TV Piracy: an Envisional Briefing Note (August 2004)

In 2004 Envisional produced a briefing note on the growing issue of television programme piracy. The report, which was partly updated in 2006, is available to all. Get in touch if you would like a copy.

The report's introduction is published below.

Other chapters of the report use a recent episode of the show Six Feet Under as an example to detail the process by which TV programmes are available on the Internet, show where pirated programmes are downloaded and explore some of the websites and IRC channels responsible, and to estimate the number of downloads.

Envisional has long believed that the number of people seeking to satisfy their TV demands in this way can only increase.

On the one hand, there is ample opportunity for television companies to exploit this space and offer their episodes for download at a modest price, in the same way that Apple's iTunes has shown that on-demand music purchasing can be made to work successfully. On the other hand, entertainment companies must be aware of the danger of losing their core audience to a delivery method that is free, unregulated and open to anyone with an Internet connection.

The Internet - a free global Tivo

Before the video recorder, missing a TV show was a definitive act. There was nothing to be done, unless the TV station was kind enough to repeat it. With the advent of the VCR, it became possible for individuals to ensure that programmes were not missed. Forgot to set the VCR? You had to hope one of your friends had taped it.

Now the Internet is revolutionising how people watch, obtain and view TV programmes. Pirated copies of almost every first-run TV show from any US network are now available for free download on the Internet hours after its first airing. Many popular UK and European shows, such as Eastenders and Big Brother, are also available, as are sporting events like the World Cup.

It takes only a couple of clicks to find the shows, once released. With a typical home broadband connection, a download takes a couple of hours. The quality of encoding is high enough to be watched comfortably on a computer monitor or, when burned to a CD or DVD, on a television.

Indeed, it is now as easy to download a TV show through a website as it is to set your VCR to tape the episode. More importantly to a non-US audience, the Internet brings the ability to watch first-run American TV series only a few hours after they air in the US and months before they appear on terrestrial, or even satellite or cable, channels elsewhere in the world.

The speed with which so-called 'capping' groups digitally encode programmes and the increasing bandwidth available to consumers mean that European or Asian fans of shows such as 24, The Sopranos, or Friends can download and watch the latest episode even before it begins to air for the first time on the West Coast of America.

Older episodes are often available for those who wish to catch up on shows they've missed or who want to explore a series that has been recommended to them. And episodes of some series can be found on the Internet even before they are shown in the US for the first time. The first five episodes of the second series of the Showtime program Dead Like Me - copied from a leaked DVD - were available weeks before they actually aired.

These days, missing a TV show presents little problem to anyone with even a basic knowledge of the Internet. Two clicks and your favourite programme is downloading. With the advent of RSS technology, downloads can even be automated, so that any show can be obtained without user intervention as soon as it is released on the Internet.

In effect, the Internet is now a global video recorder - perhaps more accurately, a free global PVR or Tivo. It has brought immense power to the individual TV viewer, but immense problems for the television industry.

Is it legal to let strangers half a world away download copied TV programs from your computer? How will television studios and networks survive when the advertising so essential to supporting them is deleted from pirated programmes? Has the Internet allowed the power balance between consumer and producer to shift too far?

This report demonstrates the easy availability of pirated TV episodes by focusing on one TV hit in the middle of its first-run US schedule at the time of writing, the Emmy Award-winning HBO show Six Feet Under. Currently in its fourth series, Six Feet Under is popular with critics and public alike. Nielsen ratings indicate a respectable US audience of 3 million, placing it ninth among prime time cable shows during the summer of 2004. In the UK, the show appears on E4/Channel 4 and is one of the network's most popular series. It is syndicated across Europe.

If you would like to read the rest of the report, please contact us to request a free copy.