So one of my favorite shows on TV is Food Network’s Iron Chef America… I was excited for this week’s episode because it was the first for the new Iron Chef Michael Symon. Unfortunately, I missed it.
So now what can I do? Iron Chef America is not on iTunes. It’s not on Hulu. They don’t make it available from the Food Network Web site. I could sit around and hope I magically get it when it’s being re-run but that’s not an option. So what can I do? I could get a boot-leg copy off of Bittorrent… but that just doesn’t seem right to me (call me crazy).
I’m saying that I’m willing to pay money via iTunes for it or I’m willing watch some ads and have it streamed online. Why hasn’t every cable network (including Food Network) seen this reality and started implementing these options? I can’t be the only one who wants this.
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You could have always TIVO iron chef.
Well I don’t have a Tivo. I don’t think people should have to have a Tivo.
I’m willing to pay the network for the content or watch the network’s advertisers and get the content for free. To top it of…I’d probably watch the episode more then once.
How could a network executive pass up that kind of opportunity?!?!?
It was on last night at like 9 pm.
Oh that would be the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
1) The rerun times aren’t a mystery, you can look those up. There’s no need to “sit around and hope”.
2) I don’t see any *ethical* problem with downloading shows via BitTorrent when you’re paying for cable TV.
I love Iron Chef America, and the original series, but my small problem is I live in Spain, and there is no way of getting them here. I have to find other ways to watch them, but I miss many, many of them. I also would be willing to pay for episodes on a regular basis, or dvd box sets, or ads, whatever! And many of my friends too! (eventhough I have to translate as we watch them!!). I really think they should do something.
“I’m willing to pay the network for the content ”
What you mean is – and I’m not knocking you for this, it’s your lookout what you do with your money – you’re willing to pay them again for the content.
Because let’s face it, you’re already paying the network for the content if you’re receiving it on your television. They get paid by the cable and sat companies and you are apparently a subscriber of theirs. So what’s to feel wrong about with the downloading? You’re legally and ethically in the right to video tape it at home – what magically changes when someone else does the ‘taping’ to provide it to you?
The only thing different for me when I get something via bittorrent is that they have usually stripped out the commercials, and you could make a reasonable case that I might have watched them if I’d seen this on my tivo. However I’d also likely have fast-forwarded through them, or gotten up to go to the can.
You can decide to not download because of potential troubles with anti-copying policing – they do monitor that stuff – but I don’t think you should lose a second of sleep over the ethics of this. If you were downloading because you couldn’t watch after downgrading your cable package and not getting the channel anymore that’s one thing, but when you’re paying for the package? It’s as if you’re worrying about the ethics of reading a book you sent someone else to Barnes&Noble to purchase for you – you still paid for the material.