Doctor Who goes back in time to beat TV pirates

http://paidcontent.org/2012/08/29/doctor-who-goes-back-in-time-to-beat-tv-pirates/

by iProject • 14 years ago

94 57 14 years ago

killercup• 14 years ago

I would love to see this, but as I live in Germany, I'm pretty sure I'll not be greeted by the episode or even a video player but a "not a available in your country" message.

Anyway, BBC probably already knows they could make a fortune if they offered a season for £9 on iTunes (or something like that) with no delay, so I'm not gonna call them about it.

xqyz• 14 years ago

Same here (also Germany). Worse yet, even if a german broadcaster was offering it, chances are you would only be able to get it dubbed in Germany without the option to switch to the original language.

dazzawazza2• 14 years ago

It's good to see both the BBC and ABC being level headed about this.

Serving your paying customers and enticing pirates towards being paying customers is how ALL rights holders should behave.

It's been all stick and no carrot for so long.

kierank• 14 years ago

ABC wouldn't be able to do this if they were not a public broadcaster. Advertisers would be furious.

chris_wot• 14 years ago

This is why I'm glad of the ABC. Advertisers can go to hell!

dazzawazza2• 14 years ago

Couldn't they just ran the adverts in the stream?

Both ITV 1/2/3/4 (UK advert supported channels) and Channel 4 (public remit but supported by adverts) advertise before, during and after the stream. I don't know if they are regulated but the frequency and length of adverts it seem about the same as the broadcast.

betterth3• 14 years ago

This seems ridiculous... BBC America is airing this seasons opener on the same day as BBC1 in the UK! (http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/doctor-who-to-retu...)

So why do we have convoluted workarounds in Australia if another ex-colony gets it fine?

mooism22• 14 years ago

Time zones.

BBC America can show it on the same day as BBC1, and it's a few hours later.

If ABC was to show it on the same day as BBC1, it would be several hours earlier. This might merely be embarrassing for the BBC, or it might cause a political row in the UK. "Why are TV licence fee payers paying for the new series of Doctor Who to be shown in Australia before it's shown in the UK?" "Brits paid for Doctor Who to be made, so Brits should get to see it first" etc.

prydonius• 14 years ago

It doesn't explain why it's shown a week later though. Why don't they just show it the day after?

goatforce52• 14 years ago

Years ago the ABC showed the BBC show Absolutely Fabulous, IIRC, the same day that it was shown in the UK, which allowed enough time for UK papers to get details on the shows and publish spoilers in their newspapers.

The ABC ended up being asked to delay transmission by a week to prevent spoilers getting to the larger UK audience.

danso• 14 years ago

Because you were the colony of criminals ;)

kenj0418• 14 years ago

And we (US) were the colony of religious nuts. Look who has recovered first. :-(

voltagex_• 14 years ago

I hate to be ungrateful but I'd like to see HD versions next time - in a lot of Australian broadcast areas there aren't any HD stations over the air any more.

davidw• 14 years ago

I haven't watched Doctor Who since we left Austria and no longer get BBC via cable. I hadn't seen the new Doctor. Kind of a shock: wow, that guy's young. How is he as The Doctor?

debacle4• 14 years ago

Originally I thought I didn't like him, but in actuality he's a fantastic doctor and a nice deviation from the Tennant/Edelsson mix. I found the writing in the last season of the show to be abysmal, though. Didn't feel like Doctor Who at all.

fredleblanc• 14 years ago

Completely agree with you on Matt Smith. I hated him at first, but I think I just wanted more Tennant. After clearing my head and going back in, he’s now my Doctor.

(Although I disagree with you on last season. It didn't feel like traditional Doctor Who, but I really liked the direction, and although Season 5 was much better end-to-end, Season 6 had some of my favorite episodes.)

mistercow• 14 years ago

>Didn't feel like Doctor Who at all.

I very strongly agree. For example, it's pretty hard to imagine that the Doctor, upon learning of the Tesselactor's modus operandi, would have any reaction other than "stop this atrocity at all costs".

mindcrime2• 14 years ago

I think he's excellent. What's amusing is, before he took over as The Doctor, some pictures of him circulated, where he has this total "sketchy emo kid" look going on. A lot of Doctor Who fans had a "WTF? No way can this guy be The Doctor" reaction. But from pretty much his first episode, he's been great. His rendition of The Doctor reminds me a bit of Patrick Troughton's.

wccrawford• 14 years ago

He's supposed to be a little off. It's a plot thing. He plays the part perfectly.

Though, still, I wish they hadn't gone there. I preferred some of the past doctors. I don't dislike Smith as much as I used to, though. I'm pretty neutral on him now.

rmc• 14 years ago

The Doctor is always a little off.

santigepigon• 14 years ago

This rather funny cartoon sums up the difference between Tennant's Doctor and Smith's: http://hi3ei.deviantart.com/art/Differences-201740537?moodon...

rocky1138• 14 years ago

Brilliant: "The fact that it is happening is indicative that as broadcasters we are not meeting demand for a segment of the population."

debacle4• 14 years ago

If only they were doing this when Doctor Who still had good writing.

unreal37• 14 years ago

Giving people what they want - to combat piracy! An innovative strategy.

dhughes• 14 years ago

Here in Canada the channel called Showcase airs their popular new sci-fi time travel cop show called Continuum soon after it airs.

It takes a while though because Canada is so big, six time zones, only after it airs on the west coast plus a delay while they upload it which pretty much means the next day.

Even with that and the delay to put up it's on thepiratebay.org about half an hour after it airs, a good 12 hours before it's officially put on Showcase's website. But Showcase does IP restrict viewers to Canada only, I don't agree with such regional restrictions.

ajtaylor• 14 years ago

Finally, someone gets it! Some people will always pirate, but I honestly believe a lot of people would rather use legal means (even if they pay a reasonable amount). It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

I can only hope that more TV shows come to Australia this way. The whole "let's broadcast the show in AU after the season already ended in the US" is such a huge pain and most definitely encourages piracy.

RossM2• 14 years ago

The only real reason I have for considering pirating something is that "it isn't available in my country for months after it's aired elsewhere", so this is great news.

Why on earth should I wait months before I can see it? I'm sure there's a reason advertisers do this but I don't see it.

paulhauggis• 14 years ago

I want a lot of things, but sometimes I just have to wait. I feel like piracy has spawned an entire generation that feels the same way you do: entitled.

I sell books as a side-business and I see it with college students especially. They demand things to be exactly their way or they threaten to complain or send me nasty emails.

eightbitman• 14 years ago

"Piracy is wrong" morally sure, but economically I don't know. It's a complicated question, and without actual numbers the arguments for or against are totally meaningless.

Falling3• 14 years ago

I'm still waiting to be convinced on morally wrong.

Alex3917• 14 years ago

"Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their intellectual property."

What a bunch of complete hypocrites. The only reason the show still exists is because of piracy, because the idiots at the BBC managed to most of the old episodes. So without pirates supplying the BBC and the general public with their copies of the old episodes, the show literally couldn't exist today.

pharrington• 14 years ago

Only most of the first and second doctors' runs were lost. Alot of the missing episodes that were recovered came from overseas broadcasters. The BBC always had the complete runs of the other five doctors - over 22 years of television.

j_baker• 14 years ago

Now if only that would happen here in the US. I simply don't understand why I should have to pay to get something the next day when I could get it for free minutes after it airs.

Apocryphon• 14 years ago

So, the Max Headroom hacker will be the villain?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Headroom_broadcast_signal_i...

89a• 14 years ago

> Piracy is wrong, as you are denying someone their rights and income for their intellectual property

Already paid for it with my licence fee. I'll do what I want.

Doctor Who goes back in time to beat TV pirates

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