Quote:
Originally Posted by psyang
I like the comic, but there are two things that come to mind when I read it. First, why does anyone feel they have the right to watch whatever show they want whenever they want just because it has been aired somewhere? That sense of entitlement is the source of a lot of the piracy justifications.
Moral argument aside, the second point is that he didn't want to buy HBO to watch a show which is understandable. But this is actually why HBO can afford to make quality shows in the first place. They get cable providers to pay HBO a lot of money for the right of offering HBO to their customers. There is reduced risk to HBO wehther a show succeeds or fails - they have their money, they can use it as they wish. As a result, they are willing to take more risks when producing content, like Oz, The Sopranos, The Wire like The Wire, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Boardwalk Empire etc. etc. There's a reason why many quality/groundbreaking shows are coming from HBO.
Piracy, then, can reduce HBO's value, which can put more pressure on HBO to produce more mass-appeal content.
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If you could just buy HBO, that'd be fine. But you can't - some a-holes somewhere have decided you need to bulk up on $120 worth of cable channels before you're even allowed to buy the one channel you want.
I think people would love to be able to buy shows like GOT directly from HBO versus pirating. The comic nails it perfectly.
People feel they have the right to watch whatever show they want whenever they want because that's how 90% of television is watched now. I don't even have cable - all I have is US Netflix, Canadian Netflix, iTunes and my PS3. We primarily watch Netflix, but I buy season passes to the shows I like on iTunes - watching The Walking Dead that way right now. I don't think consumers understand or haven't heard a fair and compelling argument (myself included) why GOT and some others aren't offered in the same way.