For the past few weeks, SciFi.com has been giving viewers an early look at that week's episode, online. The first and second episodes were shown only at noon Eastern, while the third (last week) was shown every hour throughout the morning and afternoon. In all cases, you couldn't rewind or pause the feed, and there are short commercials throughout. This was fantastic for fans eager to see the episode early -- until today, that is.Sci Fi's website promised a noon "preview" of tonight's episode, which to most meant would be the same, full-episode preview we've been seeing this season. Instead, viewers got the shaft after about 20 minutes of the episode airing, including ending the viewing with a commercial.
The SciFi.com forums are obviously abuzz with pissed-off fans, some saying they won't bother to tune in tonight, just to show their anger toward Sci Fi. I'm definitely disappointed at the virtual blue-balls Sci Fi gave us with this episode, but I'll be damned if I'm not tuning in tonight. I just hope that, in the future, viewers will get a little more warning instead of us planning full lunch breaks around this.
Unfortunately for me (and readers), this means my review will be up all the later tonight. Anyone else feel shafted by what Sci Fi pulled?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-25-2008 @ 1:15PM
IceAero said...
Show us the whole episode? Sure!
Show us 20 minutes? Ok, if you MUST.
So you wonder what Not to do?
NOT SAYING WHICH ONE IT'S GOING TO BE.
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4-25-2008 @ 1:18PM
whahaa said...
very much shafted.
skiffy was asked directly on their own forum whether this week's preview would be a full episode or not. they were asked clearly and repeatedly all week. they gave no answer. this was a dick-yank to drive numbers up for some jerk's powerpoint presentation.
they kept the numbers high for the webcast, the forums took a boots after the surprise, and the the audience needs to tune in to watch later tonight too. win win win for them.
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4-25-2008 @ 1:34PM
Occulus said...
"they kept the numbers high for the webcast, the forums took a boots after the surprise, and the the audience needs to tune in to watch later tonight too. win win win for them."
Except for one thing, which always seems to be forgotten in situations like this.
A couple of the users on the BSG 'surprise' thread over at Skiffy are Neilsen viewers, with a box or a diary. They have said they'll simply not make the entry, or change the channel. That's at least 1000 viewers in each of their markets which have been 'lost', and I'm willing to bet that other Neilsen viewers who read that thread are considering the same thing. If I had a diray to fill out (like I once did), you better believe their ratings would take a hit from me as well.
In the end, that's all that matters, and it isn't as if hosing their ratings in response to this frakup will hurt the show or get it canceled, as it's in its final season anyway. That said, the only people whose opinions matter regarding a television show are the Neilsen viewers; all the rest of us can do is vent.
So vent- at Intel. It ended with their commercial.
Talk about a slap in the face.
4-25-2008 @ 1:19PM
ProgGrrl said...
"virtual blue-balls"?
ROFLMAO
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4-25-2008 @ 1:26PM
Davie McSciFi said...
I am sure Sci-Fi was counting the number of hits to see how many people were watching, and just so happened to count all of the "Refresh" hits in those tally's. Their numbers can easily increase 10 times over.
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4-25-2008 @ 3:02PM
liammmc said...
That is a bush league move on Sci Fi's part. That said, you should count yourselves lucky that you got to watch any of their online content. Here in Canada we can't even access the online content of the US Networks. Which I could almost forgive if our own sci fi channel Space (which boadcasts BSG in Canada) were to stream it from their own site, but alas they do not.
I'd love to say I'll boycott tonight's episode, but like any Crack addict, the withdrawls would just be too much to handle.
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4-25-2008 @ 4:28PM
obadiah spittle said...
I think it's an absolutely stupid idea to do the web-only preview anyway. It cannibalizes the numbers of the viewing, and now sets up for a big public relations kerfuffle.
A better move would be to begin selling commercial-free downloads in the 24-hour period before it airs.
Online streaming is in its infancy, and the last thing the entire industry needs is for fans to be ticked off in this way.
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4-25-2008 @ 5:56PM
bamberluvr said...
Why boycott the show? It's not as if RDM said "Screw the fans." People should stop going to the SciFi website - they count the numbers of people who visit. Let them feel it that way - site advertisers will, in turn, let them know their displeasure, too.
BTW, they already have an ad up for next week's episode touting it as a "preview" and a "sneak peek." Looks like showing a whole episode before it airs is over. Would have been nice if they had at least informed the fans --- but they have always treated us like sh*t.
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4-25-2008 @ 6:42PM
Dorv said...
I hadnt gotten the opportunity to actually watch one of the online showings the last two weeks, but I had noticed that they now referred to it as a preview, which IIRC, wasnt the case in the past, which is why I opted out today.
I think scifi did something cool the first two weeks and altered it this week. Sorry guys, I dont think they did anything wrong.
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4-25-2008 @ 7:31PM
LordPaul said...
Why would a "fan" boycot the full episode because a sub standard quality version is only half shown a few hours before the full HD version??
Seems a bit odd if you ask me.
Saying that, I'll be downloading it from the US networks in the morning & watching it again in full HD when Sky show it on Tuesday...
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4-26-2008 @ 4:06AM
Discosis said...
Well this week we found out that CW is experimenting with the online streaming of Gossip Girl by nixing it and seeing if it drives up the ratings. Seems like SciFi thought it was a good experiment for them too.
So it'll either spike the ratings, or spike the torrents. Anyone care to guess which?
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4-30-2008 @ 12:57PM
Cold Chilli said...
What do you not understand about "Preview"???
Its a taste of the full episode. And we were lucky in earlier weeks to get full episodes.
Why would they want to keep this as full episodes?
bastardize the Nielsen market or let the web post spoilers on the message boards ? The latter is probably what hapend and pissed of a Sci-fi exec.
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