Strike one up for the power of the Internet and people power!

In a huge departure from the past, UK monopobroadcaster Sky (owner's of FOX and MySpace) has decided to throw in the towel and actually give people what they really want. Recognizing that large numbers of viewers in the UK are pissed off with having to wait months for popular US shows like Lost and 24 to turn up on British screens, and instead have been turning to Bittorrent to download the shows themselves, Sky has announced that starting in February, Lost will air 4 days after it's broadcast in the States. It's only taken 50 years, but finally the artificial geographical boundaries created by nonsensical TV execs, are finally giving way to simple common sense. Hooray!

It clearly makes no sense that it's taken this long for them to wake up and smell the coffee beans. Viewers in the UK surprisingly DO actually visit entertainment websites in the US, and are constantly frustrated with the issue of plotlines being spoiled for them when they read what everyone else in the US is talking about around the water cooler. Says Sky's Hannah Barnes "We know the world is a smaller place. If we have customers aware of Lost storylines from the USA, we need to give them immediacy". Round of applause please! One small question... how is a 4 day delay immediate??

Other shows that will get the 'immediate' treatment include 24, The Simpsons, Standoff and Bones. For 24 and The Simpsons there will be a 7 day delay, and for Standoff and Bones, several weeks is the new timeframe. It's a significant step forward, albeit one we should have had years ago, but unfortunately as usual it stems from financial loss rather than people's satisfaction, something Sky knows very little about.

Heard the story about Sky/Newscorp stealing their user's MySpace URL's??