Fox's 8-Day Delay on Hulu Triggers Piracy Surge

[nsane.forums]

It’s been a week since Fox stopped offering free access to its TV-shows the day after they air on television. The TV-studio took this drastic step in the hope of getting more people to watch their shows live and thus make more revenue. TV-viewers, however, are outraged by the decision and have massively turned to pirated sources to watch their favorite shows.

One of the main motivations for people to download and stream TV-shows from unauthorized sources is availability. If fans can’t get a show through legal channels they turn to pirated alternatives. This is one of the reasons why Hulu drastically decreased TV-show piracy in the U.S. Viewers are happy with the legal streaming option it offers them, but not all studios see that as a success.

Starting last Monday, Fox began delaying the availability of new episodes on Hulu and Fox.com for 8 days. The decision goes directly against the wishes of the public but Fox will take this disappointment as collateral damage in the hope that the delay will result in more live viewers and better deals with cable and satellite distributors.

When the plan was first announced last month we predicted that it could lead to a significant boost in online piracy of Fox shows, and this does indeed turn out to be the case.

Over the last week TorrentFreak tracked two Fox shows on BitTorrent to see if there was an upturn in the number of downloads compared to the previous weeks, and the results are as expected. For both Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef the download numbers have surged.

During the first 5 days, the number of downloads from the U.S. for the latest episode of Hell’s Kitchen increased by 114% compared to the previous 3 episodes. For MasterChef the upturn was even higher with 189% more downloads from the U.S. For MasterChef; the extra high demand may in part have been facilitated by the fact that it was the season finale.

Aside from BitTorrent, there are of course many other options for people to catch up with a missed episode. YouTube for example, from where tens of thousands of people streamed the latest Hell’s Kitchen episode.

Instead of Hulu or Fox, the pirates get the praise. On YouTube and BitTorrent sites many users thank the uploaders for making the shows available.

“You so rock and allowed me to keep my promise to my son. I promised if he cleaned for one hour he could watch Hell’s Kitchen with me. He was excited and then disappointed that we couldn’t watch it on Hulu or Fox.com,” WithurShield writes.

“Thanks a lot for uploading these, Hulu used to be my go-to but alas, they have failed me,” minniemica adds.

On the other hand, several users who went to Hulu expecting to see a fresh episode left comments berating Fox (although most target Hulu) for their decision not to make the episodes available for free.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing when I went to Hell’s Kitchen and Master Chef. Right in the middle of the series idiot at Hulu decided to through in the pay services. At least have the decency to wait till the end [sic],” one commenter writes on Hulu.

“What I don’t like is up until now I have been able to watch the episode of Hell’s Kitchen the day after it airs and all of a sudden they now want me to pay for it?” another commenter adds.

There is no doubt that the Hulu delay is not in the best interests of TV-viewers. Although it might be a good business decision in the short term, one has to doubt whether driving people to ‘pirated’ content is a wise choice. To many viewers it is clearly a step backward.

Instead of artificial restrictions the public demands flexibility when it comes to entertainment. They want to decide when and where they want to watch something, and right now video streaming sites, BitTorrent and even the old VCR do a better job at this than Fox.

“I’m going to go buy a DVR or dust off my VCR and I will be recording my tv shows from now on,” a commenter writes on Hulu.

View: Original Article

[nuthut]

How is it "pirating" if you are getting a show that is free to watch with rabbit ears? So, if I DVR a show and not watch it for a couple days, am I watching a pirated show because I am not seeing it live???

[HX1]

Your not seeing it live anyway.. half of these are re-runs and fillers... It makes absolutely no sense at all and basically is used to only allow the parent license holding company to host and 'supposedly' broadcast.. and in case they sink the whole season and need to sell box sets.. ( who in the hell really buys those things anyway ).. and to make sure that they try to drive people to invest in Cable companies, DirectTV, Dish services as well a hardware purchases and media as Discs.. which creates the same thing... other wise most people would throw out the old inefficient method of dying and aging appliances and services and move up to other forms of service delivery ( Like a PC and the Internet - w/o delay ) and products.. This movement however would cut the 'hands out of the pot' as it were, including law firms.. and even reduce the needed seats to be filled to make it happen.. where had we planned correctly those seats would be warming other seats where they have had the opportunity to fill positions creating and researching for a better tomorrow and creating better products which would advance many areas of life and solve several issues we have globally today...instead of for what your going to sit behind your TV and watch for entertainment..

:P..and its not piracy.. by definition... was that long.. drawn out.. :think:... crazy or legitimate.. I think all th cows wandering through the market on their personal ADHD devices got to me again today... FEEDBACK HELPS! :thumbsup: :lmao: Now I am thinking of a small EMP Device...

[ROMANTICGUY50]

I have Hulu Plus and Netflix. I admit I don't watch fox much. I did like to be able to go on Hulu and watch a show the next day if I wanted too. Hulu was a legal way to watch Fox shows and others. Fox is gonna screw themselves in the end.