Top Gear downloaded 300k time per episode.

[KaptKaos]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8224869.stm


File-sharers' TV tastes revealed
By Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent, BBC News

"Top Gear" presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May
Top Gear is popular with file-sharers in the US

Millions of television viewers are now using file-sharing services to access free and unauthorised copies of programmes, research has revealed.

US drama Heroes was the most popular illegal download this year, according to research firm Big Champagne.

About 55 million people downloaded the show, while 51 million chose to access Lost, the second most popular show.

Visits to leading "torrent" sites, which index video and music files, have also nearly doubled in the last year.

The proportion of file-sharing involving films and television rather than music is continuing to rise, the research shows.

"Millions of television viewers now access free, unauthorised versions of favourite shows at least some of the time," says Eric Garland, chief executive of Big Champagne.

"This is a socially acceptable form of casual piracy - and it is replacing viewing hours."

All of the programmes in the top 10 were American, but the survey also examined unauthorised downloads of popular BBC show Top Gear.

Most Popular Film Torrents
Watchmen; 16,906,452
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; 13, 133, 137
Yes Man; 13,038,364
Twilight; 11,632,645
Fast and Furious; 10,613,668
Gran Torino; 9,880,700
Marley and Me; 9,099,219
Slumdog Millionaire; 8,840,884
Bolt; 8,690,633
Australia; 8,628,012

During the most recent series, the figures show around 300,000 downloads of each episode in the days immediately following their broadcast in the UK.

But the UK accounted for just 4% of the download activity, with 47% coming from the United States.

Big Champagne says Top Gear has been among the most pirated television programmes internationally.

The series appears on BBC America some time after it is shown in the UK, and it appears that some American fans are eager to download it before it is available legally.

The research also looks at unauthorised film downloads and shows they are getting lower audiences than those for TV programmes.


Most Popular TV Torrents
Heroes; 54,562,012
Lost; 51,151,396
24; 34,119,093
Prison Break; 29,283,591
House; 26,277,954
Fringe; 21,434,755
Desperate Housewives; 21,378,412
Grey's Anatomy; 19,916,775
Gossip Girl; 19,706,870
Smallville; 19,598,999

Top of the chart was Watchmen, downloaded nearly 17 million times, followed by The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, with 13 million.

The Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire, a relatively low budget film compared with the two Hollywood blockbusters, was viewed by nearly 9 million unauthorised downloaders.

The research will be presented on Saturday at the Edinburgh Television Festival in a session on what television can learn from the music industry's experience with online piracy.

Mr Garland says there are major differences between the two industries and the impact on television may not be as severe as some TV executives fear: "We may see a lot of disruption but it is premature to say 'we're next'."

"The effect on the business is going to be very different."

Big Champagne's research also shows that the rate of piracy for live events, such as sport or talent shows, is much lower than that for popular drama series.

[svandamme]

so how do they come up with these numbers?

[island911]

if only there was some way to get computers to count, we could use them on the interweb to track this stuff.

Seriously, use green text, would ya?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Put me down for Top Gear, once per week. That's BS about the American version, it does not contain the same content as the UK show and it is one season behind.

Is it really relevant in regards to US network TV? Can't you watch nearly every show on the network website or hulu?

[svandamme]

Well , i was serious, how do they come up with these numbers?

It's not like there is one single Torrent counting mechanisme.
They do not report their pirating to the Ministry of Statistical data.
Nor does torrent provide a mechanisme to determine accurately how many torrents were successfully downloaded... Everything is fragmented.

Many torrents get started, then the sample is downloaded, if it's no good quality, the torrent get's cancelld.
Many start several torretns of the same movie, only to then pick out the one that provides the fastest speed..

So the numbers, most likely, are totally inaccurate..

[emcon5]

Originally Posted by svandamme

Well , i was serious, how do they come up with these numbers?.

The same way they come up with dollar values for revenue lost from people downloading music and movies, or the value of drugs seized by police.

They pull it out of the depths of their ass.

[island911]

Ah, got ya, Stijn. But still, I think that these computers have an easy time of tracking stuff like the above. Even if a high percentage of torrents bail, I expect that the relative numbers (popularity) of the downloads is likely reflected well.

btw, just put TopGear season 10 in the netflix que. (too bad they don't have it in bluray.)

[svandamme]

The trackers generally do not track downloads, they just track availability of seeders and how many leechers are out there (which does not mean they know who the leechers are, so no count can be made). And Torrent sites , by nature, would not be of the kind to report it to any agency of any sorts... So i'm calling big time BS on those numbers. I would expect they are waaaay off.. Error margin of 50 to 100%..

[450knotOffice]

If BBC were willing to broadcast the show to US audiences within a day or two of the UK broadcast, there might be far fewer US downloads of the show.

[spuggy]

Originally Posted by svandamme

The trackers generally do not track downloads

Trackers know how many downloads complete.

[Aerkuld]

Originally Posted by 450knotOffice

If BBC were willing to broadcast the show to US audiences within a day or two of the UK broadcast, there might be far fewer US downloads of the show.

Agreed. Maybe if it wasn't editted and censored as well.