How Battlestar Galactica Killed TV: “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.” This is absurd I can’t believe the shutdown these sites before actually reading the reports on ratings. This serves as an example of how the internet and specially “Bittorrent” has changed the way we watch TV. Form articles calling it “The Poor’s man TiVo” to people who just wanted to watch the show later. No it does not hurt Ratings, it does not hurt advertisers in fact as we have seen with Sci-Fi Channel it increases the range of audience and creates desires for shows on TV. This are the sites down and this is the post-script of “Piracy is good” A very good piece to read.
If the show has already been showed and you won’t be able to see it again, is it such a sin to download the episode of “Desperate Housewives” you missed. If you don’t have TiVo in your area, is it “ethically illegal” to downloaded and watch it on your “Media Center” later. And if you are seeing such a decrease in ratings (which I doubt), why don’t you step it up and move forward Broadband TV or why don’t you offer an iTunes for TV. Downloadable episodes with ads, maybe less Hi-Def but there is a long list of options to study before shutting down sites and people who in fact by “word-of-mouth” are bringing new viewers to their TV’s.
Abe Diaz 