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Game of Thrones was nearly "destroyed" by pirates illegally streaming HBO content
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this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ
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For a while there it was nigh impossible to legally get access to GOT in certain countries. Not to mention, when your only option is an insanity expensive streaming service, and the only thing you want there is one specific show, you’re likely to look for alternatives.
Legally watching HBO in Australia means supporting Rupert Murdoch.
Yeah, the only way we can get that is through Foxtel. Which is, and had always been a cable company.
Though it looks like various HBO shows are on various other streaming platforms - GoT appears to currently be on BINGE
And there are also a few on Stan and and netflix, but the vast majority of them are still locked to Foxtel.
Fun fact: Binge (and Kayo) is wholly owned by Foxtel. It's Newscorp all the way down.
Aww fuck that sucks
Not even just "certain countries", in the U S of fuckin A.
The first four seasons, arguably the best seasons, were only available to HBO subscribers. The only way to get HBO was to be a cable subscriber. So you were paying probably $100 a month to watch one show. There is NO WAY that was going to be successful. This was the rise of Netflix. I could pay $100 per year for their content. By 2014/2015 I was getting House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Bojack Horseman, it was a great time.
Now lucky for HBO Game of Thrones is a powerhouse. So what do they do in 2015? They launch HBO Now... as an iOS exclusive. I want to pay you but you cut out half your audience? Guess I'm pirating Season 5 too.
Finally by season 6 HBO Now is available for everyone. I've now watched the majority of the show by pirating it. I don't fault anyone who continued to do so. And this was the American experience. I can only imagine how other countries handled it.
Game of Thrones wasn't in jeopardy because of piracy. Game of Thrones only succeeded due to piracy. It was a fantastic show (in the early seasons) but doomed to "cancelled too soon" without piracy.
I bought it on DVD for $30 / season. It included a helpful family tree leaflet.
Same pirated the first few seasons, but bought the box sets as Christmas presents for older family members. They made their money out of me.
undefined> It included a helpful family tree leaflet.
You'd think in some instances the family tree would look more like a wreath though.
that seems like a spoiler ngl lol
Yup, I would have had to subscribe to sky for at least two years to watch it. Their weird monthly streaming service did not even include GoT and it was 720p max and it would not allow you to watch anything, if you got a 2nd monitor connected. That shit is as anti-consumer as it gets.