Extras Escapes From The Office Onto The Internet

Today the BBC noticed that a second of the corporation's flagship television shows had leaked onto the internet pre-transmission. Following Doctor Who's season opener this week's scheduled episode of the Ricky Gervais show Extras has been found online.

Ironically today's issue of the BBC's in-house newspaper Ariel (affectionately known as Pravda to the old-timers) carried a column by Ian Betteridge about UKNova, explaining the concept of torrents. He makes a point about peer-to-peer systems:

to what extent do they exist simply to serve demand that otherwise isn't being filled? And if there was a system that allowed people to legally download and pay for archive content, would they choose to pay for it? Perhaps the BBC should ask Apple, which despite the ubiquity of pirated music online, has just sold its 500 millionth song from the iTunes music store. When a system is convenient and well-priced, it seems that people will even pay for what they could get for free.

I noted the other day discussion of whether the music industry might move towards the loop of release 'windows' that the film industry has adopted with theatre release, rental, sell-through DVD, subscription movie channel, terrestrial TV, then back to the start with directors cut/special edition version. I wonder whether it would make a future viable model for a commercial TV download service in the UK - with pre-release paid for download, subscription viewing, post-transmission catch-up download, DVD, free-to-air view, and endless repeats on a backwater digital channel. It wouldn't work for real-time events like sports, Big Brothers and royal births, deaths and marriages, but it might very well increase the revenue generated by comedy, drama and niche documentary.

One thing is for sure, although it has been widespread with U.S. shows being torrented over here for a good couple of years, this time last year the prospect of BBC programmes leaking onto peer-to-peer services was a twinkle in the internet's eye. At this year's Edinburgh Television Festival, the issue should be centre-front for the industry.

Posted by Martin Belam, August 16, 2005    
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