Let me be legal

Bill Thompson has been musing on his blog about whether multi-million pound TV deals like the Sky One getting Lost deal recently announced have a place in a modern, international digital market place.

He talks about bit torrent and Five’s new download service offering CSI for £2.49 before it airs. There’s no way I’d pay £2.49 per episode but I would happily pay £1.49 if it was available at the same time around the world.

I don’t want to illegally download TV shows, I’m more than happy to pay for them as I started doing with music when iTunes launched. I just need to be given the opportunity to do so.

I also know a large number of people in the UK who would happily give up bit torrent and use iTunes or a similar service if 1) the price was right and 2) it was available at the same time as the US.

I don’t care whether it has DRM (although I find DRM a massive pain in the…) as I would be watching it on my computer or on my TV, which is connected to the computer. So I don’t need to burn it or put it on an iPod.

The problem is, at the moment in the UK you have a few seperate services offering a couple of shows each (Channel 4 and five) much later than the US release and for a much higher price.

I don’t have time to sit and watch a show when it first airs on TV and more often than not I’ll forget to record it as well. So having the opportunity to pay a season pass and have every episode of my favourite shows on my computer would be a god send.

I’ve been playing with the Tape it off the Internet beta lately as well but to be honest it’s still not giving me the chance to legally download any episode of any TV show I want for a reasonable price when it comes out in the US.

Although it does point me in the direction of iTunes and Unbox (not available in the UK) it still points me towards various Bit Torrent trackers. The big difference with TIOTI is that it has a web 2.0 social layer to it which gives me the opportunity to share thoughts, finds and favourites with friends using the services – a bit like last.fm for TV.

At least from next year we should have the BBC iPlayer for shows broadcast on the good old B B of C – as long as Sky don’t screw things up for people that want it that is.