Hey, I'm in Thailand. How am I supposed to get anything if I don't download!!!!
Thank god for the internet. I can keep up with Lost and Bill Maher and not feel totally isolated.
One thing none of you touched on is censorship. I can tell you firsthand about that. While this country is not one that usually comes up in such discussions, they have their own priorities and values they feel they must uphold. Consequently, no Bill Maher even tho we get HBO on satellite. Guess he's too controversial.
So I gotta do the Demonoid thing.
Lemme tell ya, these TV networks should be kissing the bittorrent sites collective ass for making this stuff available to the world. It is increasing awareness to an extent that the networks couldn't even dream of.

i live on the other side of the world from you guys, so i dont have a choice but to use bittorrent to get my Lost and BSG fix!
however, i am shocked that there are morons in the usa , who have easy access to these shows (yes, getting cable is cheap and easy!) are actually using bittorrent to download them!

no wonder these shows arent #1, when its obvious there are millions downloading and watching. if you have access to these shows other than downloading, you SHOULD watch it live, then download a commercial free one if you like.

this especially applies to nielsen families!

re: bbc/dr who. that touches to another big bummer: international rights. being on the wrong side of the pond when it comes to shows like Reaper or Lost or you have it, I'm not allowed to watch any of those shows even on the legal plattforms - 'cause they don't have the international rights.
maybe they should just sell those rights according to language versions - not territory, as the latter concept becomes increasingly inadequate in this day and age as far as viewing content is concerned.
And yes: advertising would be fine for me (at least for some shows-others I#d prefer ad-free and thus would be prepared to pay for). but alas - even thinking about that crash-lands a host of legal concepts.

I don't feel guilty or feel like apologising for using bittorrents one bit. I live in the UK, and am not prepared to wait six months to watch a show to someone else's schedule packed with adverts, plus a further year to buy the DVD when a) I want to be visiting IMDB etc. and talking about the shows with other fans (this newfangled 'global community' etc.) and b) there's absolutely no technical reasons why I can't watch it now. I love House and 24, and when it's seven clicks away (I counted), and 20 minutes of downloading times, nothing's going to tempt me to wait.

And despite the networks distrust in the technology, it's led to me buying extra DVDs. I would NEVER have heard/watched of Arrested Development without bittorrents, yet to date I've bought three copies of the boxsets - one for me, which quickly wore down, another for me, and a lending set as so many people keep asking to borrow it (some of whom have then bought the DVD). Bittorrents did more for that show than Fox's marketing department ever did.

I've said it before, the community torrent sites put any network offering to shame, and if they commercialised bittorrent, I'd happily pay $1 or $2 for a Divx, non-advert episode, which over the course of a season would be the equivalent of a DVD sale, without ANY of the physical costs related to producing a DVD etc.

So I feel no shame in using bittorrents, and I won't be stopped. But again, my wallet's waiting for a legal service.

And I'd like to add that it's not solely "younger" viewers. While younger viewers are probably the vast majority, I know several "fifty-somethings" who might admit to possibly considering entertaining the idea of thinking about watching via torrents.

you forget to mention ad-free nature of buttorrent downloads.

I'd be interested to see this list in a week where there's a new episode of Doctor Who, since that's the only way to stay current in the states.