Channel 7 offers rivals programs for download

The opportunity to legally download programs this year has been growing. Australia has one of the highest rates of illegal downloads and to couteract this television networks have employed a few good strategies. Channel 7's program 'Jericho' is played in Australia on the same day as it debut's in the USA, deleting the 1-2 years waiting time Australians normally have for new television shows out of the US and UK. All channels have experiments with legal downloads and Channel 10 had had success offering free downlaods of hit series 'Thank God Your Here' and fee based downloads of the short series 'Tripping Over'. As we head into 2007 things are certainly stepping up a notch. Channel 10 has announced that next year it will lauch up to fifity web sites to create an online presence for it's shows and will offer a far greater range of downloadable content, allowing viewers to watch programs where they want, when they want. This was immediately surpassed by Channel 7 announcing that through a collaboration with ReelTime would allow them to run a huge range of programs for download, including content marked for broadcast on the rival stations. This will be really interesting, we know that programs can be devalued if a great enough of it's key audience sees the show through other distribution channels if they are able to access them. The ABC has to plugh through 3 seasons of 'The West Wing' before they got to the eppisodes that the loyal audience hadn't already seen on DVD release; Channel 10's 'Battlestar Gallatica' had been seen by almost anyone with a opssing interest in Sci Fi through download and DVD releases before it made it to the TV. It could be quite a lively tussle for viewers as stations gain their online rights for their rivals programs and beat them to the finishing line.