Australians Pirate Breaking Bad More Than Any Other Country

[wulf3n]

Why Pirate when I can borrow from the library for free.

Sure I have to wait a bit longer, but I've never been that desperate to watch a tv show.

 

[Aussie502]

It makes sense. I hardly know anyone that has Foxtel. The majority seem to get it mostly for the sports and movie channels. I guess over the years of not having access to TV shows, even with Foxtel, it's just been ingrained into our minds.

"Have you heard of Breaking Bad? It's a really good show, you should check it out"

"Sure I'll just go home and download it tonight and see what it's like"

 

[SonicWaffle]

Also worth pointing out that we have a long history of TV series not airing until months/half a year after The U.S and U.K.

To be fair, here in the UK we're pretty far behind the US too. Things can take months or years to appear on our screens unless the show is really big. This is getting better, but all the good stuff still goes to the pay-to-watch channels first and trickles down to the free channels a long time after that.

Luckily I'm too apathetic to care much about keeping up with TV. I bought the first three seasons of Breaking Bad months ago, and still haven't gotten further than the fourth episode.

 

[salfiert]

the reason is really simple, now correct me if i am wrong but pay or 'cable' television is common in america, in australia it is really fairly unusual to have pay TV, like really unusual, its just not a thing we do here, but all the popular shows from overseas (except doctor who, fantastic) air on cable tv, so yeah, we just pirate whatever cause foxtel isn't done and no free tv stations end up getting popular shows.

 

[Steven Bogos]

Melbourne (a city in Australia) had the largest piracy rate in a single city at 4.8%, with London following at 3.5%.

"Rate" does not appear to be the appropriate word there; this is the percentage of all downloads, not the downloads per unit population. The actual rate of piracy in Melbourne is nearly three times higher than that in London, since it had about half the population. That also means Perth is right up there with Melbourne in piracy per population, it's just smaller so it doesn't get the same proportion of global traffic.

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I fail at maths

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

i had a friend who pirated Breaking Bad, as getting up to date eps was impossible in the UK, until he found out Netflix UK would be showing the newest Season 5 eps, the day after the US. this friend happily paid the monthly subscription to watch legally

give people reasonable options, n a lot of people will take it

 

[Dr.Awkward]

I'm not an Australian, but I'd just wish that television networks would simply stream of their channel right on their site. Unfortunately it's just not that simple - Thanks to contract agreements with cable and satellite companies, they're only able to allow viewing to anyone who's a customer to major cable and satellite companies.

Now I have a question - What is the freaking logic behind this??? It's obvious that the Internet has become the largest viewerbase, so cable companies try to strike fear into and constrain these television networks from creating a free, ad-laden Internet stream of their channel. And yet, most cable companies also function as ISPs, so what exactly justifies this fear?

...There's just no logic here, both in these decisions and in my words trying to explain it, but in the end it's just a mess of restriction that only causes piracy to appear as a better alternative for most people.

 

[Roxor]

Available on Foxtel 5 hours after US transmission? That's nice. How's that market of people with money to burn and nothing to do working out for you?

 

[SSJBlastoise]

As an Australian, this is a huge problem in Australia. Unlike the US, pay-tv is very uncommon (because like everything else it costs heaps, but that's another story) so saying that "It's available on Foxtel, so don't pirate it" isn't exactly a solution.

While personally I'm not a Breaking Bad watcher, there are so many hurdles to jump through to get access to American/British television I can frankly see why so many people turn to piracy.

To be fair though, it's shown on the ABC. Not sure when though or even how late they are aired after the US but it always comes up when I go to watch stuff on iView.

I haven't watched any but I've been meaning to at some stage and this doesn't really surprise me. The amount of time it takes to get South Park over here is pretty bullshit. Season 16 just started airing on SBS (free to view channel) which is a year and a couple of months after the US. To add to that, the DVD is only going to be released in the middle of September :/

 

[1337mokro]

The lesson of this story?

Nobody wants to SIT down at a specific time and watch something. They want to watch it at their leisure and at their convenience. HBO online is US exclusive so everyone goes and watches it online somewhere else.

The lesson of that story?

Get out of the fucking 1950's and globalize your streaming website. You are losing viewers and money hand over foot.

 

[bug_of_war]

so yeah, we just pirate whatever cause foxtel isn't done and no free tv stations end up getting popular shows.

Well, that's half true. Some big shows do come to Aussie cable, however they come out a good season or 2 after it aired originally and half the time it gets taken down, moved to a different channel, or just fluctuates frequently in time frame. Take Dexter for example, it's first season aired on channel 10 around about the same time season 3 began, but it's time frame fluctuated heaps and after the first season it disappeared. A few years later it came back, different channel, different time frame, and skipped seasons 2-3. So yeah, I don't normally condone piracy, but it's hard not to sympathise in this case, especially when I take into account the price of Foxtel is $120 a month, compare that to the cost of internet ($100 a month for 150 GB is what I'm on) and it just makes sense. Now, if Australia could use Netflix, THEN we'd have no real excuse.

 

[T3hSource]

Ah, Western nations pirating Western media like there's no tomorrow and then they say: PIRATING IS STEALING, IT'S AMORAL AND BAD!

No wonder in communist times they painted America as spineless sectarians.

 

[Burnhardt]

I'm not an Australian, but I'd just wish that television networks would simply stream of their channel right on their site. Unfortunately it's just not that simple - Thanks to contract agreements with cable and satellite companies, they're only able to allow viewing to anyone who's a customer to major cable and satellite companies.

They're also region locked. So if you don't live in the proper country you're shit outta luck, or redirected to your regions site which has half the content.

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Ah, Western nations pirating Western media like there's no tomorrow and then they say: PIRATING IS STEALING, IT'S AMORAL AND BAD!

No wonder in communist times they painted America as spineless sectarians.

You're right. Western developers are totally cool with pirates. Just look at Ubisoft.


That was sarcasm.

 

[WWmelb]

so i could buy breaking bad on itunes.. however i have a glitch with my PC that if i install Itunes, my optical drive disappears. From what i've read it's a windows issue, but it leaves me unable to have itunes installed on my pc.

Btw, if anyone knows a fix for this, let me know.

Leaves me no alternative, if i wanted to watch the new BB, but to pirate, because, well, reasons that i can't figure out. Why don't these networks want our money?

And why do we still not have Netflix available in this country?

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Of course they are. People need their entertainment and NOTHING is easily accessible to Australians due to the retarded government and even more retarded bureaucracy. What else can you expect as a result of such inefficient system?

Right. So the article talks about the fact that the rights to distribute Breaking Bad in Australia are held only by Foxtel and iTunes: the former being a monopolistic entity whose founder interferes in Australian politics to further its dominance; and the latter being so unfair in its Australian price scheme that a parliamentary committee has actually urged Australians to circumvent their geo-blocks.

But somehow, the government and bureaucracy are entirely to blame. I commend your superb use of logic.

 

[Wolf In A Bear Suit]

I have no choice but to pirate these shows. I can't subscribe to the channel. I do the same for Game of Thrones, because it's convenient. Thing is I buy every season of Game of Thrones and will do the same for Breaking Bad as well, just as a fair trade.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

I'm not an Australian, but I'd just wish that television networks would simply stream of their channel right on their site. Unfortunately it's just not that simple - Thanks to contract agreements with cable and satellite companies, they're only able to allow viewing to anyone who's a customer to major cable and satellite companies.

They're also region locked. So if you don't live in the proper country you're shit outta luck, or redirected to your regions site which has half the content.

There are ways around Geo-blocking, for instance in New Zealand one ISP provides a way for their broadband users to bypass any region-locks with a 'Global Mode' for free.

http://www.slingshot.co.nz/global-mode

And this isn't some minor local telco we are talking about.

 

[SinisterGehe]

You know this happens when you have a hit show... You release it in other countries a season behind US...

Like how fun it is to live in Finland when you follow a hit show and try to avoid the sea of spoilers because you are one season behind - we are 2 seasons behind in Doctor Who (Thankfully there is Netflix which is up-to-date with rest of the europe - UK, can you explain this to me maybe?)

When do publishers realize there are no oceans anymore, when something happens in china the world knows of it in seconds, soon as someone writes a tweet or facebook post.
We are not living in 1990s anymore.