Television studios have always introduced new shows with carefully calculated marketing formulas. The process has worked so well, that it has become virtually an industry standard. When it comes to the introduction of new shows, it is one of the few times that the networks seem to agree –

engaging in a dance of press releases, up fronts, and television critic tours that seem more like a finely choreographed ballet than an inter-market competition. However, over the last few years, studio execs have found the final phase of this process thrown into chaos: critical review.

Until recently, studios were very careful about who they allowed to review their new warez. Publicists would come to know the likes and dislikes of specific, influential television reviewers and lists would be made, screeners mailed, and fingers crossed. Critics who did not take a shine to sci-fi would be crossed off the Bionic Woman list, while wild-eyed genre fan boys would be deprived the latest interpersonal drama du jour.

The idea being, you give your screeners to the critics you think will be predisposed to the material, resulting in a glowing review that with a little luck will proliferate into the world of word of mouth. The internet's impact on this part of the equation has been a bonus for marketing execs, a little positive hype can travel a long way on the forum paved roads of the internet, particularly when there is no negative buzz to counter it. This is where the internet becomes a double edged sword.

In today's market, as soon as screeners hit the streets they are converted into various portable video formats and almost immediately uploaded to any of the thousands of file sharing servers in existence. The proliferation of screeners, or 'Preairs' as they are known in the file sharing community, is so fast that there are often reviews percolating up from the filer sharers themselves.

Where a few years back, potential viewers might traverse reviews on sites like E!Online, Entertainment Weekly, or TV Guide to get a feel for what a new show might offer ahead of airing, now readers can find reactions right in comment section of such reviews from fans that have also seen the show. This can create an awkward balance, particularly when the majority of commenters are in disagreement with the reviewer.

I Asked Smaran, an author for the file sharing news blog torrentfreak.com, if the number of people downloading and sharing screeners has increased at all in recent years. "It sure has. The funny thing is that there weren't as many pre-airs being leaked, even a year ago. And of those that were being leaked, none were leaked a year before they were scheduled to be aired. But now, we have shows like The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which is going to be aired in early 2008, show up on BitTorrent sites." Smaran said.

On one torrent site alone, I found that the pilot for Bionic Woman had been downloaded over 39,000 times. Moreover, that was only a single source. Unfortunately, my request for the number of screeners distributed by Bionic Woman's network, NBC, was declined.

The sites that provide the 'torrent' files needed to download the shows, often allow their visitors to comment on the quality of the encoding, as well as the subject matter of the show. For example, one users review of Bionic Woman stated "Wow, this was quite disappointing. Pedestrian writing, directing and editing. The action sequences were boring and lacked imagination - actually the whole show was boring. Even Katee Sackhoff couldn't save it." Definitely not the kind of buzz NBC was hoping for.

The opinions generated by these amateur reviewers doesn't remain confined to file sharing message boards though, many of these downloaders make their way onto Internet Movie Database, Tv.com, or Television Without Pity to make their opinions known, and these are the exact same places marketing execs hope fans will echo their more targeted reviews.

The result is, the voice of the people is now louder than that of the critics in the online community. Professional critics are simply outnumbered by opinionated viewers with access to the same amount of information they have to base an opinion on. The result is, the popular consensus has a tendency to rise to the top, regardless of what the industry leaders have to say.

Is the television market onto this fact already, though? Smaran seems to think so. "It has increased to such a great amount that we're starting to wonder if it's merely a coincidence or if TV houses are purposefully leaking them in order to promote their shows. A lot of times, producers try to generate buzz for their show online by uploading teaser clips to YouTube. We've seen this with Jericho; its pilot was offered for free on the iTunes Store. Battlestar Galactica also had a series of 'webisodes' (short clips only made available online). At this time, one can only wonder if the studios 'get' BitTorrent, and are utilizing it as a promotional tool."

Whether the industry is complicit or not, the networks would be endangering their marketing efforts by not gauging the impact of illegal downloading. Most of the networks are not willing to acknowledge the impact of illegal downloading on their market. FOX currently stands alone in its efforts to prosecute file sharers over the leak of the first four episodes of season six of 24 last season. This is despite the fact that the show received mostly universal praise from the file sharing community.

In an age where the industries response to illegal distribution of currently airing shows has been to capitalize on the market and make them available on their own accord, would it make sense for studios to widen their distribution of screeners to reach more potential audience members? Perhaps the real question is, "Do they have a choice?"

- Jon Lachonis, Buddy TV Senior Writer