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New anti-piracy site tells you which digital sites are actually legal

A new website listing legal sources of digital content for Australians has some pretty helpful options.

2014-03-27_1237A new website has launched as an industry move against online piracy, listing legal sources of digital television for Australian viewers.

www.finddigitaltv.com.au was produced by CASBAA, the industry association for multichannel television in Asia, and it lists both Free to Air and Subscription TV sites, plus a few others including Quickflix, Setanta Sports, ESPN and YouTube (it may have to remove Crackle given the site has indicated it will close in April).

It follows on from a similar online resource launched in Singapore last year but features Australian content creators and distributors.

What’s helpful about the site is that it allows you to highlight the sites that meet your needs according to genre, free / pay and the device you are using.

“Job security in the Australian television production industry is jeopardised by those who break the law by downloading pirate content,” Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association CEO, Andrew Maiden, said.

“This new list of legal sources of digital television removes another excuse used by Australian pirates to justify their actions,” he said.

“Many Australian consumers are still accessing pirate content and, unfortunately, piracy levels in Australia are high by any international standard,” John Medeiros, Chief Policy Officer, CASBAA, said.

“It is our hope that consumers would benefit from a service that will help them find the legitimate sources of content and therefore reduce the incentive to access pirated content,” he said.

A recent survey conducted for ASTRA by Auspoll found that 60 percent of respondents believed individuals involved in the supply of pirated television should be prosecuted and punished, and that 53 percent believed the Government should be taking further steps to prevent television piracy.

The industry has responded to piracy by taking steps to make content available easily, quickly and affordably.

In 2012/13 the subscription television industry made more than 10,000 hours of overseas-produced content – including 209 hours of premium drama – available to Australian subscribers within hours of it being broadcast abroad.

CASBAA, in association with international media and technology law firm Olswang, will this week also release a report, ‘Digital, Legal and Anywhere – Innovation in Australian TV’, which showcases the abundant audio-visual content available through media platforms and delivery mechanisms in this country.

A copy of the report can be downloaded at www.casbaa.com/publications.

15 Responses

  1. As what some have said some shows are not available and would do well for the networks if they were to make it available tenplay could have House of Lies and Californication (express from the US for the lattter). What is holding them back I just am baffled for simular issues with Seven and Nine.

  2. David according to a quick google search…

    “Crackle also operates in Canada, Australia, and almost 20 countries across Latin America. These international operations won’t be affected by Crackle UK’s closure “

  3. I agree with others that it isn’t a problem of there not being methods for legally viewing programs, but rather the time lapse between the programs U.S. broadcast and their Australian broadcast. I am a platinum Foxtel subscriber so that’s $136 a month going to the Australian television economy. Then I purchase a large variety of TV series on DVD (I think currently I have over a dozen series, each series averaging over 3 seasons each) which roughly be $1000 spent – another means by which money is being put into the producers/distributers pockets. But there is no legal means to watch Royal Pains season 4 (Seven), Covert Affairs season 4 (Seven), Sullivan & Son season 1.5< (Nine), Necessary Roughness (no Aust. broadcaster), etc.

  4. The Problem with this it still does not give you access to the more illegally pirated and more in demand shows.

    For example
    Game of Thrones
    True Detective
    House of Cards

    I expect GOT s4 to be illegally downloaded big time.

  5. @Angela – Breaking Bad was available on Foxtel within hours of being broadcast abroad. That is not a good example.

    Better examples would be The Good Wife, The Simpsons and Mom.

  6. Methinks this ‘public notice’ by CASBAA is little more than the same new approach adopted by RIAA who found that suing lil’ old ladies and teenagers who downloaded a couple of songs from teh interwebs generated more bad publicity than an ICAC… and rightly so. I’ll bet London to a brick that the Oz public is sick and tired of paying exhorbitant prices for software/songs/movies/et al, and waiting ridiculous periods of time b4 FTA decide to screen current US/Brit hits and are happy to take matters into their own hands.

    The internet tide is coming in FTA television, and unless you want to get your feet wet you had better move with the times and stop treating viewers like trash.

  7. Is incredibly frustrating when many overseas shows take so damn long to make it onto our screens in Aus.
    Breaking Bad is a perfect example – the only way I could see it on FTA television was by patiently waiting for each season to be screened on ABC 2 , around 9 months after it was shown in the US.
    Would have still been waiting for the last 8 eps, including the final to be screened almost a year later if I hadn’t given up and eventually bought the DVD..

  8. What I find incredibly annoying is that I spent $2000+ on a smart TV and only ABC and SBS bother to create catch-up apps for it. I don’t want to sit at my PC or watch on my iPad or iPhone.
    However my smart TV does have media streaming capabilities from Plex Media Server on my Desktop allowing me to watch content I could obtain from other sources as downloaded files. Perhaps if the FTA networks put some effort into using smart TVs to their full capability, people may use their service rather than obtaining elsewhere.

  9. I believe Crackle is only closing down in UK.

    But I don’t even believe there is a Crackle app for Aus PS Vita accounts so that information doesn’t seem right to me.

  10. Will it tell me where I can watch Arrow, Under The Dome, Sleepy Hollow, Once Upon A Time, Once Upon A Time In Wonderland, Family Guy, Agents Of SHIELD and Resurrection in high definition and within a couple of weeks of the US?

    1. Under the Dome was fast-tracked so tenplay is the answer there. Resurrection is 3 eps old in the US and available here on Plus7 so that sorts that one. Sleepy Hollow started out fast-tracked initially.

  11. Does this mean anything outside of this is being illegally obtained regardless of method? I don’t download/stream/torrent as I’m not sure whats legal/illegal.

  12. No offense, but its a lot of nothing

    TENPlay is not an available app on the PS3, so its already wrong there

    I want a site to tell me where i can watch and legally pay to stream live AFL games onto my PC. The AFL site doesnt let me do it, Foxtel’s PC app doesnt allow Fox Footy either, and I dont want to watch on my iPad

    But wait, those illegal sports streaming site have exactly what I want, and I dont have to pay.

    Someone loses out on my money – thats not my issue. That site tells me nothing

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