Top Downloads October 05 – October 12
| Ranking | (last week) | TV show |
| 1 | (1) | Heroes |
| 2 | (2) | Prison Break |
| 3 | (new) | Dexter |
| 4 | (4) | Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles |
| 5 | (back) | Grey’s Anatomy |
| 6 | (back) | Smallville |
| 7 | (5) | Desperate Housewives |
| 8 | (back) | Stargate Atlantis |
| 9 | (8) | Supernatural |
| 10 | (new) | Family Guy |
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via TorrentFreak, read the rest here.
October 14th, 2008 at 10:49 am
Last week’s Family Guy was the funniest I’ve seen in awhile
October 14th, 2008 at 10:55 am
See this is why Fox should keep TSCC and PB around for a few more seasons. It is not getting a decent break
October 14th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Um, Anthony, FOX should keep them around so people can steal them?
October 14th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Julia, the majority of these people are from outside the US. Bittorrent is simply supplying the demand that the networks refuse to. The US folks don’t need Bittorrent, they can watch legally on either hulu or ‘Fox on Demand’. And they do, even the VP of programming at Fox said recently that TSCC and PB are strong in online viewing.
What these numbers show, and it’s what Anthony probably wanted to say, is that there is huge interest in these shows, which is contrary to what the Nielsen system says.
Oh and one final remark: no matter how many times certain people say “stealing”, it won’t make it true. Copyright infringement is not stealing.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Gusar, you’re preaching to the choir here, but the fact remains that torrents do not make FOX any money, so these numbers mean absolutely nothing to them.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Julia, Bittorrent doesn’t, but Fox on Demand does. Not nearly as much as live broadcasts, but it’s money just as well. And if they opened FoD internationally (yeah, wishful thinking, I know), a lot of those Bittorrent downloaders would opt to watch legally to show support, which would mean even more money.
The thing is, Fox did a good first step, all Terminator related videos except the full episodes themselves are available internationally now. And as I said above, they do look at web viewing numbers (the legal ones). But whether that will factor in in any renewal decisions… well, as a Terminator fan, I hope it does.
October 14th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Gusar, this is a post about most pirated shows, which prompted a response from Anthony that TSCC and PB’s placements on this list show that FOX should keep them. These numbers specifically mean nothing to FOX. Absolutely nothing. These numbers have nothing to do with On Demand or legal web viewing.
October 14th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Gusar..do you have a link to where the VP said this?
October 14th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
Julia: My point is there is still an audience out there for it.
October 15th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Anthony: http://www.tvweek.com/news/2008/10/lackluster_start_to_season.php
A quote: “The shows are also heavily watched using digital video recorders and on the Web, which makes it difficult to know what their real audience is, Mr. Beckman said.”
October 15th, 2008 at 4:19 am
Thanks Gusar. Certainly seems as if they dont want to lose PB.
October 15th, 2008 at 6:00 am
Anthony, what good is an audience that makes no money for the network?
October 15th, 2008 at 11:13 am
PB does make money. Fox on Demand. Hulu etc
October 15th, 2008 at 11:21 am
Yes, when someone watches on Hulu, Fox on Demand, or any other legal venue, Fox makes money on it. But this post isn’t about LEGAL viewing, it’s about ILLEGAL viewing. Fox makes no money on Bittorrent viewing, so the only decision they are going to make based on this info is whether to and how to prosecute the people who use illegal methods to distribute and/or obtain their shows.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Holly, and therein lies the problem. Instead of “prosecuting” these people, which is impossible anyway and only drives more people to piracy (read up on Spore as an example), they should be thinking “Hmm, there’s a huge market here we can tap into.” And it’s very simple really, open ‘Fox on Demand’ to other countries.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Gusar, sorry man, but BAH!
Fox and all networks license shows themselves to other countries. With those rights currently (in almost every case) are the digital rights. So if Fox sells “House” to a company in Germany, Fox doesn’t have the right to “stream” House to German Internet users.
It’s on the foreign rights holders to figure out the digital strategies locally. Fox isn’t best positioned to sell advertising in those countries either anyway, so it makes far more sense for the networks to do it the way they are doing it. That’s not to say the model will not change, but at least in terms of $$$, I’d say Fox makes the “untapped” money by selling the rights to its shows.
At some point if the networks think they can make more money by keeping the digital rights and getting into selling digital advertisements internationally than they can by licensing the rights it may change. I don’t see it on the horizon though.
October 15th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Robert, you’re not saying much I don’t know already. Saying “open up FoD” is easy, but I realize that actually doing so is anything but.
I was just countering Holly’s proposition of “prosecuting” people. If they want to cut down piracy, they’ll have to come up with something. But that something is certainly not “prosecuting”, it’s figuring out how to get shows to the entire world at the same time and making money with it.