A pivotal event is about to happen, and it comes none too soon. In fact, it’s several years late, but I’ll take it and hopefully it will lead to some relief of the frustration I vented earlier about the slow distribution of shows to other countries than their origin, and how this facilitated piracy, but it didn’t have to be that way. The Walking Dead wil be making global distribution of the new season within 24 hours of its release in the U.S.
“The Walking Dead” wakes up and fights piracy by releasing global versions earlier
By Jason Lynch
Jason Lynch is the former television editor at People magazine.
In the coming days, zombies are going to take over the world. Again.
On Sunday, the horror series The Walking Dead kicks off its fourth season on AMC, and its premiere episode is packed with stomach-churning gore, nail-biting suspense and of course, zombies galore. It’s a brutal, bloody show that is seemingly not for everyone—except that everyone seems to be watching. In March, the third season finale drew its largest audience ever, with 12.4 million viewers tuning in, and if the show’s viewing trends continue, Sunday’s ratings should be even higher.
But US audiences won’t be the only ones getting their zombie fix. Within 24 hours of its US premiere, international viewers in more than 125 different countries will be able to watch as well... read the rest here
Yippee! No, I’m not a watcher of The Walking Dead, but this is huge! May other producers be so overcome that they follow suit like lemmings. Are you hearing this, BBC?
Some of you may be thinking, “What’s the big deal? For years we’ve been watching shows from other countries shortly after their release.” Yeah, I know, but you weren’t accessing them through legal means, and if you were, it was usually with quite a delay in watching, and many shows were not dubbed into other languages. So this is new, and more important a sign that the networks are waking up to the fact that not only do viewers not want to wait for their tv, but they won’t!*
*Last year a new show called Touch had a simultaneous global release, so The Walking Dead is not breaking entirely new ground but rather will receive more attention for this phenomenon, and that’s a good thing!
Note: I’m debating about putting the Richard Armitage tag on this one. I’m not entirely sure that he’s going back to tv, but he’s the one who got me interested in watching tv again, and I have wondered why HBO Game of Thrones is following me when I have never written about that show. Interesting. Yeah, this is getting the tag. :D
On a related note: if you’re smart, and I assume all of you who read this blog are smart :D, and you like to invest in the stock market, I hope you are doing research on the revolution about to happen with Google TV and Apple TV. Many of you folks in Kansas City know what I’m talkin’ about.
Okay, I feel another tangent coming on, so I’ll stop that line of thought.
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RAFrenzy 
This is really great news — I don’t watch Walking Dead, either, but the possibility that one feature of my early fandom that got me down every time I did it (though not enough to stop, admittedly) would not be necessary — priceless.
I know when game of thrones aired here it would only take a day for it to air in the UK, the bridge we have to gap between UK releases versus here is far bigger. I’m aware Benedict Cumberbatch has chipped in on the issue with Sherlock’s discrepancy. Dr. Who or Top Shop is about the week I believe between BBC & BBCA.
And if we are talking tv could we add the DVD issue and end this whole movie region business? Now that would be even lovelier :)
Just out of curiosity: I wonder what RA would look like as a zombie? Hmmmmm.
FYI what doesn’t help is BBC late announcement of airing of shows. We just heard a few days ago that The Paradise S2 will be airing Oct 20th.
The BBC has never been great about promotion. I don’t think they have the budget.
EEE, There may be a photo manipulation floating around of that! :D
In the meantime, this has always reminded me of a zombie.
Servetus, I’ve always been uncomfortable with it too! Glad the TPTB are finally doing something.
Lucas North as zombie (I think)
http://tall-for-a-dwarf.tumblr.com/post/62976149464/poor-lucas-he-was-never-the-same-after-he
I have absolutely no problem downloading programs I really want to watch from whatever source. I used to get vcr tapes from friends in other places and I see television as a free source. I draw the line at movies though. I believe that movies are not free and should not be downloaded. Yeah, I know tv isn’t totally free – licenses and cable fees, etc. So?? :D
Now he just needs a zombie girlfriend, some dastardly villains and we’ve got the makings of a great movie. Any volunteers for the girlfriend ;-)
Several of us fans have talked about making a film. Maybe this is it! :D
Well, some people felt Sarah Caulfield *was* a zombie .. just sayin’.
*grins*
:D definitely stiff.
I’m laughing really hard over here in Brooklyn, ladies. Keep it up.
Finally! Someone in a marketing department saw the dollar signs of targeting their film product to the whole world at the same time! Ka ching, ka ching! And it is a boon to fans eager to pay for the pleasure of these films and tv shows. A real win-win.
It’s great now that they’re starting to air shows in the UK shortly after they’ve aired in the US. That should cut down on piracy, because yes, having to wait a YEAR to see the next season of something that’s currently airing is not much fun, and if you can watch it the next day from an unauthorised streaming source … you probably will. If you have to wait a day, or even a week, after the US to see it, waiting isn’t that bad. Besides, watching it on TV vs watching a slow, pixelated stream … no contest. So yeah, more of this please. :D