Illegal TV downloads as popular as they are only because the media refuses to deliver
Last night’s penultimate episode of Doctor Who series four didn’t let up on the excitement from the opening teaser to the last second. It was incredible, and how fans outside the UK can avoid spoilers before getting the chance to watch an official broadcast on their own local channels, I’ve no idea—but trust me, if you’re one of them, you should try. It has to be said, though, that fantastic cliffhangers don’t exactly discourage illegal downloads of shows via the likes of BitTorrent, do they? Not when populations are otherwise expected to wait a year or more to see all the fuss for themselves.
These days it’s perfectly possible for shows to go out simultaneously across all international markets. It happens more or less, with maybe just a few days between broadcasts, with the reimagined Battlestar Galactica–but the fact that American and Canadian viewers are really only now getting to grips with official series three transmissions of the new Doctor Who goes to show that the BBC and its associates aren’t really on the ball. The accessibility of the Internet, and explosion of file sharing in recent years, has copyright holders in the music and video industries seriously and somewhat understandably upset about piracy, but if only they’d catch up with what the technology offers instead of trying to stop it, they’d be doing right for a change.
The Beeb’s own UK-only iPlayer service doesn’t work properly half the time, promising to let UK viewers catch up on shows within seven days of their original transmissions but more often than not being down, or choppy, or with the wrong episodes uploaded. The corporation could, perhaps, get iPlayer working more reliably and then offer a subscription model of the same to the rest of the world.
But then, there’s big money to be made from deals between channels and production studios. I suspect, though, that if the BBC had a paid-for Internet channel, it would get millions of individuals signing up to use it if the offer was there to see shows at the same time as we Brits do. BBC America would suffer, and revenue from tie-ins with the likes of the Sci-Fi Channel would disappear. What wouldn’t vanish would be income from shows sold for permanent download via iTunes, although BBC Worldwide’s current approach to what can and can’t be bought that way is curiously inconsistent: yes to Torchwood, for example—though not in HD—and no to Doctor Who, which still isn’t recorded in high-definition (a bizarre anomaly in itself given that it’s the most popular show the BBC has ever made, and brings in the most money).
It’s no wonder piracy is so popular when the media companies either seek to rip people off or provide just a little bit of this, a little bit of that, on their own timetables and to their own grand designs, all of which run counter to what the public actually wants. Apple offers no HD downloads at all via iTunes—other than short-term 24-hr (US) and 48-hr (UK) rentals—but that isn’t Apple’s fault, it’s a requirement of production houses, film and TV companies who don’t want us buying HD programming online. What’s more, the price difference between purchasing a physical DVD and an electronic download of anything isn’t much at all, a few pounds maybe, even though we forsake packaging and use up less resources in downloading.
The reason for the unavailability of HD downloads to keep, coupled with extortionately priced downloads of standard definition material, is to encourage the adoption of Blu-Ray players and discs, in which most every big media company has invested a lot of money, and which together provide the only route to legal and permanent ownership of HD material.
Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, has already predicted that Blu-Ray came too late to the game with downloads being the future. He’s probably right. Were HD downloads made official, few people would be tempted to buy into the new round of hardware, which is frankly very expensive and has different abilities depending on which player you buy, so the adoption of Blu-Ray is staggeringly slow compared to how quickly DVD took off. And never mind the players, Blu-Ray discs are twice the price of standard DVDs. So we have confusing high-price technology and inflated prices with worldwide recession under way, versus the held-back possibility of cheap and convenient HD downloads. Only held back, that is, for those not wishing to break the law, which is, of course, a very good reason not to download illegal material given the penchant of media companies for bankrupting even children through the courts with fines that end up being more than most people earn in one lifetime.
Those of us who want to see official and legal sanction for the deployment of technology which is available right now, and has been for some time, are constantly frustrated and disappointed. Many abandon all hope of the media companies getting real and instead they turn to illegal downloads of HD programming, which also isn’t tied when it comes to playback to specific set-top boxes or, worse, only TVs and computers that have special connectors known as HDMI.
You can have a Windows PC with a Blu-Ray player built-in, but if your monitor hasn’t got a HDMI interface, Vista will downgrade the video quality of any discs you’ve bought. You’re effectively punished for not buying into every piece of hardware required by an unholy alliance of corporate concerns for the HDTV experience. But the requirement is false—if your monitor is capable of displaying the relevant number of pixels, that should be good enough. But all the bigwigs are in cahoots, and the tantrums we see over piracy are really about the public not doing what it’s told, not blindly junking perfectly good equipment to buy a whole new set of gizmos, or accepting of artificially high prices. Stoopid.
And those of us running Apple Mac computers don’t even have Blu-Ray players built into them, although the screen quality of an iMac like my own is more than capable of showing HD programming. It doesn’t, of course, have one of those notoriously flaky HDMI slots in the back, either.
Big business wants us to go in one direction, because that’s where the money is perceived to be, and the new hardware for Blu-Ray has been invested with billions on the promise of a ten-fold plus return that may never happen. Of course they’re upset. But were they to adopt a new model, whereby deals between TV channels in different countries involved more-or-less simultaneous original broadcasts, followed by SD and HD downloads made available to buy within days at reasonable prices, things would be a lot simpler for the public. Blu-Ray would die a death, no bad thing in a world with dwindling resources, and they just don’t want that to happen. Piracy would be far less attractive, which they do want to see happen, but rather than achieving this aim through fairness and common sense in how their material is distributed, they’d rather punish illegal uploaders and downloaders for providing us with the inevitable future, today.
The only lasting way to address online piracy is by asking, why do people download material that isn’t officially sanctioned? The answer to that question is because the media companies don’t give them what they want, when they want it, even though the Internet makes it possible to do so. I’d like to think most people wouldn’t engage in activities deemed criminal if official, legal, and fairly-priced alternatives were made available. The BBC’s iPlayer is a wobbly start, as are similar mechanisms run online by TV stations around the world, but none of these go far enough, or are as radical and innovative as they should be.
Until the media companies wake up to the death of traditional revenue models, and fully embrace the new ones, they will continue to wage their ridiculously unjust war against anyone seeking to bypass their reticence and greed. The transition from the 20th to the 21st Century is obviously very painful for them. But it will happen, one way or another.
tags: Apple TV, BBC, Blu-Ray, cult tv, Doctor Who, DVD, HD, illegal downloads, iPlayer, iTunes, media, piracy, TV
4 comments on “Illegal TV downloads as popular as they are only because the media refuses to deliver”
June 30th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Right now, Canada is threatening to enact legislation that has been written by a joint group from the RIAA and MPAA… and it would make piracy a rather expensive thing to do… actually, it would make moving songs onto an MP3 player an expensive thing to do…
That said, the “statement” I’d make to the television industry is this…
If I can legally download a show with commercials OR illegally download it without, I’ll watch the commercials to keep my conscious clean… and couldn’t you then (oh, I dunno…) sell extra ads for the downloads for more profit?
Y’know, either that or keep up the attack and lawsuits…
…whichever.
What kills me is the whole, “THESE DOWNLOADS AND WHATNOT ARE KILLING US!!!!1~1!!” rubbish from the industry…
Question: Who made us switch to “digital everything” for “improved quality” on our media???
Now, granted, DVDs are way better than tapes, but still, it didn’t occur to someone… “Hmm… if we release this music/videos in digital form, will it make duplicating it an easier process?”
…or did they say, “DAMN THE TORPEDOES, I WANT THAT DOUBLE-DIP MONEY! OWN THE ANALOGUE? BUY THE DIGITAL!”
…and now, with the legislation attempting to be banged through in Canada, buy the analogue, buy the digital, buy the copy for EACH portable device.
…now, after saying all that, I wonder why illegal downloading is so prevalent?
June 30th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Well said! I agree on the legal with ads versus illegal without ads front… Because you can then, assuming the downloads are priced cheaply, go on to invest in hard copies if you really want to. My Doctor Who consumption proves that we like flexibility: I watch it when broadcast, sometimes I watch it on iPlayer because our Sky HD box hiccuped on the night it went out, and I always buy the box-set of the season once a year. I doubt I’d buy individual episodes via iTunes, but that might change if they offered digital-only extras that appealed to fans. x
June 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
Doctor Who was amazing. Dammit, I want to talk to someone about my theories, but at the same time I don’t want to spoil it for others ><
I totally agree with you btw. Sometimes the way things are distributed mean people have to consider breaking the law to get their favourite shows, even music. For example, Scott and I have become fans of a group called InnerPartSystem, and when visiting their MySpace they were advertising a downloadable EP. Great, I thought, I’ll grab that! Only to find its only available to the US. I mean InnerPartySystem are currently playing in the UK, but we can’t legally download the EP. Where is the fairness in that? It happened last year when a Rise Against EP was only available in the US on iTunes, but luckily they did get round to allowing the UK to get it too, and with a bonus track to make up for the wait, but up til then the only way to hear the songs hyped on official sites was to illegally download it, which I don’t want to do to a band I like and want to support.
A bit off topic, but there is another piracy vs offical problem for me. Namely the Anime I like. Take for example Naruto. For quite a while it wasn’t licensed in the UK or US, and as with other japanese anime and movies that are popular but havent been distributed in the west yet, people “FanSubbed” it. Basically after the latest episode was shown, someone would upload it and then translate it to english and subtitle. No money is made, its all done for free, and after a show is picked up in the west (IF it is), most people buy the offical version. The problem with Naruto and a few others is this. In its original form its a mature program, quite violent and bloody in places. And it was picked up by a kids company. Its currently shown on Nickleodeon, and whilst its enjoyable, its cut to hell, quite noticably if you have seen the original japanese version. Luckily the distributor HAS released an uncut version, so thats ok, thought I will admit that bad voice casting and differences in dialogue between the subbed and dubbed versions of some anime means I prefer watching subbed version if possible. But another anime brought over by ForKids, a show called One Piece (very funny by the way, and about pirates!), hasn’t been so lucky. All guns in the show have been edited to look like freaking waterpistols, and thats just the begining. The One Piece shown in the UK and the US is a washed out, kiddified version of the original, so if you want to see it in all its glory you HAVE to get the pirated version. Where is the sense in that? Do ForKids not realise that they could easily get extra income from having two versions available, one for the kids people assume all anime is aimed at, and one for the grown ups who actually know anime in japan is for everyone. I guess not.
Gosh, I will get off my soap box now
July 1st, 2008 at 2:46 am
Well it’s what the Beeb did with Torchwood this year–two versions, one for adults, uncut, and the other for kids, cut. But I can only wonder what they’ll do about releasing on DVD… Two versions maybe? But then, one annoyance I have is that way too often HD versions of stuff on Blu-Ray come out much later than the DVDs. Not all films and shows, but a lot. I don’t have a Blu Ray player but it’s the slow drip-release approach to make the most money–hoping people will buy one copy, then another–that really puts me off buying into more hardware, new discs. x
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