Maybe it was just a matter of "when" and not "if," but network television has hit the peer-to-peer world, according to British firm Envisional, which says online swapping of hit shows like 24, Desperate Housewives, and Six Feet Under has risen 150 percent in the last year—with 70 percent of the swaps going over BitTorrent networks.
And the big surprise, according to Envisional: most of the downloading of those shows is coming from British and not American viewers.
"People who download these episodes want to see them right away," Envisional research analyst David Price told reporters. "And it makes sense that the Brits are leading the way, so to speak. There usually is a lag of a few months before these shows, which originate in the U.S., air over here."
Price also suggested it may not be very long, if the current television show P2P swap trend accelerates, before the television industry follows the music and movie industries in taking the P2P networks and swappers to court and pushing for iTunes-like pay-to-play online sales.
The files of the shows have been zapped of their advertising spots to make them as small as possible, Price added, "because, of course, few people want to see the ads, anyway." And he said if the trend keeps up, television networks already under cable channel pressure for advertising will see a bigger fading of ad and syndication revenues.
"Syndication revenues will suffer," he said. "A network abroad will not pay as much for, say, "24," if it realizes a portion of the audience can download it."
