YouTube screws non-US netizens with US-only full length TV eps

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Sunday, 12 October 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! YouTube finally gets the right to legally show full length episodes of select TV shows, such as Star Trek, MacGyver and the original 90210 from CBS, then screws all those Internet users not in the US by saying "This video is not available in your country". Thanks YouTube and CBS for nothing! It sounded so cool – full-length TV shows on YouTube at last! Legally, and paid for by in-stream TV commercials just like on regular TV, freeing YouTube from the curse of the 10 minute video length and even helping it to earn much more serious ad revenue. But only if you live in the United States of America. Most likely this restriction is at the behest of US television broadcaster CBS, which also stopped the Adobe Media Player from broadcasting its episodes to a global audience, but it’s damned annoying for international YouTube users who are left out, plain and simple. To even get to see the official YouTube blog entry in question, I had to tell YouTube.com that I wanted to see the Worldwide version – not the Australian version of the site, which was only letting me see the Australian YouTube blog, where surprise surprise – no mention of full length TV shows can be found. No doubt this is the same in other countries, but once I’d selected the worldwide YouTube, I could then visit the official US blog. Here we can see the entry called “Hungry for more? YouTube now serving full-length TV dinners”. Here we learn that YouTube is “starting to test full-length programming on YouTube, beginning with some fan favorites requested by you.” At this rate, if YouTube ever does bring full-length TV shows to Australia, we’re going to be regaled with the same poor selection already available from Australian TV network websites, with programs such as McLeod’s Daughters, Canal Road and Sea Patrol II. Yep... can’t wait. Er... not. So what’s on offer for those lucky US YouTube users? Please read on to page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

< Next story in category		Previous story in the category >

Visitors last 30 days Suscribers

904,266 13,751