Here’s an interesting article on online piracy and BitTorrent fueled downloads of TV shows. The author, Mark Pesce, makes the argument that shows like “Battlestar Galactica” and “Dr. Who” both benefitted greatly from the online filesharing community making them available worldwide weeks or months before they were available over the air, leading to higher than normal/expected ratngs once they officially premiered. I can’t say I disagree with his analysis, and would even add “Lost” to the list of shows that’s definitely benefited from pre-premiere buzz generated by filesharing.

I’d also be interested in reading an analysis or survey of downloaders who decided to pay to see Episode III only after sampling the movie’s quality via the timestamped download that went online opening night. Hell, if “The Blair Witch Project” had been released now instead of 6 years ago, we’d have likely seen it’s hype machine spreading it through the various filesharing networks instead of “bootleg” videotapes, and the box office response might have been even more impressive. Who’s to say?

Pesce also argues that the screen real estate normally taken up by a network’s logo could help offset the potential loss in commercial revenues if they sold it to advertisers. He believes that this would always show up even if a show was viewed by a downloader, but I’ve seen shows that have actually had the bug digitally hidden when uploaded to filesharing networks, so I doubt that would actually pay off huge. It’s still an idea worth exploring, however, as the entertainment industry is dragged kicking and screaming into the modern age.

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