Television and Digital Culture

“When NBC decided not to renew Hannibal for a fourth season “When NBC decided not to renew Hannibal for a fourth season ... it wasn’t much of a leap to connect its fate with the fact that the show was ranked as the fifth-most illegally downloaded show in 2013. When nearly one-third of the audience for Hannibal is coming from pirated sites — despite the fact that a legitimate download for each episode was available the following day — you don’t have to know calculus to do the math. If a show is stolen, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, to fairly compensate a crew and keep a series in production.” – executive producer Martha De Laurentiis

Hollywood’s Fear of Piracy

Music Industry Used as Example

But …. They Seem to Be Doing OK

Pirates are the Best Customers

Distribution, Quality & Pricing

Early Copyright History

Television and Torrents What is a “torrent”? In the BitTorrent file distribution system, a torrent file is a computer file that contains metadata about files and folders that help participants in the system find each other. A torrent file does not contain the content to be distributed; it only contains information about those files, such as their names, sizes, etc. Not P2P sharing (like Napster) Users need: Torrent downloading program Search engine to locate torrents

2015’s Most-Pirated Shows

Where do TV Torrents Come From? Torrent distribution groups EZTV VTV ETTV rarTV Captured digital television content as it becomes available Ripping material from commercially available DVDs

Other Forms of TV Piracy Link aggregators + video hosting sites

Other Forms of TV Piracy YouTube

Industry Responses to Piracy Pressure ISPs Issue “takedown orders” for copyright infringement Intimidation

Industry Responses to Piracy HBO’s change of policy 2013: piracy doesn’t impact the business model Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes: GOT’s status as most pirated show is “better than an Emmy.” “Our experience is, it all leads to more subs. We let the programming and reviews talk for us.” 2016: introduce “anti-theft tactics” HBO has been sending out warnings to the IP addresses of torrent users who had been caught sharing episodes of Game of Thrones. Requests that sites take down torrents are being issued at a faster pace than ever before as well, according to TorrentFreak, and some of the most popular torrent sites have been complying almost immediately.

Industry Responses to Piracy

What Does “Free TV” Do to Television? Newman’s 2012 study examines the discourse of people who share TV shows online He finds that the cultural implications of “free TV” are contradictory Part of TV’s rising cultural status as a technology of agency “… file sharing confirms the value of television as ephemeral and disposable … a shared text which no one buys or sells.” (467) Negotiation of value