Was the New Dr. Who Leaked on Purpose? 370
Static-MT writes "The pilot episode of the BBC's highly anticipated new Doctor Who series may have been intentionally leaked onto file-sharing networks to generate buzz, a source who instructed the network on viral advertising told Wired News."
The crux of the story (Score:4, Interesting)
The BBC denied any part in the distribution of the episode.
Keep 'em coming (Score:5, Interesting)
I liked it .. (Score:1, Interesting)
c'mon BBC, fully convert to the Internet already, dang!!
Maybe but... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The crux of the story (Score:2, Interesting)
No surprise here (Score:1, Interesting)
Looks like the big boys are finally catching on to the benefits of free samples of this sort (see also the free Battlestar Galactica episode).
Re:So whats wrong with this? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Worked for me (Score:4, Interesting)
Part of the reason the BBC is still investigating ways of broadcasting everything online is that they need to figure out a way to limit access to those who've actually put something back into the BBC.
Re:So whats wrong with this? (Score:5, Interesting)
Obviously (Score:4, Interesting)
Brilliant if true. (Score:3, Interesting)
I thought the leak came from CBC (Score:4, Interesting)
Not that I expect CBC themselves ever advocated the action (if they know who did it, the guy is certainly out of a job and probably facing copyright infringement charges). But anyways, I had heard somewhere that the source of the leak was traceable to CBC.
because... (Score:3, Interesting)
(Well okay, the movie also sucked.)
Re:Let's remember what the BBC is. (Score:3, Interesting)
Calling the BBC a "government organisation" is simplified to the point of innaccuracy.
Re:very bad (Score:3, Interesting)
1) I think this concern is entirely premature and a little crazy. First, you have to make the assumption that a studio would intentionally leak an episode of their show to generate buzz. I think that is entirely possible, especially given that the unique nature of the BBC. And the SciFi channel is openly showing episodes of Battlestar Galactica on their website in order to try to gin up interest in later episodes, so secretly releasing one isn't too big a jump. However, you then have to make the assumption, and this is the leap, that the companies would then allow somebody to get prosecuted for doing exactly what the wanted and enabled them to do. There would be huge PR and/or legal costs to both the company and the organization that pressed the charges (assuming there is one) to face the choice of perjuring themselves or revealing they released it themselves.
Short answer: assume it is all illegal unless you get it directly from the producer/distributor. Is it really the episode of Dr. Who that is going to put you away?
2) I think maybe you intended this one to follow 3), because otherwise it doesn't make sense. Of course, it still doesn't make sense. Why would pirate groups want to flag their releases as illegal? Why make it that much easier for them to be filtered out? Wouldn't they try to make them seem as legitimate as possible?
3) I think you are missing the whole point of viral marketing. The point is that you don't know it is marketing. It comes to you through otherwise normal social interaction. It starts with a hot chick at a bar, someone on the street, or a spray-painted tag and is suppose to generate positive word-of-mouth. Or something like that. Tagging it as marketing would defeat the whole point. Then you might as well put it on your site like the Battlestar episodes.
4) Again, you are missing the point of viral marketing. It isn't supposed to look like a suit created it. It is supposed to look like this show is just so cool that some dedicated fan risked his life to get a copy and now wants to share it with the rest of the world because it is so cool. "I have never encoded a video before, but my friend works as a computer tech for a production studio that just finished work on the first episode of the new Dr. Who series and it is just so cool, I just knew other diehard fans like me would love it!"
Re:The larger story (Score:5, Interesting)
In an interesting stroke of genius a Japanese film director went about the process the other way around. He wanted to make a film about teenagers, and had a very rough idea for a story involving a group of teenagers and their pop idol whose music they all listen to and obsess over. So he set up a fan site for a purely fictional artist, including discussion boards which were suitably seeded. The resulting discussions were then used to shape the final film, and a lot of the dialog from the discussion boards actually appears in the film (the teenagers in the film, of course, meet and interact on internet fan sites).
The resulting film, if you ever get the chance, is well worth seeing. It's called "All About Lily Chou Chou", and is a very perceptive study of youth not only in Japan, but the world over. Note, also, that a track from the Kill Bill Vol. 1 soundtrack is credited to the entirely fictional artist "Lily Chou Chou" who was created solely for the film (the track is from the soundtrack to "All About Lily Chou Chou").
Jedidiah.
Re:So whats wrong with this? (Score:2, Interesting)
People who watch the pilot and hate it would do exactly the same thing when it came on TV, so we're talking about microscopic advertising dollars lost here. (How much can you sell ads for for a pilot anyway?)
All the other stuff is good. The novelty, at least at first, generates buzz. In fact, you can generate buzz before a network commits, which puts you in a much better bargaining position. (And, before the contract with the network is signed, it's much easier, legally, to distribute it.)
And you can keep it out there, to suck people into buying DVDs and watching reruns and whatnot.
Now, with the BBC, it's a little different, but the BBC wants Americans to watch its shows also...it can then sell them BBC America, and reruns to air on various PBS stations, and DVDs...
Re:The larger story (Score:3, Interesting)
Live people placements are getting quite common. When I was between jobs during the bust I did a little work with one. I wasn't involved in the live placement part: I was explicitly corporate whoring. But they did have lots of jobs if you wanted to be hip and approachably pretty and get people to buy you a specific drink, or to shout into your phone on a busy street about how good such and such is, or to be huddled around some store and generate buzz.
Of course, in LA you have professional "friends"... People you hire to come to parties and pretend they know you, to seed the mood and really get everyone dancing. We don't have that much here. We do have paid people to mingle and dance in the clubs, though that's been going on for years.