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88 Comments
- blapierre, on 10/12/2007, -11/+8853% of Australians are downloading on BitTorrent? Give me a break, I doubt even 53% of Australians even know what BitTorrent is.
Poor Methods + Poor Reporting = Extremely inaccurate headline - jono1, on 10/12/2007, -2/+43Bloody hell, would you guys come up with some new jokes? Aussies are all for self-deprecating humour but we do appreciate some variety here and there...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+38BREAKING: The 1850's ended over 150 years ago
- skywake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+34you know..
I would like to see the percentage of Australians that are descendants of convicts. I am Australian and if I look back at all my heritage the closest I find to 'convicts' is a Chef on the first ship into WA and a farmer who decided Australia over Canada and the US. You do know that the only reason convicts were originally sent to Australia was because the English could no longer off-load them to the US right? I would prefer to live in a country founded by convicts then one founded by religious outcasts and convicts.
and yes... I do download TV...
how the ***** else am I supposed to get the latest LOST? - patience, on 10/12/2007, -14/+43Krikey!
Downloading downunder. - JPFinno, on 10/12/2007, -1/+26Marked as inaccurate
It tests 800 people via the internet....??? How can this be applied to "All Australians"???
Australian Bureau of Statistics (Government agency) reports that only 60% of Australian's have home internet connection. So how can 53% of all Australians (or 88% of internet connected individuals) be downloading TV shows!
Excuse me, I smell ***** - jtrost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+24That's because the networks usually show new episodes in the USA before Australia, so fans of those shows prefer to see new episodes sooner by downloading them.
- Caps, on 10/12/2007, -1/+22You know I've visited the States, several times, and I try to convince people back home in Aus, that American's aren't ignorant (because you aren't), but comments like that really do not help your cause!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17I KNOW the 53% thing is *****, however australia has a larger number of downloaders per head of population than any other country.
Thet number is closely followed by the UK, though I'm not sure what happens after that.
Our local free TV is utter crap and people simply prefer not to pay exorbitant prices for any of the pay-TV services.
I watch 1 (thats ONE) hour of regular TV each week, Mythbusters, but even thats DRVed so I can skip the adverts. Everything else is downloaded via the bittorrent network or in podcast form.
I, like most other intelligent aussies want to watch WHAT we want, WHEN we want it.
We don't want those 2 simply things dictated to us by money-grubbing advertisers or network execs more concerned by how much ad revenue they can rake in instead of putting quality stuff on TV that people are actually prepared to pay to watch. - a7bat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16Definitely, shows are broadcast in Australia months or a year(s) later. Also, the TV networks really screw the viewer when it comes to certain shows. Even if a show is scheduled to run, it'll run late or not at all. Oh, but if it's Aussie Idol or Big Brother, forget about it. The networks will promote the crap out of those shows.
Same applies to films. Australia gets a lot of movies later than in the U.S. So when you go to markets, you'll tend to find a lot of pirated DVDs. - VeryAngryJim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14I really think if TV networks just released their shows on bittorrent or iTunes for free with the commercials still in place that they would have a viable business model. Hell I'd subscribe to the Office through iTunes if it were free and had no commercials. Til then I'll just keep torrenting it.
The fact is people are going to manage to get these shows without commercials through torrents. Might as well take advantage and give them what they want while still making ad revenue. - Kiel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13this stat is totally crap, I work in a web design company in Sydney, and less than 10% of my tech savy office downloads from bit torrent, or at all.
I call *****. - estvir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Okay, can all of you get over the 'criminal' jokes ? =/
We miss out on a fair few TV shows (Heroes, etc) so I know many people (Not me.. of course o_0) who download those shows.
Broadband kind of sucks down here though mainly because of prices, bloody download limits, slow speeds, etc. I mean, it's not too bad especially with ADSL2 but we're soo far behind and I hope Telstra and others start listening to those saying how bad our broadband is and who are pushing for upgrades. - estvir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11To be fair, they're starting to get the idea that we love the same shows and hate being left behind.
I'm talking about Channel 10 and all their ads they had going advertising how we'd be seeing the new OC and Jericho episodes at the 'same time' as the US, otherwise we still get left behind soo freaking bad.
Some movies take almost a YEAR to come out here and if a movie has an incredibly long release date (And is already out elsewhere) I'll just download it but when it's out I'll pay to watch it. - JPFinno, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13The author of this Digg is in charge of the Blog that this story links to, and he is responsible for making up the statistics.
He changed “53 per cent of respondents” (800) to "53% of Australians” (22 million)
He made statistics up, and posted to Digg to boost his blog.
If you were any smart you’d use a different name on your blog and on your Digg profile, and NOT make ***** up. - cinnix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11Title was a bit misleading. The survey was online at some local TV websites, hardly 53% of ALL aussies now huh? It's like putting a survey up on Digg and asking "What's your gender?" and concluding that 99.9% of the worlds population are male.
- alloneword, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10The networks here treat viewers with utter disdain.
Shows are often 2 or 3 years behind the air times in America. Often they will air 2 episodes of a season, then decide to hold back the rest of the season till the ratings season ends and air them at 1AM. Shows are moved about randomly in what seems to be an effort to foil the attempts of viewers to watch their shows.
When they do air, they often re-edit the shows down, cutting out up to 5 or 6 minutes for extra ads.
if I could legally get access to TV shows when they air first (be it UK or USA) I would gladly pay money for them, but even pay-tv (what we call cable) is usually 2 or 3 seasons behind the USA/UK. iTunes doesn't have any TV shows or movies here. Other sources of digital online TV shows don't have anything recent.
Over here, channel 10 has the rights to Battlestar Galatica. They aired it at 10:30 on a week night, out of prime time, but better than 1AM. But they stopped airing it in the middle of season 2, after just 10 episodes. It was replaced with a poor excuse of a poker show (I like poker, but this show is just painful) where D-E grade celebrities who haven't played poker before make fools of them selves for a couple of hours.
Ch 10 have said they will finish airing season 2 sometime in 2007 and season 3 might air in 2008. Is there any wonder we look to other providers for TV shows.
But it is not just Sci-Fi. Many different shows, from many different places are held back and not aired. Even if shows weren't aired in prime time, if I knew the most recent stargate was going to be aired at 3AM instead 2 hours of advertising from the shopping channel I would set my DVR, I think it would rate better than guther-renky too :) - rewingau, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Just read the actual article - it's actually 53% of people who saw the survey linked from an Australian TV website and bothered to click on it. I don't think 53% of Australians even have broadband now. Still a lot of downloading going on...
The actual survey can be found at http://www.tvdownloadaust.net/ - kanemano, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Is broadband penetration 100% in Aus? does the 53% include the elderly and adolescents?
pulling statistics out of a monkey's butt to make your point does not make it accurate - VeryAngryJim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9typo, meant to say I would subscribe to the Office through iTunes if it were free and DID have commercials.
- Hegemony, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Australian TV is often so far behind. Knowing that you can see these episodes now instead of in 6 months is probably a big draw.
- JoshHendo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Either we all download them using BT or wait possibly a year for the latest season to come TV over here. The only show that has sync broadcasts with the US is Jericho.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Well the test might have been innaccurate, But I am one that does download Shows from Bittorrent. I cant be bothered waitin a bloody year for something that the yanks are allready having the pleasure to see.
- mindsnare, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I find that figure pretty hard to believe. Although one TV network in Australia has tried to remedy the problem by showing the episodes within 24 hours of the show being aired in the US, they did that with Jericho and are currently doing the same thing with the OC
- Caps, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7And the O.C... I would hate to get the O.C. delayed again!
- estvir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@jono1
You have possibly the most Australian name ('Jono') I've seen on here. It makes me think of the beer commercials and the guy whose nickname (Everyone, teachers included, called him Jono and I think most people thought that was his real name) was Jono in high school. - aussieaubs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7fyi - check out www.whirlpool.net.au to see the $$ of DSL plans
we have DSL plans as low as $20 for a 256k line for a massive 80MB per month
(no thats not a typo - it is MB) ....
and the average plan is $70 per mth for 5gb downloads.... we really are the lucky country (*sarcasm!!*) - mcnugget, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I hear that. Living out in the country I reckon 1 in 1000 people would even know what the word 'bitorrent' meant. The speeds are so bad most of these people don't bother anyway.
- Mountaineer1024, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Weeds has just been announced over here, season 1.
Meanwhile all my non-tech friends have enjoyed watching the season 2 dvd I made for them.
Top Gear has only just been picked up by SBS, and it's only showing old season episodes, when it shows it at all.
Boston Legal appears late at night and over a season behind. Same with House.
The amazing race is at least 2 seasons behind last I checked.
When the TV companies get a clue, then maybe we won't download so much. - pHr34kY, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I'm Aussie. I download TopGear beacuse SBS is about 2 full seasons behind.
- shtonkalot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Exactly, I call major BS on this.
From the article: "Questionnaires were made available on local TV websites"
So of people who are internet (presumably broadband) users and have an interest in TV enough to visit these sites 53% download TV shows.
"almost 800 TV fans took part" Big whoop! that is a meager sample and again is only representative of internet and TV "fans".
This article and particularly the heading are completely inaccurate.
I am an Aussie and I download TV shows. I know a couple of others who do the same but know many (many, many) more that would have no idea how find a TV torrent. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6While the statistics are obviously flawed, its interesting to note that the high downloads are done on extremely restrictive ISP plans. Its basically impossible to get a truly unlimited ADSL plan over here, any ISPs that make such a plan generally end up putting a cap on a few months later (And prior to that they have a blanked unspecific acceptable usage policy that says they can cut you off if you DL too much), I'm not sure if this is a deliberate plan to sucker people in or if its just bad judgment on the ISPs part. These plans are also way overpriced compared to other countries. Some few are higher plans that weigh in at about 100gb but most are 20 or 40 although some take off peak into consideration and have unmetered local connections.
I happen to actually have a true unlimited ADSL plan, they no longer offer it (to nonbusiness) and its only a 512 ADSL for $80 AUD per month.
The UK is also in the same situation and thats another country listed as having a high number of tv downloads. - avatarpalin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Australian TV Sucks, I live in Melbourne and my tastes aren't based on Sport, Gardening, Stupid Game Shows / reality TV or CSI / Cop shows (except Dexter thats brilliant) so where do I go to get shows that suit me? Either I wait up until 12:00am or I download them and watch them when it suits me. The no adds thing and HD is a bonus, but bottom line it's available content
I hope this sends a message, I doubt it will though. - martin308, on 10/30/2007, -0/+6In NZ I much prefer downloading, you get the episodes sooner, better quality, and no ads. Plus half the episodes I download dont even get shown here
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5“new online study showing 53 per cent of ***respondents*** regularly download TV shows”
Both TorrentFreak and the Digg article have blatantly MISINTERPRETED this study. The study NEVER said “53% of Australians”, it said “respondents”. There’s a world of difference, this wording means the study takes into account the sample bias, i.e. Internet users who are more likely to download TV shows given their technical knowledge. Naturally it’s not representative of all of Australia, just a subset.
@Zybch Yeah that's right. Australia is recognised as the highest per capita illegal downloader of TV: http://www.cnet.com.au/tvs/0,239035250,240060264,00.htm - ptFoe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Our TV networks are so ***** up. They deserved this.
Lame ass *****. - Tunguska, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8WORST. SURVEY. EVER.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4sample size = less than 800
sample randomness = all taken from online questionnaires
survey results = invalid
80% of Australians downloaded p0rn last night. According to my office. And 1 guy lied. - NerdENerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Of course we do, we got Battlestar Galactica season 2 a year after the States, We have only seen Stargate Atlantis season 1, and SG1 season 9. Heroes has not even been anounced yet.
If they don't release show at the same time as the States then people will download them.
All of my friends download the shows the that are ahead in the State, but nobody bothered to download Jericho because it played the same week here in Aus as it did in the States.
It is time for TV to die a natural death.
Also I am sick of being called a thief. I don't download illeagal BitTorrent stuff because I am a cheap thief, I download because I want content to use with my home theartre PC. If the media companies gave me leagal avenues to obtain conten I would use them. I spend thousands of dollars a year on hardware. I don't mind spending $6 Aus for a new release DVD at the video store. You think I would blink at paying for content through a high quality download service. Media companies need to get with the times and realize there is hundreds of my dollars per years to be had if you give me the avenues I want to use to obtain the content I want to watch. - fatadamblog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I find that offensive,
Nah I'm only joking
I'm from Australia and believe me the number is higher than that.
The main reason is us Aussies have ***** TV (5 free to air channels) thats it!
Hardly anyone bothers with PayTV.
And why pay when you can torrent for free! - h0dg3s, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Blog spam. Link to a real article and not to your blogspam, slapnuts.
Real article here
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,20922899%5e16123%5e%5enbv%5e,00.html - Gizza, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4The problem is that our free TV sucks balls. Mostly reality shows now, and any good shows are always about 3 seasons behind the US. Even our pay TV such as Foxtel has crap on and mostly reruns.
I have over 800gb of tv shows on my computer for that very reason. If it wasn't for sports i wouldnt even bother owning a tv, and as soon as a good TV Tuner card comes out in a pci-ex version I wont need one at all. - Kangko, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm descended from a convict :P Specifically the 2nd fleet. There's absolutely no way you can tell that though, no way in hell...
Wanna play knifey spooney? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Im not surprised, Australian TV is *****. And if they actually do bother to show a good show, its like 2 seasons behind the rest of the world. Honestly, if i can get the latest ep 1 hour after its first airs. Why does it take 6+ months for it to reach Australian tv. its just BS
- jstevewhite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I download ***** on BT; I pay for cable, but sometimes I miss the shows. I ahve a DVR, but I'm on my THIRD one, and it still screws up regularly. So I download issues that I've paid the license to view anyway... And the MPAA would say I was a criminal anyway. *shrug*.
- tagawa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"slapnuts" - love it!
- gonpost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3While it may have been misleading, I'm happy that the whole copyright confusion isn't so insane in Australia as it is here...
- wilf_brim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If it weren't for the high bandwidth prices I'd be on the plane right now. A few more days like today, and I'll go anyway.
- sc0tt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4@ skywake
Well said. - tyroga, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Of course we aussies BT stuff, but look at the info in the original AustralianIT story, the sample set was only 800 people, not enough people to constitute a population spectrum. And as others have pointed out there is not information about demographic. It is 53% of respondants, not Australians. We don't know how the research was captured, how the survey was advertised.
Statistics are always flawed and can always be manipulated, if only by the wording of questions. -
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