Adam Pasick
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has emerged as the world's biggest market for downloading pirated TV, driven by tech-savvy fans who are unwilling to wait for popular U.S. shows such as "Desperate Housewives."
Britain's status as a TV downloading hotspot, revealed in a study by UK technology consultancy Envisional on Thursday, could pose problems for UK broadcaster BSkyB, which is counting on high-profile U.S. shows such as "24" to draw new subscribers to its satellite TV service.
According to Envisional, Britain accounts for about one-fifth of TV downloads through file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent and eDonkey, more than any other country, followed by Australia and the United States.
"Because there's such a demand for U.S. TV, the UK is going to be the main downloader," said Envisional research consultant David Price.
Popular U.S. television shows such as "The West Wing," "The Sopranos" and "Friends" usually air in Britain months after they are broadcast stateside. For impatient fans, the Internet offers bootleg, advertisement-free programs that can be downloaded in a few hours over a high-speed connection.
Episodes of the espionage drama "24" show up on the popular file-trading network BitTorrent within minutes after they air in the U.S., according to Envisional, and a typical episode is downloaded by about 100,000 users.
The company said that "24" is the most pirated show online, with "The Simpsons," "The OC" and a host of sci-fi programs including "Stargate SG-1" and "Enterprise" also popular.
Sky and other broadcasters such as Channel 4, which air large blocks of U.S. shows, say they are monitoring the growing popularity of online TV downloads.
If the situation worsens, it may result in lower prices paid by broadcasters for shows such as "Joey," which went to Channel Five after an intense bidding war.
HOLLYWOOD: THE REVENGE
For the moment no one in the UK television sector will admit to losing any sleep over TV downloads.
"Unless you're a pretty big cybergeek, people are generally happy to watch it on TV," said an executive at one UK broadcaster who asked to remain anonymous.
Hollywood is not standing idly by. Fearful of a repeat of the rampant downloading that crippled the music industry, the Motion Picture Association of America has forced the closure of several sites that provide the links needed to download movies and television shows.
If that doesn't work, there is always the threat of lawsuits. When the MPAA shut down a site called LokiTorrent last week, they seized reams of data including logs of user data that could enable legal action against individual users.
"I'm not sure if the MPAA are going to follow that route," Price said. "The MPAA have found a very worthwhile technique, which is to go after the tracker sites and shut those down, which means the users don't have anywhere to go to get what they need."
But there is little evidence that Hollywood's counteroffensive crackdown has had any effect, according to Web analysis firm CacheLogic, which estimates that BitTorrent accounts for a staggering one-third of all Internet traffic.
"We've seen very little change, and in some cases we've actually seen an increase," said CacheLogic Chief Technology Officer Andrew Parker. "The MPAA has had no impact."
Original article from yahoo news. By Adam Pasick, Reuters (London). 2/17/05
Desperate Viewers Turn to Crime
LOUISE GRAY
DESPERATE housewives are driving ordinary Britons to crime in their tens of thousands.
With broadband making it easier than ever to transfer huge files, the UK is the world’s leading downloader of pirate TV programmes, "stolen" from the US where they are shown months in advance.
The internet monitoring company Envisional believes up to 100,000 British viewers are illegally downloading hit television programmes such as Desperate Housewives, The OC and Six Feet Under - accounting for a fifth of the all online TV piracy.
One fan was desperate to learn the fate of Jack Bauer in popular Sky series 24.
The 38-year-old web developer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "The reason I started doing it was because there were various American shows that I followed, but Britain would be a year behind.
"And I lost count of the number of times I would be browsing the web and I would read something in an American magazine that gave away the ending." Now, he downloads his favourite programmes.
Technological advances have seen the volume of illegal downloads increase by 150 per cent over the past year using file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent, which accounts for 70 per cent of television piracy.
Ben Coppin, Envisional’s chief operating officer, said downloading was easier than programming a video recorder.
But he warned: "While this brings immense power to the TV viewer, questions must be asked about how television studios and networks will survive when the advertising so essential to supporting them is deleted and syndication fees are affected."
Experts predict television companies would follow the path of record companies by providing a legal download service similar to Apple’s iTunes.
For the man who regularly downloads illegally, this would be a positive development. He said: "They need to understand that we are not stuck in the dark ages and people want modern distribution channels. I’d be happy to pay a small fee for the shows I want to watch rather than doing it illegally."
Original Article at The Scotsman International. By Louise Gray. 2/19/2005
