Prison Break attracted more than six million TV viewers for its season premiere. Another two million downloaded the episode over the next week even though the episode was available for free on Fox.com.

Fox believes most of those downloads came from Europe where Prison Break isn’t available on TV or online.  TorrentFreak found only 4 percent of downloads came from the U.S.

TorrentFreak concludes availability is a key factor when people download from BitTorrent.  Price is not the only consideration.  Joss Whedon’s recent Dr. Horrible web series was streamed free on the web but became a top seller on iTunes for a price because people wanted a convenient, downloadable version to watch when and where they wanted.

This is why media companies should view file-sharing networks as competitors feeding a market need.  Other countries want to watch popular TV shows, but networks delay them for weeks if not months. Even websites Fox.com and Hulu only allow North American viewers, sending millions of international users to file-sharing networks.

The market wants easily available, convenient TV shows, movies, and music.  They keep showing this with their time and dollars. Media companies should pay attention to what the market wants.