We all know that the music business has a problem with illegal downloads. For example legal downloads of In Rainbows were far exceeded by illegal torrent downloads of the album. Almost 400,000 illegal torrent downloads were made on the first day and 2.3m in the 25 days following the album’s release, compared with a full-week’s peak of just 158,000 for the next most popular album of the period (source).
And there is a whole generation growing up without paying for music. And not seeing anything wrong in that.
What interests me is how slow the TV industry is responding to essentially the same issue. iplayer is all fine for the BBC which doesn't work on an advertiser funding model, but commerical media companies have a problem; people (in the UK) watching a US produced TV show often don't want to wait even a day longer than people in the USA to watch the latest episode. And when they can jump online and download a bit-torrent or stream the latest episode through any number of sites, why would they then watch it later when it's broadcast on UK TV?
People are often surprised when they learn that I work in advertising, but I don't own a TV. But I don't see why I should when I can't get what I want, when I want; whereas I can get every episode of all my favourite shows instantly online, and see new epsiodes at the same time as my friends in other countries. I would pay for them, or view them streamed with ads - except most US companies only make their shows downloadable from US itunes or from Hulu or similar which block non-USA IP addresses. So of course, I don't end up paying, but watch ripped versions instead. I know I'm not the only one. US media companies are losing millions of dollars by being short-sighted and trying to protect their big deals with UK media companies. Both are going to lose out in the long-term.
TV production companies and media owners need to wake up fast and realise they are living in a global world that is instantly connected, and that if they want to earn their buck they need to treat everyone, everywhere the same, and serve everyone fast. Or someone else will - for free
