Delays to TV-show arrivals drive Oz viewers to piracy

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We've long been of the view that the owners to the rights of TV programmes, movies and music are their own worst enemies and by acts of unadulterated stupidity almost force people into piracy, whether through greedy pricing or maddening distribution policies.

So we were very interested to read an article by Alex Malik on The Register headed TV show delays drive Oz viewers to distraction and sub-titled, Taking matters into their own hands.

Alex details how Australian TV viewers are increasingly turning to illegal downloads to see their favourite TV programmes when they want to see them - rather than wait months or years for Aussie broadcasters to put them out.

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More.

This is going to be a more occurring theme now more and more people are getting faster lines installed and more people turn to broadband.

Why is it for example the US has series of shows 6 months before the UK?

Surely in this day and age they should all run at the same time to stop this kind of thing happening? For example, the UK at the moment are on episode 2/3 of Heroes, yet you can find all 16 episodes ( broadcast so far overseas... ) floating about on the internet without looking too hard.

If the studios want to combat this they need to release the shows globally at the same time, or offer them for digital download at a reasonable price.

If the UK shows were within 2 weeks of US shows, I might consider waiting. Anything else - they can **** it.

In this digital age, its not impossible to show it on the same day everywhere.

They are their own worse enemy. They make a show which captures an audience, something they should consider themselfs lucky for as anyone in the entertainment/arts biz will tell you, and then they shoot themselfs in the foot by not making it as widely available as they possibly can.

I watched the first 2 episodes of lost on channel 4 when it started except I missed the last 20 minutes of episode two. I trotted off to a torrent website so I could catch up, and low and behold all of season one is there. Now with a show thats the equivalent of a page turning book what do they think I'm going to do?

To all the tv show producers out there. Stop delaying the broadcast of shows in other countries and stop being greedy selling exclusive rights to subscription services. Be thankful you have an audience and let them enjoy your media without resorting to piracy.