Big Brother Finland 2011 (the local Finnish-language edition) will launch on Tuesday, 30th August, at around 7 p.m. local time. (That's tomorrow!)
This might interest some of you guys as it is possible to watch the show (events in the BB house) abroad, live, over the internet, using the streaming 24/7 service.
Sooo.... why would you want to? A good question! Big Brother is one of those reality shows you either love or hate... or love to hate. So maybe you don't. If the idea of watching some 12-odd people confined in isolation in an unnatural TV house (while being constantly monitored) and trying to succeed in their daily or weekly tasks, and then copul... cope with each other! - does not sound like your cup of tea, then just skip this post, please. But if watching a silly reality soap does not greatly bother you, and if you're trying to learn the language, then this would be an opportunity of getting to listen spoken everyday Finnish from the same set of native speakers every day for the next three months, at any convenient hour the housemates are awake. (And maybe get sucked into following the events in the house, and the eventual "fate" of the housemates!)
Alas, nothing in this life comes for free! You can buy access to the streaming live 24/7 BB video service by registering at Katsomo.fi. (This is the web portal of the tv channel broadcasting the show: Sub / MTV3 Oy.) The regular price for the season pass (which includes the whole three months with 24/7 access to six different video streams you can switch between) goes for €39.90..... but if you get it before the launch - or on September 2nd, at the latest - you'll get it at €34.90. As far as I know, major credit cards are accepted and Finnish online banking works, too.
But the great thing about this is that viewing from abroad should be possible with no proxies or VPN service trickery - the TV company have just recently confirmed acquiring the rights to offer this service for overseas viewers as they have got so many requests for it.
The video streams will be available at this web address once the season begins:
http://www.katsomo.fi/bigbrother
Last year, the six streams of the 24/7 live service were called "Director's Cut 1", "Director's Cut 2", "Bedroom", "Living room", "Yard" and "Camera Mix". The two "Director's Cut" streams are controlled by human directors and camera operators so they look like a "real" TV show, with the picture switching from one camera to the other during dialogue, cameras following people and so on. The rest of the stream are more like fixed surveillance cameras which are mostly unattended but they sometimes change the angle or switch from one camera to the other in them too.
The main website for the show is here:
http://www.sub.fi/bigbrother/
It still looks quite bare and empty, but will probably be replaced with a different looking official website, with more content at the time of the launch.
Based on my experience from the last few years, the official website will offer daily updates on what has been going on in the house, in "news article" format (several news articles will be published each day.) There will also be online video clips highlighting some of the events.
They will probably make the actual "Big Brother" shows available online on that site, just like last year. These actually include three different types of shows, which they normally also broadcast on TV during the season following a regular schedule:
1. Big Brother "dailies" - hour-long edited and narrated compilations of the daily events. These are broadcast each night on the TV channel "Sub". (They typically include also diary/confession room sessions and nominations, which are not shown on the live 24/7 service.)
2. BB Extra - a daily magazine show focusing on the events in the house and with the host interviewing celebrity guests who might have something to say about the current goings-on in the house.
3. Eviction shows - on each Sunday night.
Last year, only the "BB Extra" shows and some of the video clips were available for free viewing on the main website. Those who had purchased access to the BB 24/7 live web streaming service could view the rest of the content by logging in using their Katsomo account. I guess it will be the same way this year.
The video streams and the website are not all there is... they also maintain an official discussion forum:
http://keskustelut.sub.fi/forum/big-brother-2011/
Then, there's this independent discussion forum (or BB-fansite) called BBPlaza, which usually has better discussions than the official forum:
http://bbplaza.net/forum/
http://bbplaza.net/
Each year, there are separate discussion threads on BBPlaza for discussing each housemate...... and there will also be lots of other threads, such as "Dramatic events in the house".
One of the specialities on BBPlaza is there are also daily threads where the events are described "live" by volunteers (even down to bits of dialogue) as they happen during the day. This is good for checking out what you missed while you were not watching and these descriptions are also usually more reliable and thorough than the official "news articles" on the official website.
There's nothing there yet, but the live descriptions will appear here once the season begins:
http://bbplaza.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=88
(Registration will probably be required to view them once they appear.)
There is also a free, unofficial Windows program called BBviewer which allows viewing the live 24/7 cameras in the house in a more convenient way: simultaneously and in multiple panes, without going to the official website or using a browser. You can get it here:
http://bbviewer.blogspot.com/
This year's edition of BBviewer is not available yet but the developer has promised it will be released soon after the season has started. You need your BB 24/7 subscription and Katsomo account in order to use that program. (BBviewer is great but it does not allow you to watch the live streams for free, it's just a more convenient viewer than having to watch with your browser!)
It is anticipated that this year, too, there will be a housemate exchange between Big Brother Finland and an unspecified foreign Big Brother production. If we get another exchange this year, the housemates can probably be expected to mostly speak English during the exchange week.
So.... to wrap it up: I just thought this could be an interesting experience.... as a three-month, 24/7 language exercise... if you don't mind paying for it. And especially if someone reading this would already happen to be a fan of the show in their home country and could now practice his or her Finnish this way.
I hope you don't mind me posting all those links. If you have any questions, I can try to answer them, but for now... take care, folks!
P.S. The BB 24/7-service is also available on Finnish cable tv, not only as internet service... .. though I think they only have "Director's Cut 1" there and not the other streams. There's some current offer where you get the MTV3 channel package for the same price, tho, so if you live in Finland and are are interested in those extra MTV3 channels, check it out.
Nice clips, thanks!