My personal opinion on this one is that if TV companies persist in teasing me with trailers, hype (over-hype), telling me repeatedly that I need to see this show...then tell me I have to wait several months or a year for it? I'll go download. Don't make me want a product, then make it impossible for me to pay you to see it. If you want to be that stupid, stuff you.
Take BSG, for example. I would never have thought of downloading Season 2. I expected that it would appear on SKY ONE, here in the UK, in October, just like it did last year, and I was happily willing to wait till it did and watch it there.
But, SKY decided that they didn't have 'a window' in their schedule until January. This is a schedule, incidentally, crammed to bursting point with ancient repeats of The Simpsons, Futurama, Malcolm In The Middle and so on - that's what makes up most of their evenings. And they can't find a spare hour for a first run, popular show?
So, I downloaded them. You left me with a cliffhanger, SKY. Don't expect me to wait over a year, till you can find a window, to find out what happened next! If you don't want me to download, start playing fair with your viewers.
As soon as the DVDS come out I'll buy them, so the TV companies aren't losing on this one. But that's not always the case and I'm aware that those of us who do go on to buy the DVDs after downloading a show are in the minority.
But until the TV companies stop messing us about - downloading will continue imo.
So, basically, I refuse to feel guilty about it.
LabRat
