We Need A Torrent-ial Downpour!

By Jeffrey | March 30, 2007

Too True
With the overwhelming popularity of TiVo and a DVR box in 30% percent of homes it is obvious that one of two things is happening in this country. Either people love being able to re-watch episodes, or they can never remember what time the show they want to watch is on. Or both.

I’ll admit that I don’t watch a lot of TV, at least not live. I don’t have cable or satellite, I don’t know who is currently leading on American Idol, and was surprised recently when I found out that The Amazing Race was in its 11th season!

But I don’t completely ignore the tube, either. Every week I do my best not to miss Scrubs and My Name Is Earl - two of the best shows on the air, in my opinion. But sometimes I just forget to watch them, for whatever reason.

That dilemma places me squarely in that second group of people. And for those people TiVo is the greatest thing to happen to television since the world turned color sometime in the fifties. Yet, I still haven’t got around to picking one up. (Actually I have “picked one up”, but never bought it. I remember it didn’t weigh much.)

Besides, without more than a dozen channels to choose from it isn’t much more than an overpriced VCR.

Entering the scene now is the answer to that problem, and it doesn’t cost a dime: torrents. For television they are the perfect digital equivalent to a DVR. If I miss a show I can just hop online and find it with usually no trouble. There’s only one problem: they aren’t legal.

That’s where the Networks need to step in.

The main complaint the MPAA and its partners like to vent is that torrents cost them money.

The theory goes that for every person that downloads a torrent they have lost a sale of a DVD, advertising revenue, or what have you. Leaving aside the logic of that argument, it does have one aspect that makes sense: advertising revenue.

Entertainment is not cheap. Except for the phrase “cheap entertainment”, which may or may not apply in this situation.

Television costs money. Actors need to be paid, sets designed, cameras operated, homophobic actors put through therapy. Somebody has to pay for all of it!

In the case of network TV, those people are advertisers. They pony up big bucks to pipe 30 seconds of airtime spam into your home. All so that you, .000001% market-share viewer, can laugh for 22 some-odd-minutes.

And yet, millions of torrent-ed television episodes are downloaded every single day by millions of people, usually without ads included. Is that justice? Of course it is.

At least, for the viewer it is.

So here’s my solution: Instead of suing downloaders in the case of Network TV shows (which are sent over the air for free, anyway), the Networks should provide their own sources for torrents, on their own sites, with the ads included.

In this situation, everybody wins. The viewer can now download episodes they missed quickly and easily, but most importantly, legally, and the Networks can still claim advertising revenue. Just make the torrents available at the same time the episode is scheduled to air, dedicate some servers to seeding, and voilà!

What’s the downside? Well, the viewer needs to suffer through some more commercials advocating offices on the Moon, but in return they have no worry of lawsuit or corrupted downloads. And the Networks would have to embrace new technology, which realistically will happen sometime in the next…well…never. But one can dream.

In the meantime, where’s my VCR?

Topics: Rants |



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