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50% Of All BitTorrent Downloads are TV-Shows

torrentfreak.com — Reports show that 50% of all people using BitTorrent at any given point in time do so to download TV-series, quite an impressive number. In total, over a billion TV-shows are downloaded every year, and this number continues to rise.

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  • RhodesSkolar, on 02/14/2008, -48/+156The other 90% is porn.
    • MrBlackkcalBrM, on 02/14/2008, -14/+99(Puts Head in Hands) The logic and math behind that comment are hurting my head.
      • damentz, on 02/15/2008, -2/+145%? Or is this magic.
      • redstorm986, on 02/15/2008, -7/+1I think he meant 90% of the 50% remaining. So yea 45%
      • adidos, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Sex Panther: "60% of the time it works, every time."
      • Lokishot, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2Porn TV Shows?
    • lydecker, on 02/14/2008, -5/+13Who has the capability to plan porn downloads, especially when you can stream free porn?
      • prophetpimp, on 02/14/2008, -0/+8streaming sucks. i like my DVDs so i can watch each and every pimple on the pornstars ass.
        • timusca, on 02/14/2008, -0/+16Why stop there? Go Blu-Ray and see every crab crawling on the pornstar's ass!
        • 04jmorri, on 02/14/2008, -0/+5Dude, that's nasty
    • Spritti, on 02/14/2008, -0/+5lmao so true so true. when new pron comes up on the torrent site i use, it gets swamped. so funny.
    • stonedslacker, on 02/14/2008, -2/+18That was funny. Don't know why they dugg you down.
    • LogicBomB, on 02/14/2008, -17/+9@Stone: He was dugg down because his Pie chart totals 140%

      Had he said "90% of the remainder is porn" he would have been dugg up.
      • vh1`, on 02/14/2008, -0/+20or maybe it was a hyperbole towards how many people download porn

        also: note the reply feature
        • 04jmorri, on 02/14/2008, -7/+2I personally think the guy is so retarded he doesn't understand percentages.
          • otros, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2I personally think you're so retarded that you don't get a joke
        • twavisdegwet, on 02/14/2008, -1/+0as a result of the porn of course
      • noahgelman, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1thats why it was funny jack ass, dont spoil it
    • JJ2K1, on 02/14/2008, -1/+17It's not that suprising that people are downloading shows, rather than watching them live on TV. Who wants to watch 5 minutes of commercials every 10 minutes of show being played? And who wants to wait months for the show to finally air overseas?
      • MalenfantX, on 02/14/2008, -1/+8On top of that, some shows can be downloaded in higher quality than what's available for broadcast. Several SciFi Channel shows are available in HD from their airings on Sky One in the UK. From cable I get a noisy NTSC picture.
      • P373Y, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1TOP GEAR
    • willster580, on 02/14/2008, -8/+2Obviously it equals 140%. I mean, there are dumb people on Digg, but they aren't THAT dumb. It was funny.
    • mGARANDEUR1, on 02/14/2008, -1/+15people have no sense of humor here
    • rpgmaker, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1I can confirm it.
  • say592, on 02/14/2008, -2/+122Now, if they will legalize it (technically TV downloading is still infringement, its just not really enforced) then this could be the largest thing keeping ISPs from throttling/blocking Torrent traffic.

    Heck, I would love to see some major studios publish official torrents to! That would be great!
    • R3morse, on 02/14/2008, -4/+15dreams, dreams. Fat chance any big studio will wake up to the new business world.
      • hockey, on 02/14/2008, -2/+7Businesses are in it to make money. Please describe how this "new business world" of downloading without paying makes anyone money.
        • MalenfantX, on 02/14/2008, -0/+15By offering high quality content with advertisements at the beginning.
        • jatoskep, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3That would be so freaking awesome.
        • Fordi, on 02/15/2008, -0/+4It doesn't make them money - but keep in mind that its because most torrents are ad-stripped.

          Mind you, they're only ad stripped because people have to go to the trouble of transcoding in the first place, at which point ad stripping is trivial. Meanwhile, if the studios were to *provide* the shows via bittorrent with ads in them, no one would bother taking the extra step of transcoding just to get rid of the ads. The studio torrents, backed by higher bandwidth and faster time-to-torrent than the 0-days, would basically take the seeds from their competing torrents. All the while, if they're providing their own trackers, they have a good idea of how many people have downloaded (and, thus, viewed) the ads, and can collect ad revenue.
        • CaptMonkey, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2Easy, make torrents freely available with no prosecution for downloading them on the network website. Slaps some ads on the site to make money, you get all the traffic that would be going to places like Pirate Bay now, and get loads more viewers from people who can watch the first few episodes of your show to catch up to the current viewing order. Ta-da!

          And that's just what I'm coming up with off the top of my head, I'm sure someone who runs a TV network for a living could think up something more lucrative. I'm sure you'd make a hell of a lot more money off the ad revenue than they are from selling shows in iTunes. As technology changes, business has to do the same, or fail. Just ask the telegraph companies.
    • nihilite, on 02/14/2008, -1/+76the amount of revenue the studios are foregoing is staggering. They could be selling billions in ad space by giving their shows away directly. NBC had it right when they put all the shows up on their website - i'll watch a couple 30 second ads for that. The old business model is dead -- wake up!!!!
      • TheClassic, on 02/14/2008, -0/+53They need to release them in a way that I can play them as easily as I can play something downloaded over bittorrent (like on an Xbox or TiVo). Using a proprietary viewer that only works in IE won't cut it.
        • shredswithpiks, on 02/14/2008, -0/+37I agree... watching TV shows online in a little tiny box in IE is retarded.
        • DavidCriswell, on 02/14/2008, -1/+0I haven't had any problem watching NBC's shows on my Linux box in Firefox. It's a little jerky at times and I would prefer to rewind/jump forward but it does work.
          • utdrew182, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4no rewind so you have to watch the ads, it's the only way they will put them up . And they want to stream it so they can still sell DVD's later.
        • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -0/+9This is true. I was excited about the possibility of watching these shows, but then it turns out I can't watch on my TV or using MIRO, and thus, not my use my remote control, comfy chair, etc... so instead, it makes more sense to just torrent it and get all the benefits.
        • adoggz, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1nbc's "tiny little box" works in firefox too. I think you can download them too, but i don't know how that works.
      • imcquill, on 02/14/2008, -2/+9I agree that they need to do something like that. The problem is, people are going to go to *one place* to get their tv content. Right now, it is bittorent. Few people are going to go to a whole bunch of web sites to watch their tv. There needs to be a centralized model, like itunes for that.

        I still think itunes (and apple tv) should build in a podcast like feature whereby you cannot skip advertisements. This is not because I like ads or anything, but it would likely drastically improve the availability of content on there. If all the big networks would distribute podcasts.. they supply their own ads, and bandwidth, but itunes hosts the rss feed. But the content would be there, unlike podcasts because people can't skip ads. Then you've got great content, a centralized convenient, free service, which is on demand.. and works on your tv instead of a web browser. And companies can supply their own ads, which I'm sure they want to do. NBC is already providing their own bandwidth anyways on their website. Apple wouldn't make any money off downloads in this scenario, but it's all about hardware for them.
        • drjekelmrhyde, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4NBC and Fox are doing streaming video with Hulu now if CBS and ABC would join in it really would be one place to STREAM video and if they decide to provide a subscription service for podcast like torrents that would be the Mecca for online content
          • imcquill, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3Yeah, that sounds good. I haven't used hulu as it is US/Windows only and neither apply to me.. but if they take that international and integrate with apple tv in a podcast like service, that would seriously rock.
          • Kypt, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2It may be US only, but it definitely it is not Windows only. I watched first 3 eps of the new Terminator series (incredibly cheesy, I know but I'm liking it) there and I'm using OSX and I believed I used Safari...
          • op12, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Besides any potential OS/regional issues, they also need to stop putting expiration dates on episodes and cherry picking which episodes appear (there's always a few episodes from a few different seasons, and sometimes they're not even sequential) if they really want it to take off as a reasonable alternative.

            Making the videos embeddable is pointless if they're going to expire.
      • say592, on 02/14/2008, -0/+6I think they can easily download it, just put commercials of verying length in it ocassionally.

        Honestly, they run the same risk that I wont watch them as they do when they air it live. For instance, I can get up and grab something to eat during a commercial, or I might choose to record it and watch it later using my DVR.

        If the commercials arent bother some or long, I would watch them. Take Techzilla for example, they have comercials in there, but I dont skip the because they are only a few seconds long.
      • yabos, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1It'd be cool if they put on the iTMS for free or just make a podcast stream of shows for free with ads like they're doing with hulu.
    • gypsi, on 02/14/2008, -9/+3speak for yourself - to hell with ads.
      • shredswithpiks, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4they can keep the ads in there, I just don't want to pay comcast for cable TV. but, absolutely everything I watch is on OTA broadcast anyway so it doesn't really matter - I can just PVR it.
    • TheKingInYellow, on 02/14/2008, -2/+1when you say 'downloading tv' do you mean just the basic networks or the whole spectrum of television stations? if downloading tv is not really enforced then how can you explain the c&d letters received for downloading hbo and showtime series?
    • chedabob, on 02/14/2008, -0/+16That won't really help those of us outside of the US. Every provider so far has locked out every other country from viewing their streams.
    • scott12087, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2If you could just download avis of shows that have already been aired from a website, containing a couple of ads at the beginning, I'm sure the majority of the people wouldn't even know how to get rid of or skip the ads. It would essentially be the same as somebody recording the show and then watching it later, and being able to fast forward through the commercials. I could see this being hugely successful, but not hurting the actual airing of the show too much. If people really want to see the show when it airs, they'll have to tune in and put up with the commercials every 15 minutes or so.
    • nizzy1115, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1I think it will be a cold day in hell before they make tv free. That is unless people stop paying 50 dollars for the complete seasons on dvd which they saw on tv for free the year prior for free.
    • BeyondALL, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1"Heck, I would love to see some major studios publish official torrents to! That would be great!"
      Well, NRK (Norwegian broadcast company has released a TV show via Bittorrent already, and more shows coming soon.. hopefully
      Ref: http://www.digg.com/tech_news/Norwegian_Broadcasti ...
    • chingy1788, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4bah, in Australia we have caps
      for me after 36GB im slowed down to 64k for the rest of the month
      so i have to use my downloads wisely... and no HD content
      friends and family band together to share data, through trading at work/uni, visits, LANs etc
    • thedragon4453, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1I don't think that this would encourage ISP's to not throttle, at least not Comcast. Legal torrents would basically cut Comcast out of the deal. If I could still get a decent torrent in my area, I would drop my cable service without a second thought.
    • RevJonathan, on 02/15/2008, -0/+2It's not infringement when I have a copy already. I have a PVR card in my PC. If I wanted to, I could record it and cut out the commercials myself in less than a minute. Instead, I use bittorrent, someone has already done it for me. I also subscribe to Netflix. I already have the ability to watch the content, I'm just going to let someone else take the time cut commercials and encode it for me.

      Not only am I not breaking the law, but I'm doing nothing morally wrong. I DARE the MPAA/RIAA/whoever to come after me for doing it. I've got a warchest waiting for any such lawsuit.
  • dn11, on 02/14/2008, -4/+20not surprised at all. if the studios provide a venue for downloading with the same quality, speed and ease - without a delay from the broadcast version - people will watch embedded commercials or whatever they have to do. But they would never let you "keep" it - even if it had commercials - got to sell them DVDs
    • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -1/+3Some networks (various satellite based ones for example) are actually already experimenting with this. They have deals with the studios that let their customers view older (usualy a couple weeks) episodes of shows at any time, for no additional charge, with fewer adverts. Of course, its not all shows. And its got that delay. But its a start. It makes more sense for providers to do this, than it does for networks, since providers (ie the cable, dish, etc company) control all channels and are the point before your TV, wheras studios and broadcasters (ABC, FOX, etc) only control one channel.
      Solving it on the broadcaster side would only fix it for one channel.
      Solving it on the provider side would fix it across all channel.
    • Myonosken, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4BBC and Channel 4 do this in the UK- ITV is looking in to it for Winter this year.
    • kahrytan, on 02/14/2008, -0/+6not downloading but NBC shows are available at on their website. I guess the Execs know what people were doing and put episodes on nbc.com so people can watch missed episodes there instead of download
    • Vostok, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3I'm perfectly happy to watch commercials as long as I can decide when to watch my show. Try www.hulu.com I enjoy it a lot and the commercials are short because so many more people can watch it and rewatch the program. Internet tv allows sponsors to make more money because you don't have to get all your moneys worth in on shot on a Friday night.
      • jenrzzz1, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3But TV distribution is 1 to many while internet is 1 to 1. BitTorrent is the perfect solution in this case because they don't have to pay for bandwidth. If they submitted torrents with embedded commercials in an unprotected AVI or whatever file, everyone would download.
  • theaceoffire, on 02/14/2008, -2/+35Just fyi, the main reason for this is that you can set up your torrent to automatically download new episodes.
    How to with utorrent: http://www.zeropaid.com/news/7845/Auto+Download+Mo ...
    If you use ktorrent, you just have to enable the rss plugin.
    Good rss feeds for tv can be found here: http://tvrss.net/
    ^_^ hope this helps someone.
    • norman619, on 02/14/2008, -1/+6Does uTorrent offer encryption?
      • bills534, on 02/14/2008, -0/+11yes, do a google search for "utorrent encryption" for more info
        • norman619, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Nice! I'll give utorrent a try. Thanks for the help!
      • chedabob, on 02/14/2008, -1/+3Yes.
    • spargett, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3I certainly don't buy that its the main reason. It helps, but far for solely responsible.
    • jjb123, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Deluge does is well too if you are using linux.
      • Rowan187, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Deluge is also for Mac and Windows now I believe, although it belongs on Linux, its about time Linux has a bittorrent client for itself that compares to uTorrent
    • BlaenkDenum, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1uTorrent + tvRSS Video Tutorial: http://www.blaenkdenum.com/tvrss-screencast/
  • Calcularius, on 02/14/2008, -10/+4Suck it, NBC.
  • gypsi, on 02/14/2008, -2/+127listen hollywood - make these things 25 cents each or all you can eat for 10 USD a month, skip the middle-men and get rich. you can get some or get none.
    • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -2/+5If they learned to adapt and started services like this, they wont be FILTHY rich, like they are now, but they wont die either.
      Unfortunately its hard to convince the board of directors and shareholders to give up most of their money for some of it.
    • LogicBomB, on 02/14/2008, -7/+2.
    • NJank, on 02/14/2008, -2/+13and how would that compete with a $0.00 torrent?
      • mrgreen4242, on 02/14/2008, -2/+20Speed convenience and quality?
      • mnemy, on 02/14/2008, -1/+17And legal
      • fokov, on 02/14/2008, -1/+12I agree, I already pay enough for TV and internet. As long as I own a cable subscription I should be able to download all the shows for free. if they want to include commercials that is OK. Just don't tell them that we can fast forward :P
        • skyshock1, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1They could make these available for free from your cable provider (based on the package you subscribe to). YOU LISTENING COMCAST?!??!?
      • chalkboy, on 02/14/2008, -1/+4I will pay more for convenience. As I get older and get busier my time is worth way more then it used to be. Downloading it in a format that goes directly onto my iPod is nice.
        • Netrilix, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1That's one of the main reasons I started buying TV shows. It's just less of a hassle sometimes. Same thing with movies. I've dropped close to $400 on iTunes in the first fourth months of use (I just signed up late last year).
      • moush, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Sometimes it's better to have a tangible copy. If you ever wanna watch an episode or 2 from your favorite show, why download them again when you could just pop in the disk. Of course you'd only need a few DVD's for your collection.
        • Netrilix, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Storage being as cheap as it is, why would you need to re-download? I've got tons of DVR and iTunes purchases, but I've got a few TB of capacity to keep me happy. By the time I fill that, storage will be even cheaper. I can't remember the last time I permanently deleted a file.
      • stoanhart, on 02/15/2008, -0/+11) I would like to support the writers and actors of my favorite shows. Currently, there is no service for this that is acceptable to me
        2) Direct (sequential) downloads would mean that you could click and start watching while the rest downloads
        3) Less bandwidth (for direct downloads) since you wouldn't need to seed back
    • Kypt, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4Yup, sometimes I don't download the weekly lost torrent since I can basically watch immediately from their site with high enough quality. Convenience goes a long way for the instant gratification-type folk.
    • op12, on 02/14/2008, -1/+2They're able to sell lots of DVD's, often at $20/season, so they're definitely not getting none.
    • Ganja420, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2you can stream almost any show on the network's website in pretty high quality
      • realityiswhere, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2If you live in an "approved" country, using an "approved" operating system, and an "approved" browser. no thanks.
        • Ganja420, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1like the U.S. with windows and using I.E. or Firefox... yea thats a pretty small minority of English speaking users
    • moush, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Hollywood doesn't make shows, they make movies.
      • plaindoh, on 02/14/2008, -0/+0They DO make TV shows and has been so for decades.
  • Sawta, on 02/14/2008, -11/+3It's really not that surprising to hear since shows on Bit Torrents are split into single episodes due to their size and bands usually have a "best of" album, or albums small enough to fit multiple cd's into one download. Can you imagine trying to download a 20GB+ (probably more) season of Lost and loosing seeders at 98.9% while people are only uploading at 7kb per sec?
    Also, never forget to take reports with copious amounts of salt.
    • davdev, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2TVTorrents.com has full seasons. I use them all the time. If you have a decent internet connection it doesn't take that long. Most download over night.
    • natedouglas, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3Actually, almost every TV show I've ever downloaded from BitTorrent has been an entire season or a complete season. And yeah, they're freaking huge (an X-Files torrent I saw was nearly 100GB), but that's why God provided the miracle of RAID. And Drobo, for that matter.

      The main reason I see things split into single episodes are for shows that are still running -- so each week's episode has to be packaged separately.

      This is yet another grain of sand in the beach of reasons why it sucked to lose Demonoid. Semi-private tracker that (for a while, at least) kept good track of people's ratios. Downloading a 50GB series would really ***** your ratio unless you were intelligent about it (ie, downloading the first season and nothing else, then the second season and nothing else, and so on) and then seeded well once you completed.
    • tannim111, on 02/14/2008, -0/+6Where do you get the 20 GB figure?

      A standard episode size is 350MB, with a 24 episode season coming in at 8.4 GB
    • WolfDV, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Lost.S03E01-E23.720p.BluRay.DTS.x264-BLiND - 50.76GB

      downloaded last night, many seeders, maxed out my connection. private torrent sites FTW!
  • gts1983, on 02/14/2008, -7/+1what about www.bittorrent.com doesn't the mpaa own that now?
    they have tv shows for sale via bittorrent
  • galleryfront, on 02/14/2008, -3/+3MAYBE all the networks will start making multi-browser compliant, multi-device compliant, advertiser supported content. When the AppleTV, the forthcoming LG set-top box, open-source set-top software, etc., all work all the time, I'll be a happier viewer.
    • natedouglas, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Until then, I'll be rockin' out with XBMC.
  • kermithefrogand, on 02/14/2008, -6/+1ok... and?
  • punkrockscks, on 02/14/2008, -9/+3not gonna lie...
  • eardrumgenocide, on 02/14/2008, -2/+5i try to only torrent shows that aren't really available as commercial releases.
    (rocko's modern life)
    • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2You're missing out ;)
      • myranttoyou, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Please give an example. Honestly, what else is there you can't get through cable or OTA?
  • carbonetc, on 02/14/2008, -2/+33Beats the hell out of Tivo.
    • myranttoyou, on 02/14/2008, -2/+2Does it really? I get the show as it aires, versus hours later. The electricity of a PC on 24-7 about equals the season pass. Or just record everything with the PC you already have on 24-7 anyway and save on bandwidth. I can't see how the convenience of a dedicated box with the direct signal can be beaten. Especially with OTA HD. Also, you don't open yourself up to the **AA. Unless you are downloading a show you don't have access to through a signal, Bittorent is the backup. Sorry, it's true.
      • alecks, on 02/14/2008, -1/+3Because in one night, I can download all the shows that were playing at say 8pm on all major channels, while you can only record two if your box has a dual tunner
        • myranttoyou, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1OK.... Let's look at that one point. Assume I don't want to buy a 3rd tuner cheaply. Is there any point in time during the week the major channels have three or more shows I would want to watch? (assumes can't watch one of those live) I can't imagine anyone thinks network TV is that good.

          If this is why people use Bittorent for TV, then I don't feel like I am missing out.
      • myranttoyou, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1Not to mention, I can start watching that 8 PM show at 8:15 PM (commercial free of course) and end at 9 PM sharp. There is no way an 8 PM TV show is going to reliably be posted and downloaded until after 10 PM.

        I just don't get the appeal. Bittorent+TV must be a nerd/TV freak thing.
        • winmywii, on 02/14/2008, -1/+2not everyone cares if they watch the show the night it airs.
          • myranttoyou, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Fine, but why wait until later to capture it? Not convenient at all to get the show later.
      • lynx44, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Well if you're on the east coast thats true, but here on the west coast its perfect for us because we can download the show before it even officially airs, commercial free.
        • myranttoyou, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Finally, one advantage I suppose. Although other people on this thread don't seem to care when they get it...
        • Gizza, on 02/15/2008, -1/+1And here in Australia we can get it about 6 to 18 months before it airs.
          • myranttoyou, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1That is what this is all leading up to. People use Bittorent TV links because they don't have access to the signal, which means they are basically stealing the content.... I'm not judging, but come on. People want to download these shows so they have the collection without buying the DVD, let's not pretend they are downloading instead of using a TV.
      • carbonetc, on 02/14/2008, -1/+21) A PC has to be on for about an hour and a half to both download and watch the show. I can't remember the last time I ran a PC 24/7.
        2) I'd watch a downloaded show because I missed it on TV. The delay is a non-issue.
        3) No commercials.
        4) I could watch the show in HD even if I didn't have an HD TV/receiver (which I personally got only recently).
        5) I can watch a show I didn't realize I wanted to Tivo until it was too late ("Hey, this show looks pretty good. I wonder what happened in the last few episodes."). Waiting for reruns becomes a thing of the past.
        • myranttoyou, on 02/15/2008, -1/+13) No Commercials. -- This is a non issue on both sides.
          4) Who had a HD TV and these elaborate PC/internet setups, yet doesn't get OTA HD or HD cable. Seriously?
          5) Name one found out after the fact that was good enough to watch. Seriously, name one cool TV show that just slipped by because you hadn't heard about it. Everyone I know watches a few episodes of each show and makes a determination on whether to record it permanently.
        • carbonetc, on 02/15/2008, -0/+14) Somehow Bittorrent made an HD TV and HD cable seem like an idle luxury I'd get around to one day rather than something I was burning to have.
          5) I've never watched Lost, but would like to pick it up one day. I started watching and caught up with Battlestar Galactica between the second and third seasons. I have the first seasons of 4400 and Jericho downloaded and will get to them someday, and I don't even know yet if I'll like them. The freedom keeps me from even caring whether a new show coming out will interest me or not. There's never the "should I Tivo this?" question in the back of my mind. Every show on every channel is already Tivo-ed for me.
  • chris9902, on 02/14/2008, -1/+30this story should be forwarded onto the TV execs with a message saying "GIVE US WHAT WE WANT YOU DINOSAURS!"

    oh and FYI: There's parts of the world outside the US that watch your shows but don't want to wait weeks or months to do it.
    • stereoa, on 02/14/2008, -0/+8I loved Dinosaurs.
    • joegibes, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1"GIVE US WHAT WE WANT YOU DINOSAURS... OR FACE OUR NEWLY CLONED REAL DINOSAURS! RARRRRR!"
  • Bhatch514, on 02/14/2008, -1/+6pay for cable and watch commercials and have to wait to watch the show went the network decides it is a good time for me? No thanks. I either download the episodes or seasons. or get the DVD's. I have not watched 24, the Office, Southpark or Entourage and more.. unless it was a download or from the season DVD's.
    • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Some services (some satellite services for example) allow you to watch episodes whenever you want to, without charging. Of course, its only select shows, and only after a certain amount of time has passed, which varies on a show to show basis... but hey, its a start. They generally have much fewer commercials, too.
      • NJank, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1actually, that's usually Cable (OnDemand) and NOT satellite. Satellite has to preload your movies/episodes on your DVR, then charges you when you watch it. Satellite can't typically handle the 2-way communication needed to do 'broadcast on request'
      • po43292, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Brighthouse OnDemand sucks balls. The shows almost never load for me (TBS/TNT on demand, etc).
  • chrispr, on 02/14/2008, -2/+5I was under the impression that TV downloading was legal, while TV distribution was illegal. Could anybody who actually knows the laws on this (read not internet "expert") comment?
    • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1TV downloading is illegal unless its done by the copyright owner - only they have permission to give for duplication. Copyright is actually pretty straightforward. Its ALWAYS illegal to copy something without explicit agreement, unless it has a specific named exception in copyright law.
      Recording TV shows and watching them later is time shifting and has a specific fair use exception. But downloading shows that you never got in the first place is not.

      HOwever, if the copyright owner (like ABC for example) makes their own website and lets you get them from there... (some do)... that'd be legal because they went to the bother of making the deals and signing the contracts and getting the rights to do that.
    • LogicBomB, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3In Canada we had a levee on recordable media for a while (Not sure if that went away?) but it essentially meant downloading was fine but distrubition, sharing, or selling was a big no-no.
  • ericdano, on 02/14/2008, -0/+7Yup. I do. I missed last weeks Smallville cause I was out. So, I found it on Bittorrent. Simple. Easy. And then, what if you happen to like two shows that are on at the same time? Or perhaps you are not feeling good.......there are a number of reasons that Bittorrent can compensate for.
  • uberkling, on 02/14/2008, -1/+10A very interesting thing has happened over the last couple of years here in Australia... Mysteriously, we've got Moonlight already. Heroes was deciedly prompt this year, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles just premiered this week.
    Where I'm going with this is that basically *all* we've gotten until very recently in primetime for the last 4 or 5 years is real life medical shows, celebrity dancing/singing/etc, the life New Zealand traffic cops, survivor/idol clones, 3rd-time repeats of CSI, you see where I'm going with this?
    For several years our three commercial outlets over here were complaining about falling ratings for imported shows whilst putting them on at 11.30pm at night whatever night they please, randomly chopping up seasons or reordering episodes and even preempting them for televised lawn bowls. When I was in high school and watching Buffy in first-run every week I'd tune in at 10pm and desperately hope it'd be on. Desperately, desperately hope :P
    Where am I going with this you ask? The interesting thing is here in Aus we have the highest TV show BT download-rate per-capita of anywhere in the world. The TV on DVD market is huge, and I mean HUGE. I guess I just find it interesting and slightly empowering to see the networks here finally getting a clue and seeing a) the cause of their ratings slide and b) doing something to try to compete with internet downloads.
    As much as I like getting my shows when and where I want still, it is still nice to be able to come home from work and plonk down on the couch at 7.30 and watch something decent again, at least for now.
    • Gizza, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1I remember reading a while back that Australia itself made up over 50% of the worldwide bittorrent traffic. And I would guess that probably 80-90% of that is TV shows due to our networks sucking so much. It wouldn't surprise me if that 50% comes mostly from us.
    • m00n1, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Commercial TV in Australia lost me when they started playing House out of order. Don't remember the characters name, but he was a black hospital administrator who caused friction. He was there one week, totally absent the next, then written out the week after. We'd seen them out of sequence. Such utter contempt for the public tipped me over the edge. I haven't watched commercial TV since then.
  • digitalpencil, on 02/14/2008, -3/+8Our TV died a couple of years ago and we never bothered to replace it. The proportion of crap on TV compared to quality shows must be like 20:1 so why bother? I check reviews sites to see what's new out, download an epsiode, if it's good I keep watching if it's crap, it gets trashed. I don't mind ads that much but we're not plagued by them like the US, i feel sorry for those that have to endure these every 10 mins ad-breaks. Viva la bittorrent!
  • RoanokeRich, on 02/14/2008, -2/+10I like discovering shows and going back to all the old episodes to catch up
  • banido, on 02/14/2008, -13/+6The other 50% is porn.
    • prleet, on 02/14/2008, -5/+0Cause Internet is for Porn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  • Solarmax, on 02/14/2008, -6/+0Did anyone else get the TiVo ad on this screen...hahaha. I use my TiVo to put shows on my Windows Mobile all the time. But I would NEVER think of torrenting them. ;)
  • Vektuz, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Some systems ARE catching up with this. Like some on-demand services that let you watch older shows whenever you want (without charging you... they have an advertisment or two, generally fewer than when the show ran).

    But what really needs to be done is to change the paradigm from schedule to demand. So that once a show's release date has been reached, you can watch it whenever you want. People will watch adverts. Some even like them. But in this digital age or whatever, its time that people could just say "oh, I Want to watch (show) now, it came out an hour ago so it should be available" and use their remote on their regular TV to watch it. You can already do that with a Tivo, of course, but the cable companies could cut out the middleman.
  • shyboy2008, on 02/14/2008, -5/+23why is it illegal to download broadcast shows from ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, PBS, etc when you can watch them free in the first place on regular tv. isnt bittorent just like the dvr concept. watching it on your own time, where you want it and when. i can see if you download HBO shows or stuff like that can be illegal if you dont pay for it
    • lotrtrotk, on 02/14/2008, -5/+3because you are NOT watching it for _FREE_
      You are paying your cable company who pays the Networks who air the shows. It may not be like going and buying a DVD, but you are still indirectly paying for the product.

      By torrenting, you are only paying for internet, which in no way gets to the creators of these shows.
      • corneliusJones, on 02/14/2008, -0/+10Not if you get it from an over the air broadcast. Television stations are beaming this content out (for _FREE_), and then we are told we cannot record them and send them to our friends.
        • sloth15, on 02/14/2008, -2/+3Actually you ARE paying for these broadcasts through commercials. The products advertised during the show are your payment. So event if you are not paying for your network television, it is free because of the ads. I've never seen a torrent of a TV show that includes the commercials.
    • BlaenkDenum, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1Yeah I think shows should be available for free download, but the reason they put them on TV is because of advertisements. I think it's kind of like how web sites make money, usually through advertisements.
  • Jonmad17, on 02/14/2008, -1/+3Meh. I only torrent shows when they are not available for free off their website. You can watch every season of lost in HD off the ABC website. So there is no reason to torrent it unless you want to move the file to the television (you can just connect you PC to your TV) or to a mobile device. It might have ads but it's still better than waiting for a file to download.
  • AndreiOttawa, on 02/14/2008, -2/+3Canadian TV station CTV.ca has all the episodes of Sarah Connor Chronicles for viewing: free, good quality and with no commercials. I think it's done to promote the show. Asked my buddy in Ireland to try to view them and he confirmed that they are accessible from outside of Canada.
    • Viriatus2, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1i'm from Portugal and i can't see them. They say "due to restrictions in copyright outside Canada blablabla"

      this sucks
  • Spritti, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Hurray for being able to download TV shows, there are so many old shows that aren't even on DVD that i download, not to mention the ones that are on DVD and cost wayyyyy too much money. (100+$ for x files?! they are out of their ***** minds, not to mention this is a ripoff as they could easily fit more on a disc and not make it a giant ass box set) Plus theres all those times i've missed an episode of a new show and need to catch up before next week. I'm not suprised with this statistic as 50% of what i download is TV easily, or more.
  • atomic08, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Oh if only somebody torrented Iron Chef....anyone?
    • kurrent, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1i've seen every episode on bitmetv.org
  • mdinire, on 02/14/2008, -1/+8There is no difference between owning a copy of a TV show on your hard drive and on a VHS or DVD-R.
    • sloth15, on 02/14/2008, -2/+0While you may 'skip' the commercials on VHS or DVR, the program is still in its original form. Rippers who create the torrents alter the broadcast by cutting out the commercials. An hour long show takes ~42 minutes to watch with a torrent, ~45 minutes to watch on a DVR, and ~50 minutes to watch on VHS.
  • nukepuppy, on 02/14/2008, -2/+1so basicly we just download stuff we can get for free... wooopdeeedooo
  • Tantrum, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1This is not surprising given the load of crap that's been on TV since the writers strike.
  • osirislink, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2After downloading and watching a TV show I usually buy the DVD of the TV series, if I like it.
  • RevToTheRedline, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1495% of my Torrent downloads are British TV shows called Top Gear and Fifth Gear. Throw some HD rips of Mythbusters and CSI in there, that pretty much sums it up.
    • bitterbug, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3MI5, also known as Spooks, is another excellent British show. The fluid cast makes for lots of "Who gets knocked off next" moments.
  • galanz, on 02/14/2008, -1/+3It's the only way for me to watch Top Gear. I'd buy the seasons if they were available.
  • nace33, on 02/14/2008, -0/+8NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX. Just put your shows on iTunes for free, with ads. The trade off for on demand with ads is worth it. Especially for back dated episodes. People are obviously reluctant to pay for them, given they can get them Over-the-Air or through torrents. You might at least make some ad money in the process.
    • BearinG, on 02/20/2008, -0/+1And others that have no idea how to download Torrents, or how to watch them on their TVs will still watch it on cable or satellite..

      Different groups
  • bdbr, on 02/14/2008, -0/+5The only shows I bother downloading are British. The US networks do a good job of streaming...as does the BBC, so I hear. Problem is, you have to be in that country. Record labels handle distribution in a similar fashion. What is it with media that they have to pretend there are territorial boundaries on the Internet?
    • op12, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1It could have to do with advertising. I'm not entirely certain if it's true, but it'd make sense if the BBC gets money from (non-international) companies in the UK that advertise on their shows, and don't want to pay for more views from, for example, the US who wouldn't be purchasing products from them. Without anyone to cover the cost, the network would choose not to let the US viewers see the show because they can't pay for the bandwidth.
      • thefurball, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1Given that the BBC doesn't use commercials at all, that wouldn't work. The BBC is funded through a television license. (A tax, basically) Since the service is funded by UK tax payers, only UK citizens can view BBC content for free online.
  • jabberwonk, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2I agree with the comment that the studios should just make them really cheap - .25 per episode or $10 / month. My wife and I recently missed an episode of Amazing Race - football ran late and I guess TiVO and that piece-of-goddamn-***** Comcast DVR don't realize that they need to start recording later. First place we looked for it was Comcast OnDemand - yeah right. That is such a ***** service. One or two TV shows, and a ton of movies you could buy new on DVD for $0.75 they're sold old and or bad. Next place I looked was iTunes. I figured I'd be happy to spend $0.99 for a missed eposide. Do they have it? Nope. Stupid ass network. Ahha - let's try TPB. Bingo! There's the missing episode. I would have never even thought of that if I had been able to find it through "official" channels. Now that my eyes are opened to this whole wonderful world of TV torrents, I could certainly look into reducing our monthly cable bill down to a basic package and just download whatever else we're missing.
  • kylere, on 02/14/2008, -0/+2Does anyone really trust this number? Every little group with an axe to grind reports wildly disparate percentages depending on what they want you to hear. Most of these numbers seem to be pulled directly from nowhere. Add in the fact that the majority of trackers are small and private and I question the validity of their data.
  • Tyr7BE, on 02/14/2008, -0/+4I can believe it. 90%+ of my BT downloads are TV shows. And here's the great thing - I'm paying for full cable! I could turn on the TV and watch these shows whenever, but fact is I'm almost always not around when they're on, so I download them and watch them on my own time. Why the studios are up in arms about this, I'm not really sure.
  • rankftw, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3I live in the UK and always download American TV shows, infact I don't have an ariel atm and all I watch is downloaded TV shows. Been like that for the last few months anyway.
    • RobsaysHello, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1I live in the US and download BBC. Can't get enough Doctor Who.
  • MattCruikshank, on 02/14/2008, -6/+56I'm trying to figure this out... Let me construct it piece by piece, and people can try to tell me where I'm going wrong. Where's the logical flaw?

    1) It's legal for me to watch a broadcast show live.
    2) It's legal for me to to time-shift a show by recording it on a video recorder when it is broadcast, and watch it later.
    3) It's legal for me to program my video recorder to automatically record a show, and watch it later.
    4) It's legal for me to call my friend, and have him go over to my house to program my video recorder to automatically record a show, so I can watch it later.
    5) It's legal for me to have my friend over to my house and watch a show on my video recorder with me.
    6) It's legal for me to have my friend over to my house and watch a show on my video recorder without me.
    7) It's legal for me to take my video recorder over to my friend's house, and watch a show from my video recorder on his TV.
    8) It's legal for me to loan my video recorder to my friend.
    9) While my friend has my video recorder, he can schedule recordings, and watch them.
    10) While my friend has my video recorder, he can watch recordings I made, or that were made automatically.
    11) It's legal for me to get my video recorder back from my friend, and watch recordings that he made.
    12) It's legal for me to build my own video recorder.
    13) It's legal for me to modify my own video recorder so that it records on any media I want to - VHS, DVD, Vinyl Records, Hard Drive, USB Hard Drive.
    14) How about a hard drive I own in another state?
    15) How about a hard drive I lease in another state?
    16) How about hard drive space I rent in another state?
    17) How about storage space on Amazon Simple Storage Solution?
    18) It's legal for me to use one computer I own to transcode a broadcast signal to digital storage I own, and to decode digital storage I own to video signal using a different computer I own.
    19) It's legal for me to use my friend's computer to transcode a broadcast signal to digital storage I own, and to decode digital storage I own to video signal using a different computer I own.
    20) It's legal for me to ask my friend to use his computer to transcode a broadcast signal to digital storage I own, and to decode digital storage I own to video signal using a different computer I own.
    21) My friend is really nice, and he always remembers to record my show for me.

    22) My friend can similarly help 1000 other people, with the same show.
    23) My friend uses his computer to transcode a broadcast signal to digital storage that each of those 1000 people own. Later, each of those 1000 people can decode digital storage they own to video signal using a computer they own.
    24) My friend can rent each of us storage space on his computer.
    25) If my friend is using a very clever Operating System, it might scan the hard drive looking for duplicate data, and compress 1000 files that each have duplicate data down to one physical copy, and 999 sym links.
    26) So, now, I pay my friend to rent storage space and bandwidth to access it, and he records one of my shows for me. Along with 999 other people, who all happen to like the same show.
    27) My friend is totally awesome, and remembers to do this for me, for every TV show I've ever wanted to watch, from now until the end of time.

    Where's the problem?
    • TremorX, on 02/14/2008, -0/+14You didn't get the express written consent of Major League Baseball
    • Daiken, on 02/14/2008, -2/+522) My friend can similarly help 1000 other people, with the same show.

      You can't distribute copyrighted material. The reason why everything else above that is okay is because when it's just you or your close group of friends doing it, there's no way for the police or network stations to know what you're up to. The effects are also low compared to overall sales. Soon as you start mass distributing, then you have a problem. Only the owners are allowed to do that.
      • MattCruikshank, on 02/14/2008, -3/+2There are plenty of steps before 22 which involve distributing copyrighted material. The argument, "but that's too many people" doesn't hold much weight with me. Each step of my progression is either logical and legal, or it's not.
        I concede that there is at least one flaw in my progression, but the argument you've made is not it.
      • twertyto, on 02/15/2008, -0/+1I'm pretty sure that copyright law makes a distinction between a few and 1000s. For example it is legal for me to install Windows XP on my 3 home computers with one license but not ok to install it on everyone's computer at my work.

        The word that is commonly thrown around is disseminate which implies distribution to many not just a few. I think your issue is with the fine details of copyright law which is not in the realm of logical sense.
    • Filipp0, on 02/15/2008, -0/+228) ?????
      29) Profit!
  • rankftw, on 02/14/2008, -5/+1newzbin ftw!
  • moontime, on 02/14/2008, -0/+14Long live EZTV
  • Akyan, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1iPlayer & 4od mean that I can legally access pretty much all the programming I care about on demand.
  • prleet, on 02/14/2008, -5/+0this is simply gay....
  • makerandcreator, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1Why would waste time on TV show...
  • Double-Z, on 02/14/2008, -1/+1A smart industry would learn from this. Stick in a few very short ads and let the world distribute the programs via p2p. Everybody benefits. But no, they want to prosecute and restrict people's actions. It's crazy. They should learn to use this statistic for their gain.
  • PacketScan, on 02/14/2008, -0/+1So people are sharing something they likely already paid for already via cable brodcasting.
  • Haplo, on 02/14/2008, -0/+3If you notice some weird IP addresses doing noting in u-torrent, you might want to block those:
    http://johnbokma.com/mexit/2008/02/05/blocking-ip- ...
  • kurrent, on 02/14/2008, -3/+4bitmetv.org ftw
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