Something that’s always interested me when it comes to piracy is this: gamers tend to be vehemently against piracy when it comes to video games, but pretty happy to pirate television. I count myself in that group. Frank admission: I have pirated television shows.
Torrent Freak recently did a survey of who was downloading Breaking Bad and from which location and, surprise surprise, Australia is at the top of that list — not in ‘per capita’ terms (that would be a landslide) but in terms of a raw percentage. According to Torrentfreak 18% of illegal Breaking Bad downloads came from Australia and, hilariously, Melbourne is the worst offender with 5.4% of the downloads coming from there. I guess you have good taste in TV Melbourne.
As a comparison the US came second, with 14.5% of downloads and the UK came in third place with 9.3%.
Why does Australia pirate so much? Well it could be to do with the fact that it’s remarkably difficult for us to watch major shows like Breaking Bad in a timely fashion, but that might just be an excuse. As I mentioned above, I have pirated shows and then bought them later on Blu-ray or DVD. I honestly think we have to take responsibility here for our own actions, but there has to be a better way of making these shows accessible to Australians.
Via Gizmodo
Comments
115 responses to “Australia Pirated Breaking Bad More Than Any Other Country In The World”
My own mother commented last night about CRIMINAL MINDS which she loves. She asked me to start downloading season 9 as its on in the states right now but doesn’t start here til like, next march or so apparently (I don’t know when but she does). I find that sort of delay horrendous. Channel 10 has it right with their new app allowing you to watch all their weekly shows as soon as they’ve aired in the USA such as HOMELAND, THAT is how you do it. 7 and 9 need to catch up as well… when you shorten the time between airings (homeland is 15 minutes ffs!!!) you’ll see an INCREDIBLE drop in piracy. It will NOT eliminate it, but it will drop it majorly, I guarantee.
I don’t know about that. I was thinking about it the other day and I wouldn’t go back to watching things on TV even if it was airing 12 hours before the torrents went up. I’m happy to support shows on DVD and whatever but the concept of watching the shows/episodes Channel Seven feels like airing on Channel Seven’s schedule is dead to me. In the past five years I’ve watched maybe a combined twelve hours of TV, and even then it was only because my computer/XBOX/etc was packed away and I was only watching it for background noise.
I can’t really think of anything TV stations could do to get me watch them. I support the shows themselves but the more I think about it I don’t support the networks airing them. We have this huge list of reasons why we feel justified pirating TV but ultimately I think it boils down to the fact that even if you take price/ads and airing delays out of the equation TV show torrents just beat the snot out of free to air and Foxtel.
Side note: My mother downloads TV too. Mostly streams off official sources. Her work schedule means she misses the shows she wants to watch 50% of the time so it’s the only way she’ll see enough to keep up when she actually gets the chance to sit down and watch them on TV.
But that’s the point isn’t it. With Channel 10s app, you no longer have to watch it on tv. They put up their catalogue for the week, you select what you want to watch and bam, you get to watch it when you want as long as it’s aired in America (if its an american show). That WILL drop piracy for those of us who pirate immediately after a show has aired. I will be using the app to stream Homeland for instance rather than doing what I have in the past, and there you have it, my Homeland problem is fixed. If they introduce this method for other free to air programs, problem alleviated (not solved but a major portion of it has been fixed at least).
Watching it on TV is irrelevant, the actual channel. This will let you watch it on your phone, your tablet, yes your tv if you have a ‘smart tv’, your computer etc. It’s a lot more convenient and a way the other tv stations should be considering too.
With channels 10 app can i view it on any device i wish without an active internet connection?? When alternatives exist that have no ads, no fixed scheduling and is portable to any device why would you ever use the “legit” method. I’m the same as the previous poster i just buy the blurays/dvds and support shows that way. I only watch TV for sports and thats it. I’d happily pay up to $30 a month for access to TV shows that i can download with no DRM that i can watch on any device. I’d also much rather select the TV shows i purchase rather than just a lump package eg $30 buys me 15 shows or 10 shows and 2 premium which i get to select from a list.
This point is moot in an era where internet is as standard in a home as television if not moreso these days.
You know, those people who choose not to steal and all that. But the app they’ve brought out allows you to watch their shows outside their regular scheduling. As I said, Homeland 15 minutes after it airs in the USA for instance.
Who gets to decide whats a moot point or not ?? You? For me travelling 40 mins to work every day via the train – having an offline option is a must. Like i said in my post i’d support a subscription based service but i’d want a hell of a lot more flexibility than there is out there. I support the producers via bluray/dvd sales as it’s the only way i can.
Regardless of the misconception of pirating being theft (HINT: It’s not – you are copying its a crime under copyright infringement). How many people pirating shows have been supporting the producers via other means – whether it would be buying subscriptions/bluray/dvd yet still downloading to have a digital offline library with no ads in a portable format? It is no where near as black and white as you make it out to be.
1. You’re being anal beyond belief. As a pirate you’re taking something that’s not yours. That’s theft. I pirate and I accept this.
2. If you have a 40 minute travel time to work, then it’s easy, got a phone with a 3g/4g connection? There ya go. You have OPTIONS in this day and age. Who gets to decide if the point is moot? SOCIETY. When you have adequate options out there to supply you with internet connections, then the fact is there is the ability to connect, it’s up to you to take advantage of it or not. I’m a student on austudy and nothing else at the moment yet I manage a phone with a data connection, to run a car and an internet connection at the house I reside in and to raise a son. Yet we’re all fully netted up. So yeah, the options are *completely* there. Just because you choose not to take advantage of them, dont bury your head in the sand and scream foul about it. Thats just purely ignorant.
1. You’re being anal beyond belief. As a pirate you’re taking something that’s not yours. That’s theft. I pirate and I accept this.
Oh god, I seriously used to respect most of what you say but this… such a short-sighted, ironically ignorant statement. Theft is theft. Piracy is piracy. The only time it gets mixed up is when someone’s trying to pull the morality card on something that is entirely grey. Seriously, look up the definition. By law and accepted definition, they are not the same.
Yeah because when you take something you don’t legally own that’s only ‘borrowing’ right? It’s theft. This whole ‘shades of grey’ thing has come from people who don’t want to accept they’re stealing. But, justify all you want. I really don’t care if you respect what I had to say beforehand, it’s nice and all but it holds zero meaning for me in real life. I didn’t even know you existed before this so it impacts me in no way possible.
Btw, the RIAA and FBI majorly disagrees with you on your definition of theft and piracy. Just thought you should know.
http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=What-is-Online-Piracy
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/ipr/ipr
Again, not for one moment do I say I don’t do it myself. I do. But I’m well aware of the fact I do. Doesn’t change the fact I do, I just don’t whitewash this factor and make excuses.
But, at the end of the day, whatever helps you sleep at night.
Have a great night!!!
I’ll totally ignore point 1 as the poster above pretty much summed my feelings up on the matter.
In regards to point 2 I struggle just to get news sites working on my phone most of the time on the the train – let alone streaming media. Add in the cost as well and its retarded – if i streamed one 40 min show or ~250mb each day, using some napkin math, i’d be looking at around 4 – 5gb a month which is well outside my quota of 1500 – guess you’d expect me to pay more just to cover that as well?
Even if we had access to netflix or hulu im 100% positive i’d still download so i can have an offline copy to view on my tablet/phone. Somewhat ironically it is SOCIETY that is deciding that the options the networks are providing is lacking as evidenced by the extremely high piracy rate.
http://www.riaa.com/physicalpiracy.php?content_selector=What-is-Online-Piracy
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/white_collar/ipr/ipr
@weresmurf Srs? anyone can link ramblings from biased parties.
Here is a picture for you http://www.funnyjunk.com/funny_pictures/1981536/Piracy/
How about https://torrentfreak.com/piracy-is-not-theft-111104/
Piracy is a crime under copyright infringement – ITS NOT THEFT.
Given the infrastructure is actually there to do this, and you actually have the ability to do this… the problem is not on the technology side of things. The problem simply lay with you and your finances it would seem. A higher phone plan may alleviate this issue. I’m actually not seeing any issues here that don’t stem from, basically, you at this point?
That’s all true enough but what I’m getting at is that those are at best matching a few of the benefits of piracy. What you’ve described could only bring me back as a charity, much like the way I buy shows, movies and games even though I’d (in the short term) be better off pirating them. I’m willing to watch ads because it’s how the channel makes money to pay the people who make the show, I’ve often said I’d rather download shows where the encoder has left the ads in, but the rest of it just seems like a lot of pointless hassle when my torrent program can do it all better and easier.
My point is that we say a lot of things to justify downloading Family Guy, Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones instead of watching it on TV but those are the reasons we stopped watching TV not the reasons we continue to not watch TV. If they wised up and fixed all those problems I think a lot of us would continue to go to our favourite torrent sites until they offered something significantly better than piracy with a standard system that spans across all TV shows, not just the shows on that network or limited to shows that aired within the last six months.
We’ve gotten used to doing things in a way that’s so awesome for us that TV channels can never match or out do it. I don’t think that’s good for television but I do think it’s true for a lot of us.
I agree with this post whole-heartedly. However, next week I will attempt to watch Homeland via CH10’s New App, just so I can see the difference between ‘the way I’m used to doing it’ and the new ‘legit’ method
I have a PVR I record the show so I can watch it when I want. I can skip ads too. I don’t mind ads within reason they are the reason it’s free.
The US night is our morning, if Channel 10 are putting the show on our TV’s that night, I see no need to pirate it. If like Channel 7 they sit on the show for a few weeks people will start Pirating it.
I do have an issue with seasons not being released on DVD for months after they have done on the US but.
What about when it comes out on DVD? Can we get some figures of sales in all of these counties just to see if Australia also buys the most. I’m tired of this already. Same thing with game of thrones. And Australia was what I heard was also the country for most sales of dvds for game of thrones.
Could be skewed in favor for UK since Amazon UK have the cheapest complete collection and a lot of Aussies are buying it from there
Still means Aussies are buying.
Yes, but there is no way to show that AU is purchasing from UK and incorporate it into the stats.
Of course there is, digital purchases from Amazon etc leave records of items purchased and where they are sent?
No – data isn’t mined that way. Digital sales are not incorporated in any stats. All stats have been retail sales only and the “sale” is only at the point of purchase not where they are sending them to.
It’s not impossible to gather that data. Point of destination can be collated into the data and thus accounted for in the sales. It would obviously be a more intensive method of calculation and time consuming but give a far more accurate count with likely some surprising results.
Absolutely!
Good work Australia!
Accessibility and cost are basically the only two factors involved. Make it easily accessible and reasonably priced and the majority of pirated downloads will likely convert to legit purchases. As long as the networks keep going with exclusive distribution rights (eg. iTunes only for digital copies) then the problem will persist. It’s basic market forces, something the major companies STILL don’t understand even today.
Remarkably hard? Get Foxtel and you can have it recorded it ad free in HD only hours after the US and have it ready to watch before you even get home from work. If you pirate BB it’s not because it’s hard to get, it’s because your cheap. All that being said tho I totally pirate the crap out of loads of TV, just not BB and GoT because Foxtel have really picked up their game with those. I just hope pirates buy a BB DVD or two to show some support for good tv.
The problem with Foxtel is that for any decent package of channels you’re locked into paying around a hundred bucks a month, more for the really good channels, HD, etc. I refuse to do so for the one show I want to watch at any given time. Yes, not having Foxtel is the cheaper alternative. But if it was more flexible and fairly priced, it would still be a reasonable one.
That’s hardly a fair assertion.
1. Foxtel isn’t available everywhere.
2. Installing it requires the building owner’s permission – something you can’t always get in rental properties or unit blocks.
3. The cost is prohibitive. People not wanting to pay $100 a month to get access to one TV show they want isn’t ‘being cheap’, I’d say it’s a pretty sensible decision.
Not wanting to pay for Foxtel hardly makes somebody cheap, especially if Foxtel are still in the practice of putting these shows on their movie channels, forcing an expensive movies subscription on a customer. There is a big gap between free (piracy) and $80-120 a month Foxtel charge to watch Breaking Bad. Without any options in between free and very expensive of course there is going to be a lot of piracy.
The only consideration I have in downloading shows is timeliness. If I could sit down on Monday night after work and stream Breaking Bad immediately off a pay service, I would absolutely do it but until we have services that are easier to use and more convenient than piracy, piracy will dominate.
Edit: didn’t notice the iTunes availability until today. Guess old habits are hard to break.
All fair points. And I don’t mean to insinuate being cheap as a particularly negative thing, as some of you say it’s perfectly sensible and as I said, I’m a big pirate so it’d be pretty hypocritical of me to look down my nose at anyone. My argument is simply that it isn’t “remarkably hard” to get, it’s available readily in high quality in a timely fashion if you’re willing to pay through foxtel or iTunes, so it is being cheap to pirate it, but you know, feel free to justify it to yourself as I have for years!
Is it available on iTunes though? I remember people saying the same thing for Game of Thrones but all iTunes actually had was some special feature things (at least in Australia). I’ve also heard half their videos are really horrible quality – not at home atm but can check later.
As others have said though Foxtel isn’t a great option…spending money for installation then monthly fees of base package + HD + all the extras you need just to get something like breaking bad,…it add up to a lot of money for 1 or 2 shows.
Give Australia Hulu or Netflix or something like that and I’ll happily pay, until then I’ll keep downloading and buying BD’s on release 🙂
Pretty sure it’s in iTunes, I don’t use it personally but according the store it’s there (https://itunes.apple.com/au/tv-season/breaking-bad-the-final-season/id669709415). And I agree foxtel isn’t ideal for everyone. Although from what I can see you can get a Foxtel Play package which works for your Xbox and PC and that kind of thing, and for $50 a month to include Showcase and the movie channels. So there’s no install and from what I can see there’s no lock in and you can pay by the month. Still a lot if you just want one show and I have nfi what the quality of that service is like. As long as you intend to buy the DVD’s or Blu-Rays then I reckon you have every right to pirate, I just want people to support good TV in some form so we get more of it!
Season 5 of Breaking Bad is on iTunes.
I think we’ll see iTunes move a lot faster on this now in an attempt to curb piracy. It may actually be worth buying a Apple TV.
Itunes for australia split the final season of BB in half, and then charged for a season pass for each one. Fuck them.
That was actually Sony’s decision, but yeah, dick move regardless.
Nothing like a judgemental ill informed blanket statement to start the day…
THIS PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE LIBERAL PARTY, YOUR VOICE IN THE MURDOCH EMPIRE. ENJOY LIFE LIKE IT’S 1990 IN THE USA, CONSUMER.
A lot of my reasons is that local channels either take months to pick up the show or play the episode later in the week. In this modern age of twitter and Facebook, spoilers are getting hard to avoid, so in order to keep up to date I try to get the show as soon as possible. If the local channels played the shows on the same day, just later in the evening, then I wouldn’t get them via torrents as much.
The other issue is the wait for shows to appear on DVD. For some reason it takes forever, upwards of a year after the shows season finishes, before we get it on DVD as a set. Plus a single season set for most shows still costs $40-$50, which is insane.
I have sad it before and I’ll say it again. Give all aussies access to Hulu and Netflix (or similar services) and you’ll see a massive drop in piracy.
All we can do is be thankful something like Hola Unblocker exists…….. Since I started using that to get access to Hulu and Netflix, my TV piracy has gone down quite a lot.
Me too, I haven’t pirated a thing in almost 4 months since the day I configured Hola and got Netflix working. I’ve streamed all of the shows I enjoy from American sites.
This.
Same here – we use Netflix (don’t even get started about the paucity of similar Australian services) and I’ve happily retired the torrents.
I will say however a big factor for Piracy in this country is the huge price of Foxtel – Foxtel go around buying up the rights to all these shows then throw them on their ‘premium’ channels so you’re paying $100 per month before you can think about seeing them – so even though they have a good turnaround from the US – they stick it behind an unreasonable paywall and block sites like iTunes from selling the episodes to boot!
I do it all the time. For the most part, any big shows, I’ll buy on blu-ray when it finally releases.
I guess I don’t see it as bad because I still think of it as we used to record TV shows all the time, then give your friends the tape. Basically someone has recorded the show, then shared it with millions of friends 😛 They aren’t really losing money from commercials, because we can’t watch them on commercial TV. They’ve already made their money, then will make more from disc based sales.
I didn’t pirate anything for a very long time. Then, because I became sick of waiting for DVDs to come out weeks/months after other regions, I bought a Boxee and VPN’d Netflix. One of the catalysts for this was Downton Abbey. Then we found out that the previous and next season weren’t going to be on Netflix due to the publisher signing with Amazon instead.
So… YARRRR.
It’s on iTunes for like $3 you cheap bastards….if there is a Delay of a few days or more and stupid laws/commercial agreements are forbidding you from see whatever you want then go ahead and pirate.
if There is a way to see stuff for only a few dollars only hours after everyone else then just buy it. I think some people are too quick to justify there own crimes.
I’m not installing bloatware to get access to a show, and I have an ethical problem with Apple as a company so I’m not going to install any of their products. If they expanded their digital distribution channels to include other stores (ie. that aren’t Apple) then you might have a point, but as long as it’s an exclusive distribution deal, I’ll get it through other means.
So because you can’t get it EXACTLY the way you want it, you’re not going to pay for it?
Edit: With Game of Thrones, I bought the season pass on itunes before the season began, then downloaded through torrents, simply because that was easy. I’m paying for good content, and getting access to it simply. Somewhat more ‘ethical’ than just stealing it.
you have ethical problems with apple yet you are fine with theft??
@finaldelerium @boogoose
Only the two of you have mentioned stealing, I certainly didn’t. To answer your question, no, I don’t have an ethical problem with paying for media in one format and accessing it in other formats.
An issue with me for iTunes is that i cant play the iTunes file on my XBMC fileserver.
iTunes wont run on it because its a low powered server (XBMC uses my video card for decoding).
I have explored the possibility of downloading it from iTunes then removing the DRM, but that is apparently alot of work.
Would be happy to get it from iTunes (or some other download service) if it would work with every other PC i have. Until then ill support the shows by buying the blurays.
Pay for it on iTunes before you torrent it. You get the version you want, and they get paid on time. Seems fair.
you tried Gaz…..thats all I ask……. so you get an official boogoose right to prate card. Just send me the $4 processing fee and get to thieving.
I don’t do it to save money (I am eagerly awaiting the blu ray boxed set for BB which I will buy), I do it to save time. With two clicks I am streaming and will have the show in 15 minutes. Stream to the telly and I’m watching it in less than half an hour go to whoa. Minimum risk, maximum enjoyment and no-one is getting hurt.
Oh and piracy is not theft. Go and Google it to find out why. I’m not saying it isn’t illegal, but it isn’t theft.
Yup, and they split the final season in half, and then charged separate season passes for both of them.
Apple gave me about $30 to make up for that….I assume I am not the only one.
I’ll admit, TV shows are the one thing left I still pirate. Games I either buy from Ozgameshop or one of the various digital sellers. Movies I just hire from the PS Store. I don’t watch series on FTA here, because they just muck around with it. They’ll trim a bit of the show to put a few more ads in, sneak in an old episode and they’ll stop the show during the non-ratings period. I can’t be bothered with paying for workarounds. Right now, TV show piracy is very simple for me. If the networks would like to charge me an appropriate amount of money for a service that is better than the pirates provide, I’ll be happy to sign up.
Music?
To be perfectly honest, I don’t listen to a lot of music. The radio/internet pretty much sorts me out. The rest of my collection is either ripped from my CD collection, the odd pirated album and a few singles I bought from Bigpond Music. I was stung by DRM a few years back and lost quite a few songs that I legitimately paid for. That was before the big push for DRM-free music.
Walt
dies.I just like using the spoiler function!
I have no interest in pirating TV shows, especially Breaking Bad, as I only just finished the third episode of season 4 last night.
Also, I have so many DVD’s/games I haven’t watched/played yet it’s not funny. Besides I’d rather just buy it on DVD. It’s gonna be hard avoiding spoilers because it probably won’t come out on DVD for about 12 months.
comes out next month and a bit with BB
http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/dvd/dvd-genres/tv/breaking-bad-the-complete-series-blu-ray-limited-edition/691239 ima probably buy it
Damn, that’s awesome. If only I didn’t already have season 1-5. 🙁
Yep. I’ve been holding out for the complete series. I bought seasons 1 and 2 but after that they jacked up the price at the local EZYDVD on them massively. I then figured I’d wait for the complete collection as it’d also be in a nice spiffy container lol.
Cheers for the heads up! Had no idea they’d already announced it. Just pre ordered!
Bullshit. Release windows are 3-4 months if not sooner and BBs final episodes will be on DVD and Blu-ray 27/11/13. You’re all cheap ass pirates. Let’s not mince words…The shows are available on Foxtel or the next day on iTunes. Cable shows from AMC & HBO are considerably more expensive to access in the US compared to here. Foxtel represents awesome value compared to the USA.
The only reason for avoiding the pay method in Australia is a deep seeded sense of entitlement and the because I can mentality. Premium shows like BB, GoT, and the TWD aren’t shown on free to air network’s in America when first broadcast. And it’s extremely rare for a FTA network here to pick up a show as such before subscription TV does. The cost is prohibitive and even then it’s butchered by ads and scheduling conflicts anyway.
This guy knows what’s up!
What a muppet you are. Foxtel is a filthy pos monoply that price gouges in the most heinous manner under the sun and its HD channel isn’t even remotely HD.
Don’t get me started on Itunes either, that shit is more over priced than foxtel. The only time I would ever discourage pirateing is when we Aussies get an equivalent service (and price) of netflix that lets me download as well as stream (because the internet is this country can’t stream to save its life).
But then when that happens i’ll stop buying tv shows on bluray. So Until such a day, they don’t deserve an f’ing cent when they can’t even run a schedule on time, have adds on pay tv services and trim shows so they can add even more adds and decide to stop a season whenever they feel like it because “ratings season”.
How is this fair to the people who makes these shows? Your not hurting Foxtel by pirating, it’s the people who make the shows that lose out.
Its fair because contrary to white knight belief, pirateing shows isn’t stealing. Either Someone pirates it and buys appropriate dvd’s/bluray, they pirate it and buy nothing regardless or they don’t watch it at all. Almost no one would watch the shows they pirate in current conditions (on free to air or foxtell) if they could no longer pirate like people currently do.
What this means is that these content providers are losing nothing from pirating. They don’t get lost sales or ad revenue and in most cases those that pirate and then buy dvds earn more money for the creators than simply watching it on tv would have gained them.
Pirating also sends a message that people WANT these shows, but that they also want them a certain way. This isn’t 1990, the game has changed the these content providers need to change with it or perish.
You sir are an entitled ass!
I fail to see how pirating shows isn’t stealing. You are taking something for free that others are, legally, paying a premium service for. Last I checked that would constitute as stealing..
This kind of piracy comes under copyright infringement, not theft. Theft usually requires that the rightful owner is deprived of the property in question, which isn’t the case with copies. What’s being taken in piracy is the use of an exclusive right of the copyright holder, usually the right to display or perform the work.
The film and music industries like to try to frame copyright infringement as theft, but they’re two completely different crimes.
^ This as zombie put it.
There is no way about it, piracy is not theft.
And at cylon, it has nothing to do with entitlement. It has everything to do with being treated like crap by aussie content providers. All we get is shit tastic reality shows in the prime time slots that go 30 minutes over their alloted time. They trim actual shows in favour of more adds. Foxtel abuses customers with its price gouging, buying up all competition and then as soon as a show get popular moving it into some exclusive BS bundle that no one wants for an extra $30 a month on top of an obscene amount of adds.
Shit, the foxtel owner went so far as to back tony abbot with the sole reason being to squash the NBN (he even admitted it after tony won) because it would have allowed other companies to come in and provide a better service over the fibre than his shitty foxtel was giving consumers.
So no these scumbag companies do not deserve my money in any shape or form.
But you know who does, netflix but again scumbag companies are blocking that too, so my only option is to pirate and then buy the dvd’s. IF people like myself didn’t do this good shows would just be dropped due to a lack of interest. My method does everything well, it allows me to watch content whenever i want, in the quality i want, on the device I want. Shows the creators that their is interest in their show (and supporting them through purchases) while also protesting the shit ass services we get in this country.
It has been proven, that as soon as netflix open up shop in a new region piracy plummets. The only people losing in this equation is the shitty aussie companies trying to keep us in the dark ages before the WWW.
Make television services like Netflix, HBO GO, and Hulu available here and this statistic will change instantly. Why does anyone even act surprised at this statistic when it’s so difficult to watch these shows legally? You either have to spend a stupid amount per month just to catch a single show, get an American friend to let you use their credit card to pay for an American service, wait a year for the DVD to come out, or pirate it. Which do you think seems like the easier option to most people?
You can use an Australian Credit card on Netflix (true story)
Yeah, I had netflix for a while, but I found it was missing stuff I wanted to watch. Like it would have season 2 of a show, but not season 1. Gave it up after a few months and went back to torrents.
True, it doesn’t have everything but given i spend most of entertainment time on video games, it has enough.
It is rather strange. I hate the thought of pirating video games or movies but never really think much of television shows. Maybe it’s because of the assumption that since it’s on free to air TV anyway why would it matter. I will always rather have a physical copy when available though.
Yeah but BB isn’t free to air. Neither is Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, Justified etc. They’re on Cable…
shhh, they don’t need to know we know that.
I remember when the first season of Breaking Bad was on the ABC, no ads, a fairly good timeslot, and a repeat on ABC2 a few days later.
As soon as it became popular – bam its on Pay TV which i neither want or need. There’s one of your piracy issues right there, becoming hooked on a show with no ads for free then having to pay $x a month to continue watching, and on top of it it has ads. Makes you want to sail the seven seas and hoist the jolly roger.
Said here, already: http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/09/australian-tv-networks-havent-learned-a-damn-thing-from-internet-piracy/comment-page-1/#comment-1717540
But I’ll just repeat: This should not be so hard for the networks to grasp.
People have priorities. Convenience. Quality. Reliability. Price. Different people assign different weighting to those aspects. Price might be unbeatable, but you can regain market share by improving the other aspects.
LET’S SEE HOW THEY STACK UP:
Foxtel vs Piracy:
CONVENIENCE: Foxtel gets close with the use of an IQ box allowing minimal button-pushes to queue up recording, but ultimately Piracy wins. Why? Because you can watch on demand instead of waiting extra hours/days/weeks/months and make sure you’re aware of when it’s being programmed. You don’t have to wait for the right week/month/year for that particular episode to be shown, you just look it up. Most broadband connections ensure you’ll have the entire episode of most popular shows within minutes.
QUALITY: Piracy wins. High-def, easily converted to multiple formats for different players, such as tablet for watching on flights or commutes. And even though people pay for Foxtel, it STILL has ads – and sure, you can skip forward through them, but on a pirated copy you don’t even have to do that. Pirated? No ads to either sit through or fast-forward through.
RELIABILITY: Piracy wins. You won’t have to sit through the last ten minutes of whatever stupid fucking reality TV show ran long because apparently something dramatic or important was happening this week, throwing out the times of what you wanted to watch. It’s there when you need it, and only what you need. There are also multiple sources.
PRICE: Piracy wins. Well… duh. You can’t beat free. But damn the gap is huge. SO HUGE. Why are we paying so much? You might not be able to beat free, but we’ve proven through Steam sales that people are willing to pay instead of pirate if the difference isn’t that huge and people think they’re getting something of value for their money.
CONCLUSION:
There is absolutely no excuse for the Australian distributors to be falling behind on convenience or reliability, and the price/quality (ads being a negative to quality when price is free-to-air) gap is so huge that it’s obvious they’re not even trying. Networks are relying on the fact of it being illegal to be a deterrent.
Yeah. A difficult-to-detect/enforce act of contestable illegality, which is cheap, easy, and enormously beneficial to the participant, whose only disadvantage is the questionable morality of depriving income to organizations who provide you with a vastly inferior experience. GEE. I WONDER WHY THAT’S NOT A HUGE BARRIER FOR SO MANY PEOPLE.
Fucking morons are running this show and they deserve the choking death that market and technological Darwinism is inflicting on them.
Foxtel lost me when they upped the costs, and increased ads. I remember when foxtel was affordable and ad free. They blew it themselves.
This is my biggest complaint with FTA, I had a 30 minute lead and an hour of extra recording on my PVR for Arrow. 30 minute Lead was actually starting recording when it said it was meant to start.
“GIve the people what they want, when they want it, in a form they want it in. And they will more likely pay for it.” -Kevin Spacey.
The way we view television and entertainment is changing. Spacey does a really awesome job, summing it up in this vid, (skip to 2.25 for the gold). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ukYf_xvgc
(full version here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oheDqofa5NM)
We need Netflix. Or something as good, as rich in content and as affordable as Netflix. Breaking Bad did not hit its highest ratings numbers until it was made available on Netflix. Major networks seem stubborn, I guess in fear that that altering the way they distribute content will make them tens of millions of dollars a year, rather than hundreds of millions of dollars a year.
But there is a huge market for it here in Australia, where we pirate harder than Jack Sparrow because it is sometimes difficult for many people to access quality television and in a timely fashion. I think it also proves that Australians have greater taste than the major networks give them credit for. How many Voice, Idol, talent quest, cooking show, bake off, jerk-off, reality programs are jammed down our throats during Prime Time on a daily basis?!
Networks and distributors, give the people what they want.
I swear I saw this article on this site before
You know, I’m actually kinda proud of the country. Beating the US on piracy toe-to-toe before factoring in per-capita? That’s impressive. Do the maths to a per-capita rate, and it shows us to be either fiscally/technologically savvy or engaging in a form of informal social protest, or both.
Kinda makes me wish I’d joined in, to bump the numbers up. (Yeah, I haven’t been watching Breaking Bad. Sorry.)
I pirate most shows then buy them on blu-ray/dvd 99% of the time. It doesn’t make it right but it helps me sleep at night.
I’d guess:
1) Time difference. We can download it at least 6 or so hours before the air shows (if it’s fast tracked). That way you can have it nice and prepared to watch at your leisure that night, rather then waiting for air time and suffering through ads. If you were in the U.S, it’d be easier to plonk down in front of the tv at air time.
2) Huge delays in shows are more then enough reason alone to encourage pirating. Although TV has caught on and have started fast tracking shows, Aussies have gotten used to pirating it now.
3) Foxtel is so expensive.
Solution? Netflix and Netflix-like distribution should become the norm.
I’ll say this again. Have some F@#$* patience and wait till it comes out on DVD or Blu Ray! We all had to wait aaaages before the internet came along, why should it be different now? You can’t use any excuse for pirating as the only reason people do it is because they are either impatient, lazy or cheap.
Considering I downloaded it, and will be buying the DVD on release date… I am none of these things. Who wants a plotline ruined due to the whole internet buzzing with spoilers? You need to take your menstrual cycle somewhere worthwhile and complain about meaningless bullshit there.
Nice reply mate. Because I’m complaining about something, I’m a woman? Bit misogynistic don’t you think?
It’s really not that hard to avoid spoilers and have plotlines ruined. Myself and many others have been doing it for years. How? you may ask.. Don’t read up about something if you don’t want it spoiled.
Patience is all well and good, but that’s not the problem here.
Imagine your 5th in line waiting for Ice Cream. The next person who walks in doesn’t fall into place behind you he just pushes in front of you. Let’s say every body who walks in pushes in front of you. Not only that but when you finally get to buy your Ice Cream it’s more expensive than everyone else’s for no reason and you don’t get sprinkles, or chocolate chips. They aren’t out of them you just can’t have them.
Your not going to stand for that scenario are you?
Well it’s the Networks and Foxtel pushing in and making you go to the back of the line and expecting you to pay more. That’s why people sidestep them.
There’s that sense of entitlement most people seem to have these days showing it’s ugly head again.
If the networks and Foxtel didn’t “push in” and air the shows, then you would be left with no legal choice other than to wait for it’s release on DVD or go through Itunes. People’s jobs are at stake when it comes to this kind of thing. Your Ice Cream analogy has absolutely no connection to this discussion about piracy. And if someone pushes in front of me, I do what most people would, tell them to get to the back of the line.
But there is a perfectly effective tool we’re being denied the use of.
Hulu and Netflix are far cheaper than Foxtel yet without using a work around we can’t use them.
I don’t think it is entitlement to want the same deal as the other guy. I would be happy to pay in American Dollars if it was the same price as they got. It would still be far cheaper than what we get.
But those services don’t exist here yet so tough cookies. It’s not Foxtel’s or Itunes fault that those services aren’t available here.
Geoblocking is IMO an ultimately unfair practice.
I can use those services, but they look at my location and say no you can’t. Yet if I get a little bit smart and use a funny accent (US based Proxy server) they let me without an issue. If a friend in the US gifts me a game on Steam I can pay him via Paypal a fraction of the price Steam charges me.
iTunes is actually giving you access to these TV shows instantly at what I feel is a reasonable price ($2-3 an episode or about $30 a season) the only time they don’t do this is when Foxtel actively attempts to stop it.
You and I are never going to agree on this it seems, I feel a fair deal for all is the best solution to the piracy problem, you think that the consumer shouldn’t complain about getting shafted and just bend over and take it.
Yeah we definitely aren’t going to agree. I just think people shouldn’t try to justify their piracy because “other people have it so I should too!” Pretty weak excuse when all you need is a bit of patience and the cash to throw down upon it’s release in this country. With the exception of a couple of shows like Game of Thrones, they see a pretty quick turn around in this country for when it’s released on DVD.
So we can avoid the Foxtel price gouge, by paying the DVD price gouge 5 months after it’s been released everywhere else?
Brilliant, sign me up.
You know I was never advocating the use of piracy, I was complaining we’re getting screwed because options we are capable of using such as Hulu and Netflix are blocked on us.
Steal is wrong, Piracy is theft. On this I think we do agree.
That’s all well and good if you live in a shoebox with no outside connectivity/discussion on the shows you watch. It only takes one friend to download and view the show to get ALL his/her friends interested in viewing it if they actively discuss the shows they watch. It’s not a sense of entitlement its just the way social connections have evolved. This problem didnt exist 20 years ago.
You’re acting like digital media doesn’t exist – there is no reason why the moment content is aired in the states it can’t be available on a netflix like subscription instantly the world over. It’s just a restriction media corps have in place because they are using outdated business models/contracts – ones that are based on dealing primarily with TV networks and physical media.
Just because some people in your social circle are viewing something and talking about it is a weak excuse to justify your pirating of said show. That’s a sense of entitlement, nothing more.
Back when I was in school there were kids who had cable be it either Optus or Foxtel and they had access to shows others didn’t. You would just have to wait for it to become available on free to air or on VHS and deal with it. Just because the internet came along and gave people the option to pirate these shows, doesn’t mean you have the right to do so, nor is there any reason you can justify it with.
Heh we did just go over and watch it we’d all chip in for pay per views to watch boxing or wrestling (i know right wrestling ffs), heck we still do that (mostly go to the pub tho heh).
It’s options – rather the lack of options you had back then. It’s all well and good to say that 15 – 20 years ago this didn’t happen and we just put up with it. That is great. If you had the option to back then do you think people would have? I think it’s pretty naive to think that just because we didn’t have those options back then that most people wouldn’t have jumped at the opportunity to be able to consume the content earlier given the chance – even if it was illegal.
I looked extensively for a full 30 minutes for a legal way for me to purchase and download this, and this was 1 hr after it aired in US. Started a torrent because there was NO legal way for me to download it for at least half a day, and then its a shitty format from iTunes.
Hopefully Netflix gets the hints and releases Netflix Au…
if the us tv companies had any brains they would start a company here in australia and offer paytv and iptv services with direct access no waiting for shows e.g. click a show and start watching. providing it had aired at least 1 hour before in the us (to help prevent us based users whining that we got access first due to time differences)
The current free to air model is badly broken.
Too many repeats and poorly chosen time slots.
I like to think that I’m an ‘ethical pirate. Nine times out of ten, I’ll buy the disks when they are available. For the others, I’ll know pretty quickly if I like the show to bother even watching it.
Sorry guys, this is my fault.
I had three torrents going on because the first two weren’t going fast enough.
Then the first one finished first anyway.
Oh man can we please stop using the word ‘entitlement’ please.
Everyone can have their own opinion on this issue and that’s okay but this “entitlement” bullcrap just has to stop.
It’s funny because it looks like you are saying that the bullcrap that just has to stop is people using the word entitlement and not the pirating of tv shows…
edit*
I’m being a jerk
Well… If there was actually anything decent to watch on free-to-air Australian TV instead of 24/7 reality TV bullshit, I might actually watch it on TV instead of downloading it.
I don’t buy any DVDs or Blurays because of storage space. 4tb hard drive is about the size of two DVD cases. If I bought all those shows on disc it would take up about ten cubic metres. Then the corporations will come up with new formats for you to buy on disc all over again. No thanks.
I do not see how downloading TV Shows is pirating, like I get it that they are released on DVD etc at some point but you are able to record TV Shows as they air and watch them when ever you want no problems, so downloading them is (I consider) sort of the same is it not? (just my point of view :P)
wait so you’re saying America gets to watch it free but we have to pay to watch it on foxtel?
NO SHIT WE DOWNLOAD IT!