Netflix is great at catching up on old seasons of shows you may have missed, but it’s lacking when it comes to getting new shows on quickly — at least in the U.S. The U.K., however, is going to be getting the last eight episodes of Breaking Bad on Netflix immediately after they air. That’s even faster than I can get them on iTunes.
This isn’t anything new of Netflix UK. They’ve offered the same immediacy with episodes of AMC’s other-other-other original show The Killing. It’s meant as a way to help bridge the gap between American entertainment and the rest of the world, and to cut down on piracy.
There used to be a much longer wait for American content to make its way overseas, and the reverse was true as well. It wasn’t long ago that I had to wait a week to see the latest Doctor Who episodes after they aired in the U.K.
Even now, to watch Who legally without a cable or satellite subscription (which I do not have) I have to wait until the morning after to get it on iTunes. Someone in my position might, for a hypothetical example, download the latest episode illegally after it airs in the U.K., and then download it legally through iTunes when it’s available.
The logic in offering the new Breaking Bad episodes through a legitimate outlet like Netflix is that it means people are less likely to pirate them illegally. It’s a common argument from those that do pirate media online that if it were available to be purchased as easily as it is to steal it, they’d be happy to pay.
Hopefully the move will prove effective, and cause more networks to realize that it’s time to make getting their content online legally as easy as it is to get it illegally. Trust us, it’s really easy to get it online illegally.
(via The Verge, image via AMC)
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