CBS and Time Warner Cable dispute fuels rise in piracy of ‘Under The Dome’

The dispute between Time Warner Cable and CBS doesn’t seem to be coming to an end anytime soon, leaving fans of Under The Dome who happen to live in the areas affected by the CBS blackout and TWC subscribers trying to find new ways to watch the show. A noticeable spike in piracy of Under The Dome episodes has occurred since the blackout started Friday.

According to TorrentFreak, which tracks BitTorrent and other online piracy activity, data showed that people in Los Angeles, New York City, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit and Pittsburgh - the cities where CBS has been blocked since Friday for TWC subscribers - had been pirating episodes of Under The Dome more than those in other cities. Overall piracy activity for the show jumped 34 percent.

The site’s data shows that 10.9 percent of all U.S. downloaders of the show are from those cities without CBS. After Monday’s episode aired, that jumped to 14.6 percent.

Prior to the blackout, New York City downloaders accounted for 1.3 percent, but that’s jumped to 3 percent since the blackout started.

With piracy jumping, it should be noted that the show hit a series low in viewership on Monday, with 10.49 million people tuning in. That’s compared to 11.41 million viewers the previous week.

Meanwhile, Deadline is reporting that the two sides are heading back to the negotiating table.

The dispute is over retransmission fees, which TWC has to pay in order to carry CBS. TWC claims that CBS is asking for too much of a raise, while CBS says that it is looking for what it deserves. The blackout has left an estimated 3 million people without access to CBS.

image: CBS

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