Summary
4 September 2009
New figures show a surge in the numbers of people using the internet to watch unauthorised copies of television programmes. While American drama series are the most popular, millions of people are also downloading the British programme Top Gear.
Reporter:
Rory Cellan-Jones
Singer Lionel Richie on Top Gear, the 大象传媒's motoring magazine show
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Report
Visits to web sites offering illegal access to music and video have nearly doubled over the last year, and increasingly it's television and films which are being sought out.
The media measurement firm Big Champagne has compiled a top ten of illegal downloads. It's dominated by American drama series, with 55 million people downloading episodes of Heroes in the first half of this year. But the 大象传媒's Top Gear is also amongst the most pirated programmes, with hundreds of thousands of people, many in the United States, downloading each episode of the recent series.
Despite the apparent surge in piracy, the researchers say television should not suffer as much damage to its revenues as the music business has faced.
Rory Cellan-Jones, 大象传媒 News
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Vocabulary
- offering illegal access to
allowing users to download without paying, which is against the law
- nearly doubled
become almost twice as high
- sought out
here, looked for/searched for actively and extensively in order to download
- compiled
put together, collected information about
- it's dominated by
here, the biggest number of illegal downloads are of
- amongst the most pirated programmes
one of the programmes that are downloaded illegally most often
- the apparent surge in
what looks like a sudden increase in
- suffer as much damage to its revenues
be as badly affected, as far as making money is concerned
- faced
had to deal with
