It has come to the point where saying that our online audience level is not something worth taking into account would be plainly stupid. Lately, show promotions, trailers and clips that are broadcasted on YouTube and on other video sharing sites are viewed a whole lot more than some shows are. At this moment television finds itself at a turning point where viewership is ready to embrace online broadcasting.
It was no surprise that tech-savvy consumers have been constantly supporting the idea that piracy not only that it does not hold back the industry but it kind of makes it a favour but when someone from a marketing group makes the same claim, it is definitely the time to reconsider the whole phenomenon.
There is a new breed of television broadcasting stepping into light. It seems that some broadcasters although are not yet posting their shows directly on PirateBay, are however, supplying copies to a third party who will then make a torrent. The reason, you ask? For now, just for the sake of experimenting but the real hope that stays behind it is that new viewers otherwise unreachable through conventional marketing methods will be this way familiarized with certain programs.
An example of such practice which we can actually call a good strategy is the hit TV series Weeds which has been the “victim” of numerous leaks of their shows previous to being aired on television. It’s kind of common knowledge these days that when a show is on BitTorrent that hasn’t yet aired there is an insider’s hand there. Besides, as Jenji Kohan (the Weeds show producer) seemed to suggest, those leaks are not so as “accidental” as they might appear as they prove themselves quite efficient in increasing the audience.
We have two approaches here trying to make their way into the industry. On one hand there is the Motion Picture Association of America ceaselessly uploading bogus torrents of movies to create discouragement among the torrent users; on the hand there are mainstream television show producers who have started to experiment with torrents as a possible new means to promote their programs and also to manage to do that to new audiences.
BitTorrent and the others alike represent probably the latest method for distribution that need no further advertisement since number of the viewers choosing to view our content this way is pretty close from that of those still watching on broadcast television. The only thing that draws this online model back is his lack of definitive business model which television has been practicing for decades now.
