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Walking Dead zombies too late to thwart piracy?

FOX International Channels will arrive in Australia to negotiate a deal with one of Foxtel's channels for The Walking Dead. But why so late?

It’s been one of the most anticipated new television series -of 2010.

But still Aussie viewers haven’t had any clarity on the future of The Walking Dead on our screens.

TV Tonight readers even voted the zombie show the International Show We Need to See on Air in the last annual awards survey.

This week execs from FOX International Channels will arrive in Australia to negotiate a deal with one of Foxtel’s channels.

This is despite the series having aired simultaneously in many territories to avoid the threat of piracy.

Senior vice-president of scripted programming, Sharon Tal Yguado, tells The Australian that when the show launched in October last year it was to minimise online piracy.

“Certainly one of the reasons we launched globally was piracy,” she said. “And I don’t think fans of the show would want to wait.”

Correct. So why have Aussie fans had to wait?

“It was really a well co-ordinated campaign,” she said. “And it was the first time we launched a TV show globally in a similar fashion to a theatrical release.”

It will be great if Foxtel can pick this series up and at least fasttrack season two, which was recently greenlit by the AMC Channel in the US.

Source: The Australian

19 Responses

  1. Exactly what Simon Band said – never mind flippin’ downloading it illegally. If you can order a legal copy of the DVD, something has seriously gone wrong with the sales process.

  2. The show was pure crap.

    Luckily the producer agreed and fired the entire group of ‘writers’

    It started out OK, then just became a directionless mess within 2 eps.

    I’m amazed that people are so taken by the special effects (which become fewer and the show progresses) that they can’t see it for what a boring mess it became.

  3. I saw this after so many positive comments on this site. Perhaps my expectations were too high but I didn’t think it was that great. It dragged on a lot I thought it was a 6 hour version of will smiths I Am Legend. But the production values are top notch.

  4. “She expected the show to debut on Australian screens by the end of the year, and Fox Channels International would then work to bring Australia into line with the global broadcast by the start of the third season.”

    This had better be a misunderstanding, because it’s boneheaded. With, negotiations commencing shortly, 8 months until season 2 and only six episodes in season 1, not fast-tracking until season 3 is insane and neutralises their anti-piracy strategy.

  5. Seems odd they’d come all the way to Australia to negotiate for ONE show! Why didn’t they do it last year when it first aired… the campagin couldn’t have been that well organised if they’ve waited this long.

  6. Correct me if I’m wrong by haven’t their been surveys saying Australia is one of the highest users of illegal downloads? Surly one of the fox channels could have bought the local rights much sooner, without execs from FOX having to fly here months too late!

  7. Ratings will be even worse than most delayed shows anyway because the people who have seen it will tell everyone else that’s it’s an amazing pilot followed by five laughably bad episodes.

  8. Too late, Foxtel. I waited and waited for news of The Walking Dead to come to TV, but eventually gave up and ordered the DVD series from Amazon. I’ll be receiving it this week and watching it next weekend.

  9. Aussies have had to wait because neither the Seven, Nine, Ten or Foxtel groups of networks have wanted to pay the steep asking price of Fox International!
    Apparantly the prices they are asking is astronomical.

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