Recent data suggest that nearly half of BitTorrent activity at any given time is focused on downloading television shows; a stat is particularly impressive when considering that only 10% of .torrents are tv related. This far outstretches the next closest media type, with video accounting for 16% of traffic. The TV torrent sharing community is particularly active and clearly took heed to the primary school lesson that sharing is caring, as they also boast one of the best sharing ratios around, which measures how much you are sharing vs. how much you are taking.

Some of the most commonly downloaded shows include Heroes and Lost, whose weekly worldwide download numbers often come very close to total US viewership. While this trend undeniably demonstrates a strong demand for these shows, it is unclear whether the number of downloads reflects people motivated to steal content or rather viewers who simply cannot view the show on television due to geographic or time constraints. While many shows are now legally available for viewing online, they are often geographically constrained by copyright law and if they are available, they are featured on screens loaded with advertising.

When viewing stats like these and reading the thoughts of leaders like Anne Sweeney, as president of Disney-ABC, you must question whether these are beacons for all networks to get all of their content online and on-demand, be it through a pay-model like iTunes (as Sweeney did), or simply from their own sites. Part of the challenge is doing this without inducing further strikes, but it is certainly a conversation that must be had before .torrents completely replace the Tivo and really hit network advertising dollars.

Anne Sweeney’s comment after discovering a high quality episode of Desperate Housewives online 15 minutes after the show’s airing: “We understand now that piracy is a business model, it exists to serve a need in the market for consumers who want TV content on demand. Pirates compete the same way we do – through quality, price and availability.”