Not surprisingly, the repercussions - particularly the rapidly growing number of shows available for the plucking online - terrify industry executives, who remember only too well what Napster and other file-sharing programs did to the music industry. They fret that if unchecked, rampant trading of files will threaten the riches of the relatively new and surprisingly lucrative television DVD business. It could endanger sales of television shows to international markets and into syndication. And it could further endanger what for the past 50 years has been television's economic linchpin: the 30-second commercial.

Hollywood has gotten a lot of headlines in recent months for fighting the online traffic in feature films. But behind the scenes, the studios and networks are just as focused on the proliferation of television shows being downloaded. Even more quietly, the conglomerates that produce the vast majority of television shows are scrambling to beat the downloaders by offering viewers a slew of attractive new gewgaws, from video-on-demand offerings that could let viewers order up an episode of "CSI" any time they like to a device that allows viewers who tune into the middle of a live TV broadcast to restart the program instantly.

"We have to try as an industry to get ahead of this and give the audience an attractive model before the illegal file-sharer providers meet their needs," said David F. Poltrack, CBS Television's executive vice president for research and planning.

"The clock is ticking on this," he added.

It all started with the digital video recorder.

Complete Sad Story


======= SNIP =======

In related news, researchers have determined that monkeys will pay to look at pictures of monkey butts, but only if they find them attractive. The monkeys insist on being paid if they have to look at undesireable monkey butts.

This research will be of significant value to television programmers, who are already drafting the latest reality series, Desperate American Naked Survivor Idol.

the T Rex used it's entire brain to avoid becoming extinct. of course it's brain was the size of a walnut. the entertainment industry is using congress the same way. of course congress has a brain the size of a walnut......

Every one of the corporations have the same goal. Protect their turf and by doing so protect their potential profits. Isn't about offering something new, isn't about making a new product. Its about protecting what is already been made. How many are so tired of commercials they can't see straight? Well that is the profit line you are looking at. If you don't watch the commercials on old reruns, they make no money. They certainly don't have to make a rerun again.

If the corporations get their way with all this protectism that is being tried to be pushed, you will be condemned to watch reruns of Gillians Island or the like for the next century. And that particular series might be the high point!

Captdunsel, you'll like this:

"Sloths move at the speed of congressional debate but with greater deliberation and less noise.
O'Rourke, PJ (1994),

I don't see why they are complaining about TV downloads. You can do the same thing with VCRs and they haven't been complaining about the like since the Betamax case. My parents liked the Sopranos so much that they recorded all of the second season on tape. The fact is the TV industry shows these things for free and now they complain that people are downloading episodes for free.

My wife used to have an unbelievable video tape collection of Saturday Night Live from the days of Belushi, Aykroyd, Murphy, Radner and Murray, all edited and commercial-free.

For me, it was a gold mine since I had been working almost every Saturday night when they originally aired. I missed the classics, like Belushi and Joe Cocker.

They never really used to sell TV shows before, not like they do now. They always thought they'd have to pay us to look at reruns.

Because they think we're all stupid monkeys anyway.

For all we know, it's not the networks bitching about people downloading commercial free TV shows, but the likes of Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Viagara, Levitra and all those other erectile dysfunction companies.

Yes, of course, commercials pay the networks bills, but maybe if the networks would stop giving in and paying has beens millions of dollars to shoot a single episode, then maybe they wouldn't have to worry.

"They fret that if unchecked, rampant trading of files will threaten the riches of the relatively new and surprisingly lucrative television DVD business"

They realize that people's home recording rights, which used to be worthless in the digital age, are now returning..
the dvd market they claim is so "lucrative" is due to the fact that until tv torrents there was no convenient method of recording tv of comparable quality.

this tv dvd market just reminds me of the famous "ringtone market" everyone keeps raving about.

you know what many phones use for ringtones? MIDI files!.. that's it.. get an mp3 to midi converter and a free ripping tool and voiala! free ringtones!

A few Will Rogers Quotes...

"Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what's going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?"

"...But with Congress, every time they make a joke, it's a law! And every time they make a law, it's a joke!"

"In Hollywood the woods are full of people that learned to write but evidently can't read. If they could read their stuff, they'd stop writing."

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/will_rogers.html

another page for my bookmark bar.

i think he should have written it with "congrass" instead of congress.

How is this any different then me recording it on Tivo or a DVR. Somehow I dont see the tv industry gaining any ground with this. People will download tv shows because they missed it because of prior engagments, like work or a date. Im sure when they can they will watch it when its on. It not like these tv torrents come out days before it is aired.

to add maybe they should add d/l to it ratting, they may find that they will be higher

"How is this any different then me recording it on Tivo or a DVR."

We may find this out in a few years. The infamous broadcaster flag may not allow you the ablitilty to record or time shift tv materials. The thing is that the broadcast flag is for digital transmissions, something that congress is pushing to happen in the states. The MPAA and RIAA have already been in calhoots over it and that is the reason for the existance of the broadcast flag. Hollywood at present is dragging its heels about releasing digital full blown movies, films, series, and the like in hopes of getting some more consessions from Washington. Those consessions won't be anything in favor for Joe Public you can be sure.

This is the reason why filesharing is so important.

It will soon be the only way we have to record tv, or at the very best get it unencumbered.

It may take years for the inevitable consumer backlash to turn congress around.

The broadcast flag doesn't prevent all recording - just all *usful* recording.

You can still record a flaged program on your future HDTV-tivo. You can timeshift. What you cannot do is take it *off* the Tivo. You cant transfer it to a PC, burn it to DVD-R, or even transfer to another tivo or recording device via back-to-back copy.

So you cant archive recordings - when your drive fills, you must delete. Thus the boxed-set and rerun markets are, in theory, safe.

no.. actually what applies to tv is the cable plug&play agreements, which have nothing to do with the flag.

the plug&play agreements encrypt cable, and the encryption standard is controlled by hollywood, which insists that in order to be licensed to access it devices must respect "copy control" signals.. including "copy never".

thanks to the DMCA and plug and play you dont even have useless recording.

until the public feels it's effects and lashes back bigtime, it wont be changed.

Until then the entire nation will depend on hackers breaking the encryption.

Those hackers and crackers will engender the ire of the content cartel, perhaps having them be called an outlaw name of some sort, as is the present case with down-loaners ("pirates"). And the cartel, perpetually jealous to protect their lopsided control over things, may even try to hunt to track them down and prosecute them.
But for us peons who are mere consumers just wanting our traditional Betamax rights, they are our heroes.

If they think they can make a buck by throwing away Fair Use, they will move heavan and earth to do so.

crybaby greedy bastards.

Even the CPSA allows copies of copy-never content, providing these are encrypted 'temporary and localised', as I described. The 'temporary and localised' term is not defined clearly anywhere in the CPSA specification though - some reports are as extreme as to state that any recordings must be auto-deleted after 24 hours, while others allow a recording to exist indefinately so long as it is unable to leave the recording device.

But these more elaborate systems havn't been fully implimented - in their current partial state, such capabilities as T&L recording are not widely available, if available at all.

"Until then the entire nation will depend on hackers breaking the encryption."

The entire nation? I don't think so. Let's be realistic for a minute.

I respect all of you people and your opinions, but I think some of this makes the entire situation out to be a greater crisis than it is.

I heartily agree that it would be nice to go back and pluck that one missed episode of "24".

But in the great scheme of life, does it really matter? Does television's desire to b able to put things in syndication somehow create a barrier to entry for independent TV show producers?

I never worried about the movies so much because independent film producers really do have a relatively level playing field on which to compete.

The music business is the only one that really is anti-competitive.

"independent TV show producers"

???

what the hell is an indie TV producer?

... a real life "Wayne's World" ???

extinction b4 even born.

The MPAA has a leg or 2 up on the RIAA as far as the accomplishments on smushing down on competition.

Even independant filmmakers have to use the Hollywood guilds and Hollywoods distribution centers to get seen. so in a sense they have to play ball to an extent

Hmmm, reminds me of all those old hacker movies of the eighties . Where the hackers make the world a better place. I can dream can't I? Think if of the wonderfulness of it.

Tv downloads are the only way for people in foreign countries to get new episodes when Americans get new eps. Maybe instead of bitching about how much they're losing, they could look into (DRM free) downloadable on demand content for the huge, hungry market.

I know people in a lot of countries who want to be able to watch the new CSI this week, not 4 months from now, and who wouldn't mind paying a small fee for the ep, since using sharing programs kills their max bandwidth usage.

As for me, I don't watch the commercials anyway. (I mean, mute function on and I look at my knitting for the commercial break). I paid my cable bill, I don't think I need to pay an additional fee to record the dang show so I can watch it later. I don't think it should be illegal for other people to "tape" it for me so I can go out on Wednesdays. Without them, I actually have to say to my friends "I can't hang out, Law and Order is on tonight."

Just another example though of the market not meeting the customers where the demand is.

well, sony pictures Television has been selling soap operas online for a little bit. for $1.99 each and you can only watch it for 28 days.

thats a little much. and even if you burn it to cd/dvd you can still only watch it for 28 days because they are drm'ed with sony's special stuff.

look for them to go this way if they ever do decide to offfer this stuff online, their way. meanwhile, while the number of torrent sites whilttles down due to c&d's get an HDTV capture card before the broadcast flag takes effect.

if I can get HDTV through my card out here in the boonies, every US person should be able to. I am 50 miles from a major city, and the HDTV is great here. even accounting for terrain features.

I believe one of the effect of the internet will be to reduce the effect of regionalised releases. Console-games, DVDs, and TV are the most regionalised form of media - and eventually the respective industries will realise that in such a throughly globalised world, releasing in one region while not in others will only create a market for imports (which, dispite what the MPAAs website implies, are legal).

"for $1.99 each and you can only watch it for 28 days."

Download not for me, I buy it, I keep it. Otherwise no reason to part with money. Works for me. Let us see if other folks feel the same way when the newness wears off this.

download=downloan

I don't have cable. I can't imagine any content on there worth $300/year, at a minimum.

But if I was paying for it, I surely would wonder why there are so many commercials. I have a friend who used to tape Sherlock Holmes from A&E and a few other programs for me. They chop up the programs so horribly to add a few more commerials.

It seems like something is terribly wrong with this picture. Commercials are bad enough on broadcast TV, but at least I'm not paying through the nose for the programming. Why do people put up with it on pay TV? Enlighten me.

"what the hell is an indie TV producer?"

That was the point.