Re: Syfy Cancels Stargate Universe
While I agree on the torrenting bit, that's mainly because of the revenue stream of the TV network. Their main source of income is cable fees and/or advertising. But experience tells us that ther ARE actually other ways to generate revenue on the internet. Everything doesn't have to rely on the outdated ways of providing entertainment. The challenge is to ensure that you generate a new type of revenue stream to go with the new presentation. Sure you can build a browser or viewer that displays adds, or you can release the files as torrents with adds in them. You can even sell the eps online for a buck a piece, or let people DVR/TIVO them and watch at their leisure. And many companies do this already, and it doesn't show up in the current ratings system. The fact that syfy hasn't entered this decade yet doesn't mean that the nielsen ratings systems is accurately portraying the potential income stream, because it only portrays a rough estimate of the cable viewers likes and interests.
Unfortunately that's the system we live under. But as viewers demand other means of getting their TV fix, I'm sure more networks will follow.
That said, I doubt ANY kind of added revenue would have been able to save SG-U. Because I too believe that scifi should revolve around the intricacies of the world that it is set in, not the people in it.