I'm also hoping that once they get deals for video content on non-US iTS it'll also mean that non-US content will become more available on the US-iTS. Being able to download TV shows that aired yesterday doesn't add much for me, that's what TiVo is for. But being able to download TV shows (or news broadcasts) that simply aren't even aired here would be nice instead of being stuck with what the major networks decide I should like (basically, give me anything except another stupid reality show!)
In Australia we know get a "version" of Sci-Fi channel (full branding, etc..) but it shows delayed material compared to the US. This is only on CableTV (Foxtel, the only major mainstream pay TV available in Australia).
Other than that, we depend on free-to-air, particularly Channels 7,9, and 10. Channel ABC and SBS, those are pretty much lost causes ... Though SBS is innovative and "arty", for example yonks ago they used to show Aeon Flux, not the CharlizeTheron one, the original animated MTV version.
Channel 7 here has ponied up the big bucks to start of Heroes Season 1, 24 Season 6, PrisonBreak Season2, and starting loff Lost Season3. So just about 6-15 episodes behind the US, which is actually pretty damn good for Australian TV, particularly the "3rd ranking" Channel 7 - Channel 10 and 9 being 1st and 2nd ranked, in terms of viewership/ popularity, etc.
Sunil, you need to check the latest ratings, 7 is easily at least second and pushing 9 hard
to be number 1.
Personally I think they all suck big time
And what makes you say the ABC are alost cause, no one else comes close with current affairs and quality journolism. The commercial channels are just turning themselves into gossip mag copy cats and trying to push every piece of crap television thet comes out of the US.
Sunil, you need to check the latest ratings, 7 is easily at least second and pushing 9 hard
to be number 1.
Personally I think they all suck big time
And what makes you say the ABC are alost cause, no one else comes close with current affairs and quality journolism. The commercial channels are just turning themselves into gossip mag copy cats and trying to push every piece of crap television thet comes out of the US.
Please.
Fair enough. Boy you aussies are a tough crowd...!!
For some reason maybe I am a few years out of touch, I thought it went Channel10, Channel9 and Channel7 in terms of ranking high-to-low. It does make sense now that "Seven in '07" is carrying latest seasons of PrisonBreak, 24, Lost and Heroes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikerdude
Personally I think they all suck big time.
Despite giving you some of the latest shows?
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikerdude
And what makes you say the ABC are alost cause, no one else comes close with current affairs and quality journolism. The commercial channels are just turning themselves into gossip mag copy cats and trying to push every piece of crap television thet comes out of the US.
I was being somewhat flippant, and attempted some humour. I think you took me too seriously. Of course the ABC produces quality stuff, but at the expense of being accused of being very Labour-centric. Of course it is a relief that ABC does not slide into the approach of things like TodayTonight. I meant "Lost Cause" as in, well, look at the viewership percentage. Clearly the ABC audience is not mainstream Australia, and shows a lot of UK stuff which while refreshing is not mainstream. Again, an attempt at some irreverence which you took too seriously, I think.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bikerdude
Please.
No need for the attitude, I try and contribute and give feedback on the Australian news topics here because of my previous experience living in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and having spent the past 5 months in Melbourne. I thought it would be good to talk about Australian-related stuff besides the usual USA/some-Euro focus of AppleInsider.
I have to say with the recent spate of Australian news, I have found some local posters to be generally jovial, but some posts have been a bit elitist.
Maybe it's just the way with some of the posters, just say what you think, no sugar-coating.
It would be upto SiFi to drop the show. If ratings aren't high enough, they will want to replace it.
There was certainly an issue of scifi wanting to pay less than MGM wanted to charge - and neither backing down. (The ratings have been pretty good.) And that's the way capitalism works
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
It is more complicated because there are so many of them. It takes just as much effort to arrange to have shows in australia as it does in the US. But there are 300 million people in the US, and how many in Australia? 30 million? Now, multiply that effort by 30, and come up with the costs to get the licenses, divided by the number of contents sold per capita. The costs are much higher.
Agreed - there are so many countries with their own sets of distributors, and the number of companies makes it very difficult. I was responding to bigdaddyp, who said other countries had more complicated setups internally. Anyway - we have 20million (not sure why I need to multiply that by 30!?) and it sure is a less appealing place to invest Apple's time.
And as I said - Apple haven't even setup iPhoto album printing here (though a couple of enterprising printers have some options) and that is a far easier task.
I will have to give bit torrents another try. Back when I was a windoz user I tried a bit torrent client and was exposed to so many attacks I gave up on it. Any recommendations on what to use for a mac? Sorry I know its off topic but a I am still a apple newbie.
Channel 7 here has ponied up the big bucks to start of Heroes Season 1, 24 Season 6, PrisonBreak Season2, and starting loff Lost Season3. So just about 6-15 episodes behind the US, which is actually pretty damn good for Australian TV, particularly the "3rd ranking" Channel 7 - Channel 10 and 9 being 1st and 2nd ranked, in terms of viewership/ popularity, etc.
It is good for Australia to be showing stuff so close to the US. It reduces significantly the usefulness of pirating too.
Channel 7, however, is pretty close to top ranking (they were beaten by 9, by a whisker). Channel 9's cost cutting moves will drop their ratings slightly so expect 7 to be top ranking. Of course, popularity and viewership are different to profitability (for instance 10 goes for the cheap popular stuff like Big Brother and makes good money on it).
I will have to give bit torrents another try. Back when I was a windoz user I tried a bit torrent client and was exposed to so many attacks I gave up on it. Any recommendations on what to use for a mac? Sorry I know its off topic but a I am still a apple newbie.
I do tend to take most things very seriously, I absolutely meant no offence to you and have much enjoyed reading your rants over the years, in particular you humour. But commercial tv in this country just gives me the sh@ts no end.
People seem to watch whatever is thrown at them with little regard to quality.
The latest and greatest out of the US doesn't seem to equate with qulaity in the least.
Our commercial stations here are so hooked into what ever is cheap to produce or what ever the contracts they sign make them show, bahh humbug, maybe it is just me, television for me is about information not mind numbing nothingness, but hey, each to their own, and again sorry for any insult you may have taken, it was not intended.
I do tend to take most things very seriously, I absolutely meant no offence to you and have much enjoyed reading your rants over the years, in particular you humour. But commercial tv in this country just gives me the sh@ts no end.
People seem to watch whatever is thrown at them with little regard to quality.
The latest and greatest out of the US doesn't seem to equate with qulaity in the least.
Our commercial stations here are so hooked into what ever is cheap to produce or what ever the contracts they sign make them show, bahh humbug, maybe it is just me, television for me is about information not mind numbing nothingness, but hey, each to their own, and again sorry for any insult you may have taken, it was not intended.
end rant
Cool thanks. I'm probably too sensitive sometimes \ ...and somewhat hooked on the AppleInsider community and what I'm able to get away with.
Clearly you have strong views on commercial TV in Oz. We got Foxtel for a few months, and as you probably know, if you think 7, 9 and 10 are bad, oh boy, cable TV..........
w000t!! Arnie stuff!!! 8) ... and "Rambo"... heh. Didn't know LionsGate was carrying those, for an "Indie" film distributor.
But it has to do with Carolco as the original producer and going bankrupt.
Carolco holds the rights to the original "StarGate" - that was cool, the original movie series before the endless endless endless TV series of SG1 and SG1:Atlantis........ And when the Gau'ld voice had still some intrigue/fear cachet.
Look forward to Terminator2, TotalRecall, Stargate. Some classic SciFi.
With regards to Melgross and Ireland, without saying or supporting one way or another, check out this Wikipedia entry and the fracking MESS international film (not to mention TV) media distribution is in.
"The assets of Carolco were later sold off to other companies, most already sold during Carolco's existence. Today, the ancillary rights to a majority of Carolco's library are held by French production company StudioCanal, while CBS Paramount Television holds the television rights, and Lions Gate continues to hold the US/Canadian home video rights (via a new output deal with StudioCanal), while the international home video rights are held by a different company for each country—for example, the UK rights are with Momentum Pictures (a subsidiary of Alliance Atlantis), and the Australian rights rest with Universal Studios. The only Carolco films not included in the deal are Cliffhanger, Aces: Iron Eagle III, Last of the Dogmen, and Showgirls; the rights to these have been retained by their original theatrical distributors (TriStar Pictures, New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures/HBO, and United Artists, respectively)."
Mmm... So for Terminator 2, let's see, there's like at least 5 companies to deal with. For about 3-5 countries. Fun.
Mmm... I bet the people working at Apple iTunes Store, I think that's where the friggin new Apple buildings are going to hold -- all the people trying to sort out these deals with all this variety of companies.
Licensing is so complex. When I was doing commercials in the good old days of money flowing like water 70's, we would try to get music for a shoot. If the music had been around for a bit, we couldn't always track down all of the copyright holders, and so couldn't use it.
The same thing happens to tv shows. If anyone here has gotten any old tv shows, they may notice that the music isn't always the original from the series. That's for the same reason. So they record new music for the DVD's. It may sound like it, but you wonder why it doesn't seem right. Then you think that it's your memory. It's not (that's an assumption. It could be that too!\ ).
With copyright being extended around the world, I predict that some day it will become so complex that NO older music will ever be re-released.
I want to watch Top Gear in the Us but unfortunately The Discovery channel decided to stop showing the U.k. version and make their own. I know Clarkson hates Americans but I still miss the big dope.
I like Top Gear, but Clarkson can be a bit of a pig.
Lord forgive their melodramatic ways. Apple opened their first store in the US in 2001, and still to this day England is the only country in Europe with Apple stores. Give me a break.
My impressions based on what I've heard from other people is that Mel is right on this. Expanding to other countries is anything but a trivial task. Getting a business to work in one country doesn't mean transferring that business' system to another will work without a lot of changes.
Look forward to Terminator2, TotalRecall, Stargate. Some classic SciFi.
Wow, that's disturbing to see those movies called "classics." Not that I don't actually enjoy all 3 of them, but I'd only consider T2 as a classic...and the other's as just shut-off-the-brain-and-enjoy flicks (despite Total Recall being based off a Philip K. Dick story, it becomes hokey rather fast).
Unfortunately, I much prefer the extended version of T2 that isn't available on iTunes. And I much prefer my movies in 5.1 digital surround, which also isn't available on iTunes either.
I'm really at a loss to see any value in buying movies from iTunes. Lower quality video, lower quality audio, no bonus features, no subtitles, no alternate audio languages. No ability to burn it to a become a regular DVD video. Especially using these 3 movies as an example; they are all readily available at local retailers like Walmart or Target for less than the $9.99 they'll cost on iTunes. Inferior product for a higher price, what a wonderful concept!
I like Top Gear, but Clarkson can be a bit of a pig.
I think that is part of the reason that I like the show. Since it is funded by the government Top Gear is much more brutal and honest then any add supported show can be in the U.S. I have only been to the U.K. once so I do not consider my self an expert but the U.K. seems like much more of a Pc type society then the U.S and I am amazed that Clarkson is allowed on the air.
I'm really at a loss to see any value in buying movies from iTunes. Lower quality video, lower quality audio, no bonus features, no subtitles, no alternate audio languages. No ability to burn it to a become a regular DVD video. Especially using these 3 movies as an example; they are all readily available at local retailers like Walmart or Target for less than the $9.99 they'll cost on iTunes. Inferior product for a higher price, what a wonderful concept!
If price is the only issue, tell me why people shop as Best Buy? Right, convenience (and a bit of sadomasochism). Why pay $3.99 for oil at a quickie mart? Convenience (and lack of a clue). Sure, those movies are at WalMart, but "they're at WalMart!" Our culture is so 'I need it now' these days, and Apple is cashing in. I'm glad to see them finally riding the wave, instead of sinking.
I'd never buy a movie from iTS, but, I won't get in anyone else's way--nor would I ridicule them when they support one of my favorite brands.
Comments
In Australia we know get a "version" of Sci-Fi channel (full branding, etc..) but it shows delayed material compared to the US. This is only on CableTV (Foxtel, the only major mainstream pay TV available in Australia).
Other than that, we depend on free-to-air, particularly Channels 7,9, and 10. Channel ABC and SBS, those are pretty much lost causes
Channel 7 here has ponied up the big bucks to start of Heroes Season 1, 24 Season 6, PrisonBreak Season2, and starting loff Lost Season3. So just about 6-15 episodes behind the US, which is actually pretty damn good for Australian TV, particularly the "3rd ranking" Channel 7 - Channel 10 and 9 being 1st and 2nd ranked, in terms of viewership/ popularity, etc.
Sunil, you need to check the latest ratings, 7 is easily at least second and pushing 9 hard
to be number 1.
Personally I think they all suck big time
And what makes you say the ABC are alost cause, no one else comes close with current affairs and quality journolism. The commercial channels are just turning themselves into gossip mag copy cats and trying to push every piece of crap television thet comes out of the US.
Please.
Sunil, you need to check the latest ratings, 7 is easily at least second and pushing 9 hard
to be number 1.
Personally I think they all suck big time
And what makes you say the ABC are alost cause, no one else comes close with current affairs and quality journolism. The commercial channels are just turning themselves into gossip mag copy cats and trying to push every piece of crap television thet comes out of the US.
Please.
Fair enough. Boy you aussies are a tough crowd...!!
Sunil, you need to check the latest ratings, 7 is easily at least second and pushing 9 hard to be number 1.
The data I could find is http://www.thinktv.com.au/SiteMedia/...d1febcc76f.pdf which does show the following:
For some reason maybe I am a few years out of touch, I thought it went Channel10, Channel9 and Channel7 in terms of ranking high-to-low. It does make sense now that "Seven in '07" is carrying latest seasons of PrisonBreak, 24, Lost and Heroes.
Personally I think they all suck big time.
Despite giving you some of the latest shows?
And what makes you say the ABC are alost cause, no one else comes close with current affairs and quality journolism. The commercial channels are just turning themselves into gossip mag copy cats and trying to push every piece of crap television thet comes out of the US.
I was being somewhat flippant, and attempted some humour. I think you took me too seriously. Of course the ABC produces quality stuff, but at the expense of being accused of being very Labour-centric. Of course it is a relief that ABC does not slide into the approach of things like TodayTonight. I meant "Lost Cause" as in, well, look at the viewership percentage. Clearly the ABC audience is not mainstream Australia, and shows a lot of UK stuff which while refreshing is not mainstream. Again, an attempt at some irreverence which you took too seriously, I think.
Please.
No need for the attitude, I try and contribute and give feedback on the Australian news topics here because of my previous experience living in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and having spent the past 5 months in Melbourne. I thought it would be good to talk about Australian-related stuff besides the usual USA/some-Euro focus of AppleInsider.
Maybe it's just the way with some of the posters, just say what you think, no sugar-coating.
..........
It would be upto SiFi to drop the show. If ratings aren't high enough, they will want to replace it.
There was certainly an issue of scifi wanting to pay less than MGM wanted to charge - and neither backing down. (The ratings have been pretty good.) And that's the way capitalism works
It is more complicated because there are so many of them. It takes just as much effort to arrange to have shows in australia as it does in the US. But there are 300 million people in the US, and how many in Australia? 30 million? Now, multiply that effort by 30, and come up with the costs to get the licenses, divided by the number of contents sold per capita. The costs are much higher.
Agreed - there are so many countries with their own sets of distributors, and the number of companies makes it very difficult. I was responding to bigdaddyp, who said other countries had more complicated setups internally. Anyway - we have 20million (not sure why I need to multiply that by 30!?) and it sure is a less appealing place to invest Apple's time.
And as I said - Apple haven't even setup iPhoto album printing here (though a couple of enterprising printers have some options) and that is a far easier task.
It's the only way to fly.......... 8) 8) 8)
I will have to give bit torrents another try. Back when I was a windoz user I tried a bit torrent client and was exposed to so many attacks I gave up on it. Any recommendations on what to use for a mac? Sorry I know its off topic but a I am still a apple newbie.
Channel 7 here has ponied up the big bucks to start of Heroes Season 1, 24 Season 6, PrisonBreak Season2, and starting loff Lost Season3. So just about 6-15 episodes behind the US, which is actually pretty damn good for Australian TV, particularly the "3rd ranking" Channel 7 - Channel 10 and 9 being 1st and 2nd ranked, in terms of viewership/ popularity, etc.
It is good for Australia to be showing stuff so close to the US. It reduces significantly the usefulness of pirating too.
Channel 7, however, is pretty close to top ranking (they were beaten by 9, by a whisker). Channel 9's cost cutting moves will drop their ratings slightly so expect 7 to be top ranking. Of course, popularity and viewership are different to profitability (for instance 10 goes for the cheap popular stuff like Big Brother and makes good money on it).
I will have to give bit torrents another try. Back when I was a windoz user I tried a bit torrent client and was exposed to so many attacks I gave up on it. Any recommendations on what to use for a mac? Sorry I know its off topic but a I am still a apple newbie.
Azureus on Tiger 10.4.8 for me is doing well.
I do tend to take most things very seriously, I absolutely meant no offence to you and have much enjoyed reading your rants over the years, in particular you humour. But commercial tv in this country just gives me the sh@ts no end.
People seem to watch whatever is thrown at them with little regard to quality.
The latest and greatest out of the US doesn't seem to equate with qulaity in the least.
Our commercial stations here are so hooked into what ever is cheap to produce or what ever the contracts they sign make them show, bahh humbug, maybe it is just me, television for me is about information not mind numbing nothingness, but hey, each to their own, and again sorry for any insult you may have taken, it was not intended.
end rant
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/arc...ay/009673.html
My personal favourite quote from there is below:
My preferences, in the order in which I'd prefer to watch them:
- ABC
- SBS (only lower than ABC since they began putting ads in the middle of shows)
- TVS
- The "snow" caused by switching to an untuned channel
- Paint drying
- Grass growing
- My viscera being torn out with a blunt fork
- 7, 9 and 10
- Foxtel (same shit, except now you have to pay for it)
Sorry Sunil
I do tend to take most things very seriously, I absolutely meant no offence to you and have much enjoyed reading your rants over the years, in particular you humour. But commercial tv in this country just gives me the sh@ts no end.
People seem to watch whatever is thrown at them with little regard to quality.
The latest and greatest out of the US doesn't seem to equate with qulaity in the least.
Our commercial stations here are so hooked into what ever is cheap to produce or what ever the contracts they sign make them show, bahh humbug, maybe it is just me, television for me is about information not mind numbing nothingness, but hey, each to their own, and again sorry for any insult you may have taken, it was not intended.
end rant
Cool thanks. I'm probably too sensitive sometimes
Clearly you have strong views on commercial TV in Oz. We got Foxtel for a few months, and as you probably know, if you think 7, 9 and 10 are bad, oh boy, cable TV..........
If you are interested at all here is a link to a blog at the Sydney Morning Herald regarding quality of current commercial television.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/newsblog/arc...ay/009673.html
My personal favourite quote from there is below:
My preferences, in the order in which I'd prefer to watch them:
- ABC
- SBS (only lower than ABC since they began putting ads in the middle of shows)
- TVS
- The "snow" caused by switching to an untuned channel
- Paint drying
- Grass growing
- My viscera being torn out with a blunt fork
- 7, 9 and 10
- Foxtel (same shit, except now you have to pay for it)
..............
Heh.
...............
w000t!! Arnie stuff!!! 8)
But it has to do with Carolco as the original producer and going bankrupt.
Carolco holds the rights to the original "StarGate" - that was cool, the original movie series before the endless endless endless TV series of SG1 and SG1:Atlantis........ And when the Gau'ld voice had still some intrigue/fear cachet.
Look forward to Terminator2, TotalRecall, Stargate.
With regards to Melgross and Ireland, without saying or supporting one way or another, check out this Wikipedia entry and the fracking MESS international film (not to mention TV) media distribution is in.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolco_Pictures
"The assets of Carolco were later sold off to other companies, most already sold during Carolco's existence. Today, the ancillary rights to a majority of Carolco's library are held by French production company StudioCanal, while CBS Paramount Television holds the television rights, and Lions Gate continues to hold the US/Canadian home video rights (via a new output deal with StudioCanal), while the international home video rights are held by a different company for each country—for example, the UK rights are with Momentum Pictures (a subsidiary of Alliance Atlantis), and the Australian rights rest with Universal Studios. The only Carolco films not included in the deal are Cliffhanger, Aces: Iron Eagle III, Last of the Dogmen, and Showgirls; the rights to these have been retained by their original theatrical distributors (TriStar Pictures, New Line Cinema, Savoy Pictures/HBO, and United Artists, respectively)."
Mmm... So for Terminator 2, let's see, there's like at least 5 companies to deal with. For about 3-5 countries. Fun.
Mmm... I bet the people working at Apple iTunes Store, I think that's where the friggin new Apple buildings are going to hold -- all the people trying to sort out these deals with all this variety of companies.
Licensing is so complex. When I was doing commercials in the good old days of money flowing like water 70's, we would try to get music for a shoot. If the music had been around for a bit, we couldn't always track down all of the copyright holders, and so couldn't use it.
The same thing happens to tv shows. If anyone here has gotten any old tv shows, they may notice that the music isn't always the original from the series. That's for the same reason. So they record new music for the DVD's. It may sound like it, but you wonder why it doesn't seem right. Then you think that it's your memory. It's not (that's an assumption. It could be that too!
With copyright being extended around the world, I predict that some day it will become so complex that NO older music will ever be re-released.
I want to watch Top Gear in the Us but unfortunately The Discovery channel decided to stop showing the U.k. version and make their own.
I like Top Gear, but Clarkson can be a bit of a pig.
Lord forgive their melodramatic ways. Apple opened their first store in the US in 2001, and still to this day England is the only country in Europe with Apple stores. Give me a break.
My impressions based on what I've heard from other people is that Mel is right on this. Expanding to other countries is anything but a trivial task. Getting a business to work in one country doesn't mean transferring that business' system to another will work without a lot of changes.
Look forward to Terminator2, TotalRecall, Stargate.
Wow, that's disturbing to see those movies called "classics." Not that I don't actually enjoy all 3 of them, but I'd only consider T2 as a classic...and the other's as just shut-off-the-brain-and-enjoy flicks (despite Total Recall being based off a Philip K. Dick story, it becomes hokey rather fast).
Unfortunately, I much prefer the extended version of T2 that isn't available on iTunes. And I much prefer my movies in 5.1 digital surround, which also isn't available on iTunes either.
I'm really at a loss to see any value in buying movies from iTunes. Lower quality video, lower quality audio, no bonus features, no subtitles, no alternate audio languages. No ability to burn it to a become a regular DVD video. Especially using these 3 movies as an example; they are all readily available at local retailers like Walmart or Target for less than the $9.99 they'll cost on iTunes. Inferior product for a higher price, what a wonderful concept!
I like Top Gear, but Clarkson can be a bit of a pig.
I think that is part of the reason that I like the show. Since it is funded by the government Top Gear is much more brutal and honest then any add supported show can be in the U.S. I have only been to the U.K. once so I do not consider my self an expert but the U.K. seems like much more of a Pc type society then the U.S and I am amazed that Clarkson is allowed on the air.
I'm really at a loss to see any value in buying movies from iTunes. Lower quality video, lower quality audio, no bonus features, no subtitles, no alternate audio languages. No ability to burn it to a become a regular DVD video. Especially using these 3 movies as an example; they are all readily available at local retailers like Walmart or Target for less than the $9.99 they'll cost on iTunes. Inferior product for a higher price, what a wonderful concept!
If price is the only issue, tell me why people shop as Best Buy? Right, convenience (and a bit of sadomasochism). Why pay $3.99 for oil at a quickie mart? Convenience (and lack of a clue). Sure, those movies are at WalMart, but "they're at WalMart!" Our culture is so 'I need it now' these days, and Apple is cashing in. I'm glad to see them finally riding the wave, instead of sinking.
I'd never buy a movie from iTS, but, I won't get in anyone else's way--nor would I ridicule them when they support one of my favorite brands.