UK Users are Top TV Download Pirates ..

NativeTongue · (#1 (**permalink**))

New twist in internet piracy as Britons rush to download TV

By Ciar Byrne, Media Correspondent

19 February 2005

Impatient fans of popular American television shows from 24 to Desperate Housewives are increasingly turning to illegal internet downloads to watch programmes hours after they have been broadcast in the US.

Britain is the worst offender in this explosion of online television piracy that has seen illegal downloads of some programmes increase by more than 150 per cent in the past year, research shows.

24, the hit thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland, is the most popular pirate television programme worldwide. In the past 12 months, illegal downloads of the show have risen from 35,000 per episode for the third series to 95,000 for the fourth.

Downloads of Desperate Housewives, showing on Channel 4, rose from 40,000 for the first episode to more than 60,000 for the most recent, although this is a tiny fraction of the four million viewers who regularly tune in. About 18 per cent of online television piracy is in Britain, closely followed by Australia - countries with a growing demand for early access to American television shows.

The rise in broadband internet access is the main driver of the piracy, allowing a programme to be downloaded in two hours. The UK had more than six million broadband connections at the end of 2004, Ofcom said.

Another factor is the new file-sharing technology known as BitTorrent, specifically designed to download films and television programmes.

The cost to the television industry is difficult to quantify because most people pay a general subscription fee rather than for individual programmes. But advertising revenues are at particular risk because illegal downloads do not include adverts.

http://news.independent.co.uk/media/story.jsp?story=612523

Peacemaker · (#2 (**permalink**))

PIRATES UNITE. Arrg Arggg.

Guess whyI download programs like 24 and other great US shows like Dead Like Me? Because they contain no adverts. Guess why I got rid of Sky TV, because they're too many blood Ads. Every 10 or 15 minutes. You can't watch anything like that and really enjoy it.

Also UK TV is dumbed downboring shit for the most part, so I'm not surprised this country is the number pirate.

I'd imagine most pirates are men. Why the **** are they downloading Desperate housewifes? Jesus.

NativeTongue · (#3 (**permalink**))

have to agree with you peacemaker and the tv companies are going to make the same mistakes that the riaa did by trying to sue the downloaders or blocking them.they need to basically totally rethink the way they deliver hteir product before its too late.

i doubt they will do.