There’s a great post by Guinevere Orvis over at Last 100.com on how TV executives are looking with interest at how new TV shows get pirated and downloaded. She reports that unofficially, the networks are even starting to leak television shows themselves on BitTorrent sites to get a better idea of how well they will be received on television. She writes:

“Broadcasters aren’t posting their shows directly on PirateBay yet, but they are talking informally and giving copies of shows to a friend of a friend who is unaffiliated with the company to make a torrent. Why? Well, it’s partially an experiment, but the hope is that distribution of content this way will lead to new viewers that wouldn’t have been reached through traditional marketing means. Early signs indicate that these experiments are working.”

Link.