Crimes Against Television

However you feel about internet piracy, there’s not many ways to prevent it – or at least, not many reasonable ways. There are already blocks and attempts at censorship in place from governments worldwide, the most infamousbeing from China. Closer to home, the US and the UK governments use court orders to attempt to block sites such as The Pirate Bay and Kick-Ass Torrents, as well as attempting to persuade search engines to omit such sites from their search results.

Of course, the existence of proxy servers, backups and in particular The Pirate Bay’s move to the cloud means that it’s near impossible to permanently cut off access for people who really don’t want to pay for content (both of the sites mentioned still work without proxy on multiple ISPs).

Additionally, the issue of internet piracy is a complex one. This is because people may use a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate means to acquire music or television, and people on the same connection may differ in their habits, making it hard to pinpoint who is acting illegally. As such, there is no absolute solution to the problem of piracy.

But there is no sign of an imminent, overwhelming evolution in how we access television: broadcast networks, particularly in the US, are still pulling in millions of viewers a night. Recent launches of TV shows particularly affected by file sharing have also continued to see incredible ratings, such as the CW’s pilot for superhero spin-off show The Flash, which, despite having its pilot leaked months early, held the largest debut and most watched episode the network has had in years.

One of the main causes of pirating lies with ease of access. HBO’s Game of Thrones, the most pirated show of all time, is mostly downloaded by its international audience due to the cost and difficulty of watching it legally.

Netflix has proved to be a particularly powerful force in television in the past five years, with its expansion from simply being another DVD rental option, to a worldwide, award winning producer of multiple immensely popular shows. Yes, people still pirate Orange Is The New Black, but the numbers are miniscule in comparison to those sharing broadcast TV – many more people with a Netflix subscription watch it.

Who would have thought that people prefer instantaneous, ad-free television? That said, there isn’t a grand, bloody battle between networks, Video On Demand streaming services and the dreaded internet pirates.

It’s nearly impossible to cut off access for people who really don’t want to pay for content

If anything, the increased popularity of services such as Netflix and the usage of bit torrent and illegal streaming indicates the quite natural future end of the manner in which we watch television, and even then, it won’t be all that different to now. BBC iPlayer already exists, as well as hundreds of other on-demand, catch-up television sites; HBO now have a streaming only format. The problem lies with the broadcasters, who are going to have to adapt to survive.

Netflix CEO and ‘binge watching enabler’ Reed Hastings has pointed out the revolution against what he called “managed dissatisfaction”, stating in an article to GQ that “you’re supposed to wait for your show that comes on Wednesday at 8 p.m., wait for the new season, see all the ads everywhere for the new season, talk to your friends at the office about how excited you are.” It seems that people are beginning to tire a little of this culture built around scheduled waiting and scheduled viewing, or don’t have the time for it.

One of the reasons piracy isn’t as serious a problem for television is that people are actually more than willing to pay when it’s the easier option — £5.99 a month for on demand access to hundreds of shows is more appealing than installing satellite TV, in the same way some may prefer to use satellite or cable TV.

The problem, for (stubborn) cable and satellite providers anyway, is that it is becoming easier and more hassle free to use internet services. Several channels in the UK and US, although there are region blocks, have video on-demand services and use the internet to expand their audience rather than punish people for having other things to do than watch TV according to their schedule. There is no reason that a station can’t adapt, the new streaming-only service, HBO GO, in the face of the vast number of illegal downloads of Game of Thrones, being proof of that.

So is there a broadcast television apocalypse looming? Not necessarily. Ironically, increased interconnectivity has, without a doubt, made us a bit less patient – many people don’t feel like waiting the extra hour or couple of hours for something to go on demand or on a torrent site, and choose to watch live. Those that can’t, pirate. There’s something of a balance, for now at least.