Prison Break is back soon, but this time it is on satellite after being bounty hunted by Sky One. This is going to disappoint a lot of loyal fans who have stuck with it through two seasons on five.
Sky is always doing this. They don’t identify brand new shows as having potential, invest in them and cultivate an audience. They wait for another broadcaster to build up a following and then poach it. They did it with 24, they did it with Lost and now they have done it with Prison Break. Heroes will be next, just see if it isn’t.
There is one upside to Sky’s adoption of these shows: they broadcast them much earlier than the terrestrial channels had been doing. Prison Break is back on September 24th; if it was still on five we would have to wait till February 2008. Last season’s episodes of Lost were broadcast mere days after they aired in America.
If there’s one thing Sky should do, they should exercise their option to sell on the rights to terrestrial broadcasters so that those without Sky can catch these shows at a later date. Then they would make money and also retain the cachet of being first with the big shows. So far, however, Sky has not done this, no doubt to maintain complete exclusivity and secure more subscribers.
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