Game of Thrones Is the Most Pirated Show on TV

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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HBO’s Game of Thrones is a certified pirate magnet. Ever since the show’s early beginnings, it has led the list of most pirated shows on TV. The third season premier officially had 4.4 Million viewers with 160k watching from BitTorrent and that number is bound to rise over time. Whether legally watched or bootlegged via torrents, it’s a sure thing that Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows on this year.

This kind of a thing is a given in today’s day and age, and as HBO said in a statement, they’ve tried to cut down on piracy by premiering the show world-wide on the same night, closing the window between the U.S. and European debuts.
 
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This is the only good thing on HBO. The only time I had HBO was when it was free for a year and I never watched it. Just not worth the subscription fee.
 
I bet they could cut that piracy number in half if they allowed hbogo without a tv subscription.
 
cause its the most epic show on TV, and not alot of people can afford HBO. with cablevision my BASIC bill after promotion is 119.99 a month. for basic cable, internet and phone.
 
I started reading the books back in the late 90s. The TV series is a sore disappointment to a fanboy like myself.
 
It's funny, because you can't easily watch it legally in Australia and I think they realised everyone down under just pirated it, they made it so you can actually buy it episode by episode or a season pass from iTunes Australia... but not iTunes US.

I wouldn't even have realised if it weren't for the fact I have both a US and an Australian itunes account and happened to notice it was available in the Aussie one.
 
It's time for a la carte programming, cable companies be damned. Piracy is the only weapon the oligopolies seem to acknowledge. More power to the pirates!!!
 
The actual number that 160k is referring to is ACTIVE DOWNLOADS CONCURRENT at one time, which was a record according to some stats company. The actual pirated for season 3 ep 1 amount was in the millions who watched it via bittorrent. Honestly, the statement you made is completely false and needs to be corrected for the sake of [H]tegrity.

thanks.
 
I think the idea of the "premium cable channel" is reaching the end of its lifespan. Why should I pay so much extra for one or two channels that show movies I could rent for a buck at a Redbox if I really wanted to see them? They can put a couple good original series on those channels, but it still doesn't make them any more valuable in my opinion than basic cable channels. AMC has better series than HBO or Showtime and I don't have to pay an extra 15 bucks a month to get that channel.
 
I bet they could cut that piracy number in half if they allowed hbogo without a tv subscription.

No kidding. I believe they actually were considering partnering with amazon or just allowing Hbo go without a regular subscription. I don't know why they decided against it in the end as it really seems like they would make quite a bit more money.
 
one thing the creators commented on was that even if they could get 1 penny for each illegal download of the show (which is in the tens of millions now entering it's third season) they could have special effects that would simply take it to the next level. I pay for HBO and watch it night of release btw. It looks really good in HD on plasma.
 
I started reading the books back in the late 90s. The TV series is a sore disappointment to a fanboy like myself.

You can't ever go in expecting prefect book to movie adaptation. Things have to change to adapt to screen and viewer expectations. Once you realize that and lower expectations it's much easier to enjoy shows based on books. Personally I think they have done an excellent job adapting this show.
 
This is what happens when you create content people want, but then have a horrible cable only distribution model.

This comic explains the way I feel exactly.

Most people want to do the right thing, bit they make it so hard to legally obtain the content, and its so easy to pirate it, its no surprise this happens...
 
I also started reading the books well before there was any mention of a series, and I thought the first season was almost perfect. The second season . . . not so much. Way to rushed, to many bad adaptions and changes . . . I'm really hoping the third season redeems it.
 
one thing the creators commented on was that even if they could get 1 penny for each illegal download of the show (which is in the tens of millions now entering it's third season) they could have special effects that would simply take it to the next level. I pay for HBO and watch it night of release btw. It looks really good in HD on plasma.

And if they released it so people COULD buy it for 10 pennies, I'm sure a lot of people would. I paid to watch season 2 on itunes and will pay for the season pass for season 3 on itunes, $35 in HD for the season pass, given how much I enjoy the show I think it's worth it.
 
It's an additional $16 FUCKING DOLLARS TO SUBSCRIBE TO HBO on top of my Uverse account which is already $237 a month-- phone, TV, and internet, plus local and federal taxes, fees. $26 if I include Cinemax. And, I've already degraded my channels to U200.

And, they wonder why people pirate TV shows in general?

Stop with the extra fees and maybe, just maybe we won't pirate your TV shows.
 
$16 can buy me a movie ticket and maybe a small popcorn at a local theatre.

$26 and I can get a movie ticket and a small popcorn and a drink.
 
They recognize that there is an insatiable demand for entertainment from the populace, and that hollywood has a virtual monopoly on this "drug".

IMO, it is only piracy that is keeping them even somewhat in check on pricing and trying to stay relevant with distributing media in a convenient way for the people, and they are still making such huge fistfuls of cash its beyond ridiculous. Not that brain-surgeons are living poorly, but they on average make about $750,000 a year. By contrast, Matthew Perry was making $1,000,000 an episode for making funny faces and light banter on Friends... which takes how long to shoot? Christ.
 
Game of Thrones Is the Most Viewed Show on TV and elsewhere.

Fixed that headline.
 
It's time for a la carte programming, cable companies be damned. Piracy is the only weapon the oligopolies seem to acknowledge. More power to the pirates!!!

Like other people, I pay a small fortune for tv. But out of my 800 channels, I maybe watch a dozen at most. I love GoT, but why do I need the Jewish channel, LOGO, and a bunch of other channels I'll never watch in my life just to get HBO?

I will say that I DVR the show though. I prefer to watch it on a workday when I'm just to tired to do anything else.
 
And to think...I have never even watched the show once.
 
I still bought season 1/2 blurays even after pirating both seasons and will do again this year.
 
Most popular TV show and limited (and expensive) to obtain the HBO channel to watch it = PIRATE TEH BIOTCH. Easy math to me.

For myself I just wait until the Blu-ray comes out and buy the season... and punch people in the face if they start talking about it infront of me.
 
Game of thrones is one of the few shows I watch. I also enjoy The Walking dead and Vikings.

Vikings is pretty damn good. I was shocked that its a history channel show. Never expected that from them.
 
Most popular TV show and limited (and expensive) to obtain the HBO channel to watch it = PIRATE TEH BIOTCH. Easy math to me.

For myself I just wait until the Blu-ray comes out and buy the season... and punch people in the face if they start talking about it infront of me.

Everyone dies other than that little guy, who turns out to have a twin he sexes up for money!
 
qft.

I surely don't. They only show reality shows, I don't think I can take 12+ hours of Duck Dynasty a day....:eek:

Interesting. I never knew The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones were reality shows. I guess I need to get out more and see all of these zombies and dragons out there in the real world.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039773760 said:
This is what happens when you create content people want, but then have a horrible cable only distribution model.

This comic explains the way I feel exactly.

Most people want to do the right thing, bit they make it so hard to legally obtain the content, and its so easy to pirate it, its no surprise this happens...

I came to this thread for the sole purpose of seeing if this comic would be posted, and to fix it if it wasn't yet.

thank you!
 
I have HBO, but I don't have a television or the cable box hooked up. So I pirate it instead.
 
Their shows continue to be pirated because they are inaccessible. You have to wait until the entire season is over and the next one starts airing just to have the honor of paying for the episodes on Amazon, iTunes or any-other pay to view service on the internet. Or you can just go to any pirate site out there and click the link and watch the day following.

Right now I have HBO because the cable company gave it to us for free for 3 months, but you can bet your ass that without a good way to get their content without either getting way late or paying out the ass I would be downloading it as well. Its sad that HBO doesn't offer their GO service to people without cable service because they would save themselves a lot of piracy. There are always some that will pirate regardless of situation, but for the vast majority of us if you give us a good reasonable solution to get content we will pay for it.
 
Game of thrones is one of the few shows I watch. I also enjoy The Walking dead and Vikings.

Vikings is pretty damn good. I was shocked that its a history channel show. Never expected that from them.

To me Vikings is...okay. What I'm surprised about from the History channel deciding to show it, is that, historically, it's very inaccurate. Horribly so. It's about entertainment though and using a certain formula, which Vikings seems to be doing.
 
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