What is Digg?41 Comments
- treelovinhippie, on 10/10/2007, -0/+26"Television Studios Embrace BitTorrent"
Inaccurate, it's more like... "Some Intelligent Execs of Some TV Shows Like the BitTorrent Idea" - MavRevMatt, on 10/10/2007, -0/+15When will the big guys up top realise that BitTorrent will not go away? If they "embrace" it like many have, they get people aware of their stuff for free, and a fair amount of people will buy their stuff to support them. Similar to NIN, people torrented Year Zero, and then bought it to support Trent Reznor, at least I did. These people need to just accept that BT and the Bay are here for good and won't go, and to try and work along with them.
- UtahApocalyse, on 10/10/2007, -0/+10You know, if TV studios did start releasing shows on BT I would even watch the damn ads. Why? because they are letting me watch when I want.
- nihility, on 10/10/2007, -0/+8That guy at WB should get a raise. He'll probably get fired though.
- dtd00d, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7I can already feel the MPAA squirming
- arjung, on 10/10/2007, -0/+5Weeds is actually a really good show. I watched the first two seasons on peekvid/tvlinks, and I would never subscribe to showtime to get it, but i recommend everyone at least watch a few episides.
And now that I know it's on bt, i'll be getting season 3. - taylooooor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Can someone Copy/paste the article into comments? I'm on the Warner Brothers lot and our internet is filtered. For some reason WB doesn't want us reading bittorrent articles... so I guess they haven't exactly embraced it fully.
- webcure, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Ahh... the infamous bandwagon!
- illegal_op, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I got a comcast network abuse email for the bionic woman pilot. so someone cares.
- wvstephens, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Jenji Kohan might be stoked about Weeds getting leaked, but I bet the higher up's at Showtime are not as stoked but a good article. I did not know the 1st 4 episodes were relased until this article provoked me to search my favorite torrent site. Oh goody and now first 2 episodes of Dexter season 2 . I have shows to watch tonight.... Wooo Hooo
- Boreras, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The people using BT for their show in this article aren't "the biggest guys", but it's quite a big sign. If people in the company will start revolutionizing, it will work it's way up.
- Boofster, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Weeds is a REALLY good show. Up there with the best of all time.
Acting is top notch and casting is right on the money. Mix that with almost zero censorship and it's almost better than Entourage. - Durrok, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Just to clarify: Only the first four episodes of season 3 of weeds have been leaked. First two of Season 2 of Dexter have been leaked as well.
- potterboy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3Just call me when Heroes leaks.
- identifiedlogo, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Thankyou WEEDS...I will take you on that challenge...Muhahahaha
- curtvdh, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2It's actually a great idea (leaking pre-release pilots, I mean). You could go with a focus group of 50 people - or you get the opinions of 5,000 to 10,000 people and retool or ditch your series based on their comments. For the studios, it's basically money for nothing...
- thehigherlife, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1the quality isn't always as good though...
- JiMiThInG, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I love that he had to give it to a kid who lived next door to leak online. Smart move, for a new pilot. If the studio's had any common sense they would torrent every new pilot themselves.. its nearly a 100% win situation for them.
- TheNuminous, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2As nice as this concept is, the majority of BitTorrent users will not buy something after they download it. Fortunately, some television shows and movies are using more product placement to compensate for this.
- zachshmack, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Most major networks already stream their shows from their websites, provided you watch a brief ad before each segment.
- BLyn, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I know I watch more TV now then I did 5 years ago almost solely from the fact that that BitTorrent make them it accessible. Running my life by TV schedules just wasn't appealing. So now occasionally i'll tune in to watch it on TV, also giving the network my support (which otherwise would be nonexistent). Regardless of the fact that they don't really have the ability to control downloads, i don't think they have much to lose from it.
- taylooooor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Thanks!
- inactive, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Ok i know this is a long shot but if anyone with half a brain from HBO might be reading this then pay attention.
I am an India. The only way possible for me to watch good shows uncensored is using bittorrent. The version of entourage aired in HBO Asia is utter crap because of censorship but i still watch it because i have already seen it. If it weren't for me getting exposed to entourage before the show was aired in India i would have never ever seen entourage because the censorship just breaks the story too much and its just not as good as the uncensored version.
Take this info as you want but this is the truth. Also a few of my friends only watch entourage only after i recommend it. i lend them my downloaded version after they watch it on TV so they can get the whole story with out the edits. - TuneRaider, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Television Studios Embrace BitTorrent
Written by Smaran on August 07, 2007
From loathing and resisting BitTorrent and the illegal distribution of their shows to encouraging downloading and leaking pilots, TV studios have a come a long way. The creator of ‘Weeds’ is stoked that someone pirated her show.
An unusually large number of pre-air TV shows have been appearing on BitTorrent sites months and, in some cases, several months before their scheduled air dates. Many of those leaks appear to be inside jobs, and TV executives are starting to realise that leaking shows to BitTorrent can help promote them.
In a recent interview for the Seattle Post, I speculated that it seemed likely that TV executives and writers were purposefully leaking their yet-to-air shows to BitTorrent to build up hype and an audience. It looks like I wasn’t too far off.
An anonymous Warner Brothers Television executive has admitted he helped leak the pilot of “Pushing Daisies“, an upcoming TV show. His reason? He wanted to make sure the show “got out there,” and wanted to “help the cause.” The executive didn’t upload it himself; he got his neighbour’s kid to do it. And the kid was delighted to, because it pushed up his ratio on some private network.
You might think, as I did, that someone made this story up. Turns out, the executive used his work e-mail ID (yep, @warnerbros.com or whatever) when he contacted Rick Ellis of AllyourTV.com. When asked about what made him leak the pilot, he replied:
I just thought it was a good idea. Even though […] I don’t have any direct stake in the show, it’s a really great project. It’s tough to describe, though, and while it makes great sense once you’ve seen it, it’s one of those shows that will only work if people do tune in at least once.
Which, by the way, is one of the reasons that ABC and Warners are promoting the show in all sorts of venues. The pilot has been screened at everything from auditions for ABC reality shows to Comic-Con. We all believe in the show. And if I can do something that might in some small way help…I can live with that.
One last thing…some of this is also about building pressure with the network. I don’t think anyone here involved with “Traveler” was exactly thrilled with the treatment ABC gave the show. But it didn’t really have any champions inside either company. And I suppose all of us are hoping that this show gets the support it deserves.
Further evidence of TV studios embracing BitTorrent can be found in an interview with Jenji Kohan, the creator of ‘Weeds‘. The third season of Weeds was leaked around a month before it was to be aired on TV. Although another week is left before season three is broadcast to the world, hundreds of thousands of people from around the globe have already downloaded and watched episodes of it. And what does Kohan think of this? She’s glad her show’s gaining a larger audience: “Revenue aside, I don’t expect to get rich on Weeds,” she told Advertising Age jubilantly. “I’m excited it’s out there. Showtime is great, but it does have a limited audience.”
‘Weeds’ and ‘Pushing Daises’ aren’t the most popular of shows. The first has a relatively small following and the latter has yet to gain one. But both are mainstream, television shows, not podcasts. Kevin Rose being ‘cool’ with fans torrenting Diggnation a week before it’s released to non-subscribers and a primetime TV show’s creator doing the same are two vastly different notions, with the second having a significantly greater impact on traditional broadcast TV.
(from http://torrentfreak.com/television-studios-embrace-bittorrent/) - Mihai12345, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1And if you're not in the US you don't get to see anything.
- arjung, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1and you can't necessarily see all episodes. nbc only shows this season for instance.
- witebuddha, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I agree with the first statement, but dugg for Trent Reznor
- PA42, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I don't really see this as an embracing. One anonymous producer and one creator of a show are ok with the idea. I'll be excited when a studio accepts it or a channel accepts it. And a creator of a show isn't really that important anyhow; he doesn't control distribution.
- iVision, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I am happy that some shows have been leaked. New season of Dexter is already on the internet :D
- brundlefly76, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1The story doesnt really back up the headline.
An email from an 'anonymous television executive' (which the author qualifies because 'the email was from @warnerbros.com or whatever'), and the encouraging response from a show's creator (which should NEVER be confused with the opinion of the studio!) provides no evidence whatsoever that television studios are 'EMBRACING BitTorrent'...
This article was written with the goal of making it seem that way, in order to grow a rumor which would serve as defense against bittorrent copyright infringement. - Causemos, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1Of course they'll still ignore non-traditional viewers in their ratings and cancel shows that shouldn't be.
- TimmyGreenlaw, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Give a thing, and take a thing, to wear the devil's gold ring. -late 16th
- Boreras, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1The people using BT for their show in this article aren't "the biggest guys", but it's quite a big sign. If people in the company will start revolutionizing, it will work it's way up.
- metalica77, on 10/10/2007, -5/+4I saw that Bionic women thing it wasn't that bad.
I will give it a watch when it comes out on TV
But it was preety Blatent that it was specially pre-released because you don't often see pre release tv shows.
Good on the TV companies to understand the importance of BT.
It will be cool if they released all the episodes on BT that would be a stretch but cool - grandemerda, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0This could be the beginning of something major. I do think there is no turning back at all.
- rhino369, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0I actually think pay networks releasing leaks only on bittorrent is massively stupid on their part. Right now the only way to see the first four eps of weeds is to download it on bittorrent. So many people who would have just paid showtime, are learning how to use BT and downloading it. There is a good possibility they'll just keep downloading it for free.
They should have released there own site for download, the full version full quality, for anyone to get.
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is