SciFi Wire: Official SciFi Channel ratings for Season Ten

[Dutch_Razor]

Still waiting to see it

And btw how much do you think 18,000 will matter out of 2,000,000 chevron?

And obviously it is easier to watch it on Sci-Fi then to download it, if you are able to get Sci-Fi.

[glennh73]

Actually Stargate is owned by just MGM and not Sony so i think only MGM get the money from Stargate.

[Famous]

And btw how much do you think 18,000 will matter out of 2,000,000 chevron?

Considering we need every person we can get so that the show can keep going, I'd say it matters quite a lot.

[Wraith_Hunter]

Exactly. Downloading is very much like TV-watching. If you think the series is bad, you won't waste your internet time on it (the speed slows down because of the downloading).

Those that download will obvious not have access to SciFi, which means they won't count in the Nielsen Ratings, and thus won't affect the ratings of the show.

It's not like tv watching because it's watched on a computer monitor. It doesn't matter if people download something because they think it's great or a pile of crap. Even if they thought that it was the greatest thing ever, it still harms the show in the long run. As for speeds, I know how to get it within 3 hours of it being aired on a Fri night at full speed. Even the next day or so, it still can go to around 80/90% constant speed. It's only crappy kiddie torre##s that suffer from speed problems.

It doesn't matter if they don't have SciFi or not, chances are unless they live in the north pole then they will get it at some point on another channel.

As to it not affecting the ratings, about that your completely wrong. Both shows have started with poor ratings this season, it may be shown in America first. However a few months later Canadian & UK viewers get it & make up most of the fan base as I know other English speaking countries like Australia etc don't get it until well after the season has already finished. So when these countries finally get it, thousands of viewers have already seen the episode via downloads. Therefore when they finally air in the respective countries, a lot of the fansbase won't watch them because they've already seen them.

This means less viewers, so the tv/cable channels will be willing to pay less to Sony for broadcast rights etc. So with dwindling US audiences, at least if the show does well in other parts of the world, then it's an incentive3 to keep the shows going. However if these start dwindling because of viewers downloading the eps months early. Then Sony is going to one day very soon pull the plug on SG-1 or Atlantis or even both as the financial incentive is no longer there anymore.

Take this as a point, just after new year. The US started a week ahead of the UK. It aired on Fri is the US, while 4 days later on the Tue in the UK. To my astonishment, I read posts from people who admitted downloading the ep on the Fri because they couldn't wait till the Tue. How the fuc# could they contain themselves when Stargate has ended & they a 5/6 month waiting period till new eps came along.

The way things are heading, I think this may be coming close to the end of the road for SG. Wonder how these fans can download shows that aren't even being made any longer!

[gkyun]

That's just one of the problems with a show as successful as Stargate, that people living outside the US don't have the patience to wait 5/6 months for the new seasons and they'd just download the eps as soon as they're up on the net and you can't really blame them 'cause they love Stargate.

Now those who have SciFi but still do downloads are the ones we should despise.

[Wraith_Hunter]

That's just one of the problems with a show as successful as Stargate, that people living outside the US don't have the patience to wait 5/6 months for the new seasons and they'd just download the eps as soon as they're up on the net and you can't really blame them 'cause they love Stargate.

Now those who have SciFi but still do downloads are the ones we should despise.

Why, aren't they both equally as bad as the other? This is the problem, I've heard a few posts on this over the past couple of years. The basic defence for the downloaders is that this generation has created a bunch that are too used to getting everything without having to wait for it! This or the networks for not airing it at the same time as Scifi. This is a bolloc#s & totally unreasonable excuse. Simply because it's made & aimed primarily for US audiences. Therefore they will obviously get first shot. Then comes the fact that other countries don't have as big of a national fanbase. So they won't be paying the same amount of SciFi to get it straight away. Instead they'll hang out for months, just so they can secure a better licensing deal & get it cheaper. However when this does happen, the viewing figures have gone down dramatically from what they expected. This is because most have already downloaded & viewed it months earlier. This means that this particular broadcaster will either leave it many more months again to get a cheaper deal because they don't have the loyal fansbase to support the license fee that was paid to secure the rights to Stargate. Or more likely they will simply stop ordering it at all. This gets back to Sony, who look at the falling figures in their main market. Then look at the falling viewing figures in other countries. Suddenly as the viewing figures are in decline, then will shortly end up as seeing it no longer as a profitable venture. Which ultimately means it'll get it's ass canned.

So for all the illehal downloaders, who only download because they love the show & can't wait a few months till it airs in their respective countries. I ask you this then....How many new eps will they be able to download of their beloved gate when it gets canned? The way things are going, it may be much, much sooner than later!

[Descent]

I really really hope the ratings made a sharp climb up, these seasons have been really great so far. And yes, people who are able to watch the shows live on Sci-Fi but instead choose to download = bad.

[Dutch_Razor]

Uhm HELLO?

A few months?

We are at season 7 right now!

How long do you think that is waiting?

And don't talk about Atlantis because nobody even heard about it here.

And, the channel that airs it, just canceled the reruns of season 1 to where they are now, in the middle of a cliffhanger, because the new Friends or whatever came out.

So how big is the chance they will air the rest of season 7, 8,9,10?

When the ratings from here start to count, Stargate will be as old as star trek I'm sure.

[freyr's mother]

I really really hope the ratings made a sharp climb up,

Don't worry, they'll come back up. Especially because

Spoiler:

Jack is coming back in the next ep.

[Descent]

Don't worry, they'll come back up. Especially because

Spoiler:

Jack is coming back in the next ep.

Well thats a given, I have no doubt '200' will be the highest rated episode this season.

[Vandog]

Why, aren't they both equally as bad as the other? This is the problem, I've heard a few posts on this over the past couple of years. The basic defence for the downloaders is that this generation has created a bunch that are too used to getting everything without having to wait for it! This or the networks for not airing it at the same time as Scifi. This is a bolloc#s & totally unreasonable excuse. Simply because it's made & aimed primarily for US audiences. Therefore they will obviously get first shot. Then comes the fact that other countries don't have as big of a national fanbase. So they won't be paying the same amount of SciFi to get it straight away. Instead they'll hang out for months, just so they can secure a better licensing deal & get it cheaper. However when this does happen, the viewing figures have gone down dramatically from what they expected. This is because most have already downloaded & viewed it months earlier. This means that this particular broadcaster will either leave it many more months again to get a cheaper deal because they don't have the loyal fansbase to support the license fee that was paid to secure the rights to Stargate. Or more likely they will simply stop ordering it at all. This gets back to Sony, who look at the falling figures in their main market. Then look at the falling viewing figures in other countries. Suddenly as the viewing figures are in decline, then will shortly end up as seeing it no longer as a profitable venture. Which ultimately means it'll get it's ass canned.

So for all the illehal downloaders, who only download because they love the show & can't wait a few months till it airs in their respective countries. I ask you this then....How many new eps will they be able to download of their beloved gate when it gets canned? The way things are going, it may be much, much sooner than later!

Point 1: Stargate was supposed to be canned after seasons 5, 6 ( with a movie following full circle which became Lost City Parts 1 and 2), 7, 8, 9 (somewhat anyway). Downloading has been a problem since the show first came out in 1997. Doesn't seem to have slowed the show down at all as the ratings got higher each successive season. Mind you Season 10 is off to a poor start, it has very little to nothing to do with downloads.

Point 2: Stargate is MUCH larger in the UK & France then it is in the US. Way bigger, you can look it up for yourself. The show is not made primarily for the US Audience. That is just ridiculas.

Point 3: Connecting to point 2, Canada get's the entire second half of Atlantis seasons before the US's second have even starts. I'm not sure where you were going with your networks arguements. I admit I may not have understood it properly.

Point 4: SCIFI looks at the numbers for whether or not the show continues, not Sony or MGM. Furthermore, MGM is its own Entity within the Sony Corporation, they would have more involvement with the show then Sony would.

Point 5: The way everyone talks in this forum, all those anti-season threads and hate threads it seems that downloading is the last thing that will get this show canned because so many people already have problems with the show. They've stopped watching because RDA left, they stopped watching because there isn't RDA/SAM shipping. People don't like Cam, people hate Vala. They've stopped watching. There's hundreds of reasons why this show could be canned (not to mention it's 10 years old!), and downloading is at the very bottom of the list.


Edit:

Point 6: for sh*t's and giggles, downloaders had to wait the exact amount of time to see the show as the US audience did during the breaks. Not really a relevent point, but whatever.

[freyr's mother]

Well thats a given, I have no doubt '200' will be the highest rated episode this season.

Yeah, good point. The ep does look sort of corny and probably wont make any sense, but hey; it jack we're talking about. The atlantis ratings for return will surely be jacked up sky high though.

[Vandog]

Wraith Hunter,

I somewhat regret the statement I made about how ridiculas it is that the show is made solely for the US audience.

I thought about it, it somewhat is. It is SCI-FI that decides whether the show continues or not. SCI-FI decides depending on the ratings the show gets, among other reasons. So it is important that the show do well in the States, so the show should get special attention to attract the US audience more then any other country.

Consider this though, the ratings SCI-FI use are for the US Audience only. How does someone downloading the show from Australia effect the US ratings to which decide whether or not the show continues? It doesn't, in any way. The only problem with downloading would be people downloading it from within the United States rather then watching it on SCI-FI, a channel they can get and no one else can. Furthermore, if that person in the US downloads and they don't have SCI-FI & never did then they have never been important to the US ratings ever since SCI-FI picked up the show ( /run on sentence). It would be nice if they did get SCI-FI though, more people watching in the US the better of course.

Last point. Wouldn't someone downloading from say...from Canada or the UK hurt the ratings in that country when it is finally shown months later on TV there? Possibly, I honestly don't know. But I do know this, SG-1 is HUGE on Space Channel. SG-1 is massively HUGE on Sky-One. Huge enough that they want as much of the show as they can get. Downloading (and the small amount of people that download the show worldwide, considering how many millions and millions watch it on tv) is, at most, a minor irritation to those channels/networks. If it was such a problem for Sci-FI, Sky-One etc... why wouldn't they simply establish a pay-per-episode download service. It is not hard to do! It is also very easy to make that service work only for people within that country (UK Service only services UK citizens etc, sorta like how ITUNES does it, I can not use the US Itunes service because I do not live in America).

[Freekzilla]

Actually Stargate is owned by just MGM and not Sony so i think only MGM get the money from Stargate.

In case you didn't know, Sony bought out MGM. So MGM is a part of Sony now. Sony also owns NBC, and SciFi is part of the NBC group. But Sony is the parent company of all of them now, sorta.

Here's the Official corporate line about it:

MGM is owned by an investor consortium comprised of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corporation of America, Comcast Corporation, DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group.

[Dutch_Razor]

Oh well I know I watch the eps when they air.

Except with Teal'c as a fireman and Grace ,one time is enough for those.

Although I watched some of Grace's commercial breaks though.