Advanced Television

Walking Dead a hit with pirates despite free stream

October 15, 2013

By Nik Roseveare

walking-deadAMC’s The Walking Dead returned to US TV screens on October 13th for its fourth season, delivering the highest ratings of any episode in its history. The season four premiere was watched by 16.1 million total viewers and 10.4 million adults aged 18-49. AMC said that factoring in time-shifted seven day viewing the show will comfortably hit the 20 million viewer mark.

The ratings confirm The Walking Dead continues to be the top ranked show on all of US TV among the coveted 18-49 demographic. The premiere ranks as the top rated telecast for the demographic in 2013 so far, outperforming all programmes including primetime NFL football.

The Season 4 debut also, unsurprisingly, proved a hit with pirates. According to TorrentFreak, the premiere episode was downloaded more than half a million times in the first few hours after its US broadcast. Curiously, the highest ranked country on the list of the tracked downloads were from the US – despite AMC making the show available for free streaming on its website.

The UK will have to wait until October 18th to see the first episode of Season 4 on the Fox channel.

Categories: Articles, Broadcast, Content, Piracy