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Battlestar Galactica, Internet Fans, and why Video Piracy is Naturally Rife

(This is a spoiler free post)

Yesterday was a big day for fans of Battlestar Galactica, as the last batch of ten episodes started to air. That meant that today was a big day for “the dark corners of the internet” to make sure that people would be able to catch the episode as soon as possible after airing in the USA.

This was thought to be more vital than normal, as an important plot point would be revealed (which it was) and it was likely to be discussed over the internet at length (which appears to be happening). So no matter that Sky1 in the UK will be airing this episode on Tuesday, an almost unprecedentedly quick four days after the USA, everyone is diving for the dark corners to make sure they get to see the episode without it being spoiled.

Back in the days of Babylon 5, you had to be incredibly pro-active to find out what had happened in the US aired episodes (and on the five occasions the UK aired the episodes first, the reverse was true for US fans) . You also had to be pro-active to get the episodes early as well. I’ll give this for bittorrent, it’s a lot faster than the US Postal Service and Royal mail.

But now, the fabric of the internet is so much faster. Blogs that cover Science Fiction (such as io9) are already awash with discussion. Your friends cannot be guaranteed to not mention it on their blogs… and Twitter is a minefield of people’s reactions.

Balance this impossibility to avoid the spoilers for major plot points on-line, with dedicated fans who love the show, and short of switching off their connection – which is never going to happen – and their is only one option.

Watch the show as soon as possible, no matter what you need to do to get the episode.

And you wonder why every popular TV show appears on the internet moments after it finishes and the 300mb files are some of the fastest growing and popular files in the digital world?

January 17, 2009; Mainstream Media, Web 2.0 (Observations);

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Comments

2 Responses to “Battlestar Galactica, Internet Fans, and why Video Piracy is Naturally Rife”

  1. Rachel on January 17th, 2009 22:33

    I read an interesting thing about Torchwood the other day (which may or not be true). The next series – which is supposed to be 5 episodes shown over a week – will be shown at the same ‘time’ in the US and the UK, so you’re going to have minimal time to be spoilt. ie it will show at 9pm in both countries on the same day

  2. Ewan Spence on January 17th, 2009 23:09

    That will be interesting, and it wouldn;t surprise me given the levels of torrenting that Torchwood and Doctor who both had this year.

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