According to the Australian, Channel Nine boss David Gyngell has said that next year they “can go out and shoot Underbelly in 3D”. But just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should… More »
Following up on Wednesday’s announcement that Channel 9 are playing friendly with that crazy Internet thingy by letting people legally download the second season of Underbelly for free, comes the shock announcement that it’s actually successful. According to a press release, the Aussie crime drama has “smashed” NineMSN’s previous download record with over 6000 downloads in 60 hours. And considering the reports online that the NineMSN servers kept crapping out during downloads, that figure potentially could have been even higher.
Can it be true? A commercial network actually embracing the internet? For real?
Apparently it is, with Channel 9 letting viewers not only download free episodes of the second series to last year’s hit show Underbelly, but also letting viewers distribute it online through file sharing portals like Bittorrent. If you don’t believe me, check out the text from NineMSN’s CatchUp TV section: More »
In case you missed it, Channel 9′s new crime drama, Underbelly, was banned from being broadcast in Victoria by the Victorian Supreme Court on Monday as it may influence the result of a murder trial currently underway. The show is a “based on the true story” type show about the 10 year gang war in Melbourne.
But what makes this story really interesting is that within 30 minutes of it being aired last night throughout the rest of Australia, the show was popping up on torrent sites for people to download. Including people from Victoria. According to the SMH, “this morning more than 600 people were already downloading the show from one site”.
