Spielberg’s The River hits UK iTunes 24-hours after US TV debut

digitaltrends.com

9 points·mitchie_luna··7 comments

It might decrease piracy but a 24 hour delay is still not what I would consider a 'simultaneous' release in Internet time. People want to watch shows as soon as possible and participate in discussions about the latest episode and a lot of people turn to the internet to do that. A 24 hour delay will still make them feel left out.

That being said I really welcome the move to reduce the time between US TV debut and iTunes release and hope that the time gets reduced further in the future.

The timezone difference would come into play too I think. If a show aired at 9pm PST, that's 5am UK time.

You would have to be very devoted to watch it live and then jump on the internet within minutes of watching it and voice your opinion on message boards.

The timezone difference just makes it weirder. If there's a 5-9 hour time difference between the countries then why delay by exactly 24 hours?

As I recall, the Lost finale was broadcast simultaneously in the UK and the US, so people actually did do this. Obviously that's a special case though.

One issue to bear in mind is spoilers; if something big and exciting and story-based aired last night in the US, chances are I'm going to see someone spoil some aspect of the plot on Twitter this morning.

Formula 1 races and Tennis Grand Slams come to mind...

It's good to see that piracy is good for the consumer. Without things like this UK viewers would have to wait. Due to concern over piracy, UK viewers benefit.

I don't really see what they gain from waiting 24 hours. People who torrent will still download it if they have to wait a full day.

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