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Last week we asked you, our dear readers, where you obtained TV content from and a large proportion of respondents sourced at least some of their TV viewing from illegal sources. This naturally begs the question: why?
There are plenty of reasons that one could use — at least to yourself and friends, if not a judge or jury — to justify grabbing a whole bunch of TV shows via BitTorrent.
One of the most frequently cited reasons is the poor scheduling by commercial free-to-air networks. For instance, The Sopranos, The Wire and Weeds screened on Channel Nine, but the starting times were invariably late and often variable from week to week.
At times, episodes may have been screened out of order, repeats shown for no particular reason or shifted at short notice onto an alternative digital channel. A counter argument to this is that we should be thankful that we’re seeing these series on free-to-air television, whereas those in the States have to sign up for premium cable packages.
Another common complaint is that it often takes months for series to be shown locally, by which time it’s as easy to stumble across a series-ruining spoiler as it is to find a torrent for said series.
Other common factors raised include the price of pay TV or a particular channel package in Australia and the lack of HD availability locally.
Let us know your thoughts in the poll to the right and the comments section below.
