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Lost finale gets Euro simulcast

To minimise online piracy, the Lost finale will be screened simultaneously broadcast in the U.S. and Europe.

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The highly-anticipated Lost finale airs in the US around lunchtime Monday Australian time.

In a move to to minimise online piracy, the two and a half-hour finale will be screened simultaneously broadcast in the U.S. and Europe, regardless of international time differences.

It will air in the US on ABC May 23 from 9pm Pacific Standard Time, and simultaneously on Sky One in the U.K., on Fox Italia and Telecom Italia in Italy, Cuatro in Spain, Fox in Spain and Portugal, Digiturk in Turkey, HOT in Israel and CTV in Canada.

Disney, which distributes the series, said 59 countries will air the final episode of Lost no later than 48 hours after the U.S. broadcast.

In Australia it will be seen at 8:30pm Wednesday on Seven, in an upgrade from its usual 7TWO premiere. ABC bringing the finale forward to a Sunday finale instead of its regular Tuesday clashes with Seven’s usual Desperate Housewives / Brothers and Sisters night, but with Nine airing the State of Origin game on Wednesday, Seven will be unlikely to win the night. That at least allowed Seven a win / win in to moving it from 7TWO to its premium channel while keeping one more Pacific episode under its belt instead of competing against State of Origin.

Soft figures for the show arguably precluded it from airing on Seven in place of Housewives / Brothers, although a Monday 7TWO airing might have been a more satisfying compromise.

Ben Pyne from Disney Media Networks said, “Lost’s intrinsic global appeal and enthusiastic international following have driven a demand to create innovative windowing opportunities to air the programming on earlier and more convenient platforms.

“Since the show’s first season, we have greatly accelerated all of our U.S. network series’ international delivery, broadcast and marketing.”

No spoilers will be published on TV Tonight until after 11pm Wednesday AEST.

Source: Variety

31 Responses

  1. This is Typical of Channel 7. I for one wont be watching the channel ever again after the Lost finale airs. I barely watch TV as it is (I buy everything on DVD). Shame of Channel 7 for not moving the Lost finale to Monday night for us Aussie fans. Channel 7 is deplorable.

  2. @Charlie Parker: Have you watched past episode one season 1? If not, I’ll fill you in.

    After 40 days on the island, they found a hatch which had in it a kitchen, a pantry full of food, a bathroom and a shower- with razors for shaving, as well as shampoo for hair washing.
    Not long after, some of them found the village that the ‘others’ were living in- it had houses, swing sets, the works basically.

    Their aeroplane crashed on the island in late september, and by Christmas time, 6 of the main characters had made it off the island (actually 8, if you count michael and walt who left in a boat after 44 days on the island).

    The people that didn’t leave were either dead, or stayed in the village they discovered. We see jack with a full grown beard by season 4 (thus proving that he does have facial hair) and we even see him shave it off. Hmm, I think I’ve basically covered all your questions. Anymore, then just post them here and i’ll get back to you.

  3. @tv – I doubt its payback since Seven is promoting this on it’s main channel and could easily have changed its Monday 7TWO line up to accommodate the 2.5 hour final and then re-run it during SOO on Wednesday night.

    I hope we get the answers we want and don’t have to pay for them on DVD later.

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