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[ EEPI-Discuss ] P2P: Friend or Foe of TV? (and a Comment on ID Bugs)
Greetings. The article referenced below has an interesting discussion of the somewhat unexpected effects of file sharing on broadcast television, at least in the particular cases of popular "sci-fi"-oriented fare. However, if you read the entire article you'll also see the author proposing that the obnoxious ID "bugs" that take up ever more space (usually in the lower-right corner) of our screens be expanded to include advertising in various forms. He suggests that audiences will get used to this escalation. Speaking for myself, I find static and particularly animated ID bugs highly annoying, and have actually turned off programs simply because particular bugs and/or other superimposed messages were so incredibly intrusive. So far, the premium services like HBO and its ilk, along with the admirable folks over at basic-cable Turner Classic Movies (TCM is my favorite entertainment channel), and Fox Movies, have avoided the temptation to full-time bugs, and only bring them up fairly briefly a few times an hour. I only hope that they can continue to withstand the pressure to go all-bug all the time. If the concept of advertising bugs really takes hold in a broad way, I can guarantee that at least some significant portion of the viewing audience (with me leading the pack) will be even less inclined to watch commercial programs than before. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein EEPI-Discuss Moderator lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@eepi.org Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, EEPI - Electronic Entertainment Policy Initiative - http://www.eepi.org Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com ------- Forwarded Message From: David Farber <dave@farber.net> Subject: [IP] Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV Date: Mon, 16 May 2005 10:08:55 -0400 To: Ip ip <ip@v2.listbox.com> Begin forwarded message: From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@warpspeed.com> Date: May 16, 2005 3:12:17 AM EDT To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@warpspeed.com> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV Reply-To: dewayne@warpspeed.com [Note: This item comes from reader Mike Cheponis. Good commentary on some of the current aspects of the Darknet. Well worth reading! DLH] Piracy is Good? How Battlestar Galactica Killed Broadcast TV by Mark Pesce <http://www.mindjack.com/feature/piracy051305.html> May 13 , 2005 | PART ONE: HYPERDISTRIBUTION October 18th, 2004 is the day TV died. That evening, British satellite broadcaster SkyOne - part of NEWS Corp's BSkyB satellite broadcasting service - ran the premiere episode of the re-visioned 70s camp classic Battlestar Galactica. (That episode, "33," is one of the best hours of drama ever written for television.) The production costs for Battlestar Galactica were underwritten by two broadcast partners: SkyOne in the UK, and the SciFi Channel in the USA. SciFi Channel programers had decided to wait until January 2005 (a slow month for American television) to begin airing the series, so three months would elapse between the airing of "33" in the UK, and its airing in the US. Or so it was thought. [snip] Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com> ------- End of Forwarded Message _______________________________________________ EEPI-Discuss mailing list information: http://lists.eepi.org/mailman/listinfo/eepi-discuss