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Nine gives Underbelly downloads the OK

Don't bother watching the Underbelly repeat next weekend. Nine is happy for you to download it on Bit Torrent.

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ubellydieterIt’s not often this can be legally encouraged.

If you live in Australia and didn’t see it on Channel Nine on Monday night you are hereby authorised to download Underbelly: A Tale of Two Cities via Bit Torrent.

Says who? Nine.

On Nine’s own Catch-Up video site where you can legally watch vis its Hiro player it says, “You can also copy and share each episode or even distribute the files via file-sharing applications, such as Bit Torrent.

“Each file is available from the date the episode was broadcast on TV and remains active until the end of the series. Note: this series is only available to download in Australia.”

Talk about mixed messages.

On the one hand networks are feebly trying to stop a tidalwave of illegal downloads, and on the other hand here’s one actively encouraging it.

Last year Nine was furious over the series being uploaded to the internet and sold in car parks across Oz (especially in Victoria).

The Seven Network has even joined with movie studios and AFACT to sue iiNet for supposedly failing to take action against subscribers alleged to have downloaded copyright material illegally.

It makes for a very confusing message to consumers, the industry and the legal fraternity.

So while Nine would be happy for you to tune into its repeat screening next Sunday night at 10:30pm, it clearly has NO problem with you downloading the show via Bit Torrent.

Knock yourself out.

16 Responses

  2. Aha… they’re not fooling me. Download the file and you’ll receive a midnight knock-at-the-door from Louis da Lip, (a distant relative of Aussie Bob)…

  3. ‘David, they’re not talking about a standard file available on BT. Instead, they are trying to get people to share their horrid DRM-protected files. In order to watch the files, one requires the download of The Hiro Player.”

    In addition to the above, the episodes also expire when the series finishes.

  4. I think the wording is a bit ambigous – what they mean (I reckon) is they want you to distrubute their own files, not the 720p or the standard HDTV rips that circulate around normally. Why don’t they just create their own 350MB/1.09GB rips to circulate? they could have them done from a master copy, everyone would download them cause they are out fast, and they would be comparative quality to other internet copies…

    Still, look at the ratings and look at the amount of downloads. Did it affect the audience? no. Where 9 creaming over the ratings? yes. Does downloading give the show more exposure? of course..

  5. The episode is currently on the popular torrent sites, but it wouldn’t have come from nine’s catch up site, it would have been recorded, edited and uploaded just like every other episode.

  6. To Craig: But what happens in 3 months when the DVD comes out?

    Well, the DVD of Canal Road is out and you can still download all episodes of the series from Nine’s catch up. I haven’t downloaded any eps but a friend of mine did and said there were no ads in the show. Curious! I don’t know what Nine gets out of this except for more exposure for the shows.

  7. The *only* reason I like 9MSN’s Catch-Up TV service is because the unnecessarily large files count towards my ISP’s local data allowance (it’s like unmetered content, but not quite). Goodness knows who would download this via a torrent, though. Waste 9MSN’s bandwidth instead and download it off their site, FFS.

  8. One thing has always annoyed me about this. If I have been watching a serial drama on network television and I miss an episode for whatever reason, if the show is not repeated elsewhere in the schedule, then the only way I can catch up is to download the show illegally. However, I have rarely done this due to 1) broadband issues and 2) the moral objections. So, in most cases I just give up, stop watching the show and buy the DVD.

    It is obviously in the network’s best interest to keep me watching the show, so shouldn’t they do everything in the power to do so. So, I think they should have up on the website all past episodes of all the series (both Australian and overseas) they are currently showing. Take for example Packed to the Rafters. Anyone who wants to watch this series should be able to say “you know what I might check this show out but I don’t want join half way through the series. I will watch all the past episodes to catch up and then start watching on Tuesday nights.” But currently they are unable to legally do so.

    Ten is currently leading the way in this offering a significant amount of their programs but unfortunately older episodes are removed after a certain period. ABC iView’s also not bad but again episodes disappear pretty quickly. Nine had the catch up service but some past episodes you had to pay for – that is just not on. And then there is Seven – there website is an absolute joke and they offer nothing the way of a catch up service.

    I applaud Nine for this move but there is a long long way to go.

  9. I wont even try the Hiro Player version as the files are way over sized, Canal Road which should be about 350mb are over twice that which takes longer to DL and uses up more of you valuable data limit, then you need a special player and it can’t be burnt to DVD and played on a DIVX DVD player.

    IMO the reason they don’t mind BT being used is it costs them nothing to support it.

    But what happens in 3 months when the DVD comes out?

  11. Yeah i’m getting mixed messages from them too. Just to save me some confusion and clarification from the network, i’ll just continue to download all my shows.

  12. David, they’re not talking about a standard file available on BT. Instead, they are trying to get people to share their horrid DRM-protected files. In order to watch the files, one requires the download of The Hiro Player.

    They tried this last year with Canal Road.

  13. strange, tho as someone who has a dvd collection in excess of 800, and paid at least $10 per movie, should they really be whinging so much if I download a few piddly shows? Not that I will download Underbelly, nor haven’t seen the entire first season.
    Point is, they get my money anyways and I think that’s what has happened here, Underbelly probably sold well, It’s season 2 debut highest rated ever: if they were to complain about illegal torrents it’d make them look kind of pretty I’d wager so kudos to them.

    tho about first season, as a state, as a community, Victoria was asked to hold off for a few months while the court trials were on. Like a bunch of spoilt children they trivialized it all (further than already was) and just had to see it regardless.

    No desire back then to see it illegally, no desire now to see it legally, I’m afraid to say, perhaps the response/behaviour of my state, family and friends threw me off? Maybe even that same response was what inspired this decision?

  14. “it clearly has no problem with you downloading the show illegally”

    Why is it illegal? The copyright owner has given permission, making it legal. Just because it is via bit torrent, doesn’t make it illegal.

  15. Not quite.

    Let me take you back to the past 🙂

    http://tvtonight.com.au/2008/04/nine-offers-free-canal-road-downloads.html

    Same player, same happy suggestion that people share it via BitTorrent, same innocuous-looking AVI file, same simple problem: it uses a proprietary encrypted codec that cannot be played without the installation of DRM software that intersperses unskippable ads amongst the show. The files cannot be played on PVRs, network media players, portable devices, Linux, etc etc. It remains unknown what data is sent back in the other direction, since this “Hiro” codec/DRM/adware is only, it seems, being routinely used by Nine.

    As I said in my comment on the TV Tonight article linked above, if you were silly enough to share one of these unplayable NineMSN/Hiro files via a torrent site, you’d be flamed, shamed, ridiculed and banned.

    Those wanting a bit of corporate comedy can read the ever-expanding FAQ at ninemsn

    Anyway, it’s not as if anyone was waiting for Nine’s permission to download this if they missed it 🙂

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