Mindjack - Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV

Mindjack - Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV

That has certainly been the case with Battlestar Galactica. The British aficionados of the series provided torrents for each episode within a few hours of each broadcast. Many fans in the US picked them up and watched them; so did many people in Australia.
While you might assume the SciFi Channel saw a significant drop-off in viewership as a result of this piracy, it appears to have had the reverse effect: the series is so good that the few tens of thousands of people who watched downloaded versions told their friends to tune in on January 14th, and see for themselves. From its premiere, Battlestar Galactica has been the most popular program ever to air on the SciFi Channel, and its audiences have only grown throughout the first series. Piracy made it possible for "word-of-mouth" to spread about Battlestar Galactica.

Pretty interesting article. Has some intriguing ideas for ad space and revenue generation using "hyperdistribution" (that's torrents for us in the know). I keep wondering what's going to happen when we all have fiber to the house. Bandwith problems go bye-bye and allow all sorts of crazy shit. Videophones? Laughably easy. Video on demand? No, not that crap that cable companies are doing. I'm talking about everything on demand. Fuck channel surfing. How about you sit down to watch TV and a list of all your favorite shows that have new episodes out pop up? "There is a new Southpark available. Would you like to watch it now?" What's that you say? Bandwidth might not be a problem but what about storage? How about slapping a bit torrent client on all of the DVR's? Integration stuff is pretty cool as well. While on a video call you can send your buddy that show you saw on chicken sodomy (what?, just an example). Bah, I'm bored. Maybe I'll rant more later.