Slow Australian TV stations feel the wrath of Bittorrent

DamnedIfIknow used our news submit to tell us that a study conducted by Alex Malik a former general counsel for the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) that BitTorrent is being fuelled by television networks. He points out that television stations in Australia are extremely slow at airing episodes of popular TV shows and people are now sick of this and are looking elsewhere to get the latest episodes. This has led many people to rely on the P2P BitTorrent service to gain the latest shows that Australian TV hasn't shown yet. Malik said that if TV companies were to start a service similar to Apple iTunes but for TV shows they could generate revenue in the same way Apple does.

Malik pointed out that if Australian television didn't get its act together the internet could replace them as it's unregulated, open to anyone that has an internet connection and has free delivery system. He went on to say that if Australian TV stations continue with delays and slow showing of programs the TV industry in Australia will be doomed to make the mistakes that afflicted the music industry.

ARIA LOGO According to an independent study conducted by Alex Malik, a former general counsel for the Australian Recording Industry Association, the popularity of one P2P application -- BitTorrent -- in Australia is driven in part by local television networks which "have adopted a strategy of being slow to air current episodes of popular TV shows".Malik believes that by delaying the broadcast of these programmes, Australian TV programmers have increased the domestic demand for the shows."As a result, impatient viewers have increasingly turned to BitTorrent to download their favourite shows," he said."If TV companies were to offer episodes for download at a small cost at the same time as they air offline they could generate revenue in the same way that Apple's iTunes does.

However, they must be aware of the dangers of losing their core audience to a delivery method that is free, unregulated and open to anyone with an internet connection," Coppin said.Malik said unless the TV networks devote immediate attention to the problem of unnecessary delays, "the television industry is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the music industry".

I guess the Australian TV stations are falling behind in what viewers want. 

Source: zdnet.com.au

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