[Chrono]

The same problem of course exists for all us non Americans. Most American TV series air months or years later, if they air at all.

I would love to be able to watch the latest and greatest in entertainment within a day of it airing but that is not possible to do with legal means so 'everyone' turns to piracy.

[cf0ed2aa-bdf5]

Exactly my thoughts.

I'm German so even if my favorite shows finally made it to Germany after years they are usually butchered by a sloppy at best dubbing. If I insisted on English audio I'd have to wait another year to buy the DVDs.

I would love to watch my favorite show with ads or even pay for some of them to be able to support them but unfortunately that's just not possible as of now.

[kxs]

Same here, I don't watch dubbed television shows/movies. The only alternatives are TNT and FOX atm, at least with sky you have dual audio.

[Vivtek]

Oh, God, the German dubs for Star Trek: The Next Generation were horrible - they sounded like the same guy did everybody's voices (OK, except for Troi, fortunately).

And I'll never forget the debut of the Cosby Show in Germany and wanting to show my college friends this show I really liked - and realizing that without Bill Cosby's voice, it was utterly, hopelessly worthless. Not the first time Germans looked at me like I was crazy, but it was a formative experience.

[JonnieCache]

Indeed. Americans: welcome to our world. The world, in fact.

[ghc]

This isn't new to America. Anyone who's a fan of Japanese or Korean TV has exactly the same problems Europeans experience with American TV.

[coob]

With the later seasons of Lost, Sky One (UK) aired the newest episodes the night after their US premiere, supposedly to cut down on Sky losing viewers to pirating.

Anecdotally, it worked.

[Kudos]

They aired Battlestar Galactica a few hours ahead of the US. I'd imagine the narrower gap put an even deeper impact into piracy.

[rmc]

Actually BSG was aired in the UK a few months before the USA. Season 1 started in October 2004 in UK and January 2005 in USA.

People in the USA must have pirated it loads before it was shown on TV. And yet the TV numbers were still very impressive. This is evidence that piracy doesn't affect sales/viewing figures.

[rickmb]

Dutch TV aired BSG months later.

Result: everybody that wanted to see the show had already pirated it, and the viewing figures were miserable.

This has happened with several popular shows.

[rmc]

Wonder what makes it different? The USA AFAIK had good viewership figures.

[justincormack]

No one in the US would expect tohave to pirate a US program from abroad before first run. In the rest of the world it is just routine.

[Vivtek]

What always ticked me off was the same "non-American" rule applied while we were living in Puerto Rico - which is part of the United States. My kids were watching American cable and weren't able to access the online episodes because we weren't on the continent.

[rythie]

What is particularly annoying, if you like the Facebook account and they tell you about the upcoming episode, for example Big Bang Theory which won't be on for a couple of months.

[cf0ed2aa-bdf5]

What's really annoying to me is that they post previews for the upcoming episodes of for example The Big Bang Theory, make you watch the ads and then tell you that the video is not available in your region.

[kxs]

Let's hope tv series like "Touch" have success with their approach, Kiefer Sutherland said they are aiming for a 3 three day window (global broadcast).

[rickmb]

That's not really new, here in the Netherlands the gap between US and local broadcasts has now often been reduced to less than a week for certain series.

A 3 day window however is still too long for shows with real fans that want to participate in the global conversation. It may work for procedurals and sitcoms, but not for shows with big stories and cliffhangers like Lost, 24 and such.

Never mind the fact that you still get all the disadvantages of a commercial broadcast: fixed time, annoying station logo's, subtitles (or dubbing depending on the country) and most of all: incessant commercial breaks.

No thanks.

[kxs]

Well, in Germany it usually takes at least 3 to 6 months and those are mainstream series like Desperate Housewives or Grey's Anatomy.