iP3K

It pretty much started with iTunes making TV episodes available for download the next day after the TV broadcast. It was offered as a paid program $1.99 each. Then came Google Video adding paid programming to it’s vast selection of videos… let’s not forget about AOL and showing old TV shows with advertisement. In the recent weeks we had ABC and Disney promoting new TV shows to be broadcasted over the Internet. Those shows would include un-skippable ads and would be available just a few hours after the original broadcast.

Now there I see a huge problem. Currently, after a showed is presented on TV, just a few hours need to pass by before it’s available on Torrent networks where files are shared securely, rapidly and the shows are free of any advertisement. This has been going on for months, and you can literally get a DVD quality copy of a TV show you like. Now what’s the process behind that? What people really want is flexibility, they want to watch a show whenever and where ever they want to. We’re in a digital era, why should I be in front of my TV, in the living room at 8PM every Monday on FOX? Of course if it a great show you’ll be watching it anyway because you can’t wait. But what about watching it back?
VCR are a gold mine! You record the show, rewind the tape and play (you can even fast play the advertisement)… Now that’s an other extreme, we don’t want to rollback to an obsolete format, technically expensive if you are planning to keep all the tapes. Then again you’d have DVD recorders that cast aside some inconveniences of VHS but still it involves having one, recording the show, skipping manually the ads and stuff (I think auto-skip exists). What about simpler? Someone somewhere identifiable by a few letters only (EZTV, LOL) or sometimes a website address that stands as signature is doing all the work that needs to be done. Being the key strength of both piracy and digital media is that once someone worked out something the entire Internet can benefit from it.

Now that everything practical is out of the way, why would it be the end of TV torrents?

1. The broadcast could be made available as soon as the show ends, meaning those without TVs or in countries that don’t have that particular channel can go and view the show right away. No more waiting for someone to encode in high definition, nor wait the required time before the torrent is really fast.
2. During live broadcast there is advertisement, you can’t skip it while it’s live. So it would be like watching a re-run on that same channel.
3. Freeloaders will enjoy streaming/downloading DRMed TV shows at high speeds
4. Anyone who believes he should respect copyright of these shows will be happy to watch an ad enabled one that gives him most of the advantages wanted while stay legit

Now I believe the TV broadcaster are reacting much faster than the music industry took to react against music sharing. I also believe they are a lot smarted than Hollywood studios that sell copies of their movies on a pretty hefty price. What I dare predict is that there will be a decrease in traffic for TV related torrents, but that also depends on how invasive the ads will be. I believe TV viewers like the fact that it’s free, they’re already paying for their Cable. Now the same is transposed to the Internet. I pay my broadband Internet access and I can finally enjoy shows from around the world. I will not attack anyone by saying we’re greedy when we use torrents. But come to think of it advertisement is the only thing that people find to make money, in order to make some stuff free.

I doubt it’ll be the end of BitTorrent TV downloads, music and movies for that matter as well. The problem is innovation. Studios are so concerned on profit they miss the hole point of technology, making life easier. And advertisement, will always have it’s opponent; ad blockers & pop-up blockers. Seriously, FOX being added to the list of “Internet Friendly” broadcaster will mark a similar thread that iTunes started, getting back part of the revenues they lost to new Internet technology. Let’s just hope they don’t expect to get everything back.