Online piracy is here to stay

A common misconception is that NGeners download television shows on the internet because they don’t like paying for things. While this is true to some extent, the main reason (in my opinion) is because we already have too many choices for what to do at 9:00pm EST on a Thursday night to reserve that time for Grey’s Anatomy. Why don’t I get to choose when I want to watch my favorite show? (and for the record Grey’s is not my favorite show). Needless to say, for the NGen population we want to dictate our lives, on our schedule, and torrents or online piracy are the easiest way to make that happen. This isn’t even an NGen thing anymore, you’ll find many Gen X, and Baby Boomers looking for an “easy” way as well, because now they have their children who dictate their schedule. In short, online privacy is here to stay regardless of any new legislation that is dreamt up.

New metrics (Nielson Ratings = old paradigm)

“Television is reaching a milestone where online is veritably driving on air viewership.”
— Guinevere Orvis

No longer is the Nielson Rating the true indicator of broadcasting success. For the very reason mentioned above, Nielson Ratings cannot capture who is watching television shows outside of the broadcasted time. This introduces a new paradigm of online metrics: Facebook fan group size, mashups, fan art, and BitTorrent downloads according to Guineverse Orvis with a great post on the subject. If you decide as a television executive to ignore the online space, you will also ignore a large NGen population that may be a very loyal following. Take the following example of a show that was taken off the air due to low Nielson Ratings but were very popular online, and through a loyal following.

Family Guy – First aired in January, 1999 which was then taken off the air for poor ratings in 2000 and then again in 2002 only to sell nearly 1 million copies of their DVD set. This is the first time a show has been brought back because of high DVD sales. USA Today Article

As you can see, there is a loyal following online for animated series which don’t even hit the top 10 of shows on broadcast. If you looked at one without the other, you might cancel an extremely popular show.

Distribution model as a marketing vehicle

If you’re looking to see if your pilot will sink or swim, why not test it on an inexpensive marketing channel? BitTorrents are currently being used by some television networks to gauge audience reaction to an episode, or to a show, without the risks associated with broadcasting.

How long will it take for a new model to emerge where content creators can monetize their creative rights in a way that will work with my schedule? If you can do that, I might even pay.