Nearly Half of Game of Thrones Season 5 Leaks Online

HughPickens.com writes Paul Tassi reports at Forbes that the first four episodes of the new season of "Game of Thrones", nearly half of the ten total episodes, have been leaked online to various torrent sites. The four episodes appeared to come from a screener sent to reviewers with the digital watermark blurred out and are in 480p video format, equivalent to standard-definition TV, not HD.The episodes have already been downloaded almost 800,000 times, and that figure was expected to blow past a million downloads by the season 5 premiere. Game of Thrones has consistently set records for piracy, which has almost been a point of pride for HBO. "Our experience is [piracy] leads to more penetration, more paying subs, more health for HBO, less reliance on having to do paid advertising If you go around the world, I think you're right, Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world. Well, you know, that's better than an Emmy."

How the leak happened isn't a mystery. Television critics typically receive the first four episodes of an HBO show before its season premiere, and "Game of Thrones" is no exception. HBO could not immediately say whether the leak could be traced to screener copies of the show. "I suspect HBO may be a bit more restrictive about handing out Game of Thrones screeners to press, given the event-like nature of the show and its reliance on keeping spoilers close to the chest," writes Tassi. "I really don't see why commentary like that needs to exist in the first place." The network can take solace in at least one thing, though. Episode four ends on a heck of a cliffhanger, and those who pirated the episodes will be in the same boat as those of us who received them legally — waiting until May to find out what happens next. "I would imagine it's more fun to just spend the next month watching week to week as nature intended, even if you are watching illegally," concludes Tassi. "Game of Thrones is one of the last true "event" shows where it's something you want to talk about Sunday night or Monday morning with friends and strangers alike."

Comments

Re:Not my type of show either....

[BlackHawk-666]

Let me help you over the bridge. Science fiction is often just fantasy, but with lasers and pod racers instead of swords and horses. Star Wars itself would lose little if it happened in a medieval setting (storywise, special effects would have suffered, and sadly that was 80% of the cool factor for me). I mean they already have a princess who keeps getting captured and needs rescuing by a knight...uh, I mean jedi knight. Lucky the old master is there to train the young apprentice in the way of the sword...er...force! He struggles to become strong enough to take on the black knight...um, Lord Vader. But only once the old master is defeated can the new apprentice rise above his master and defeat the black knight...fuck it, I mean Vader.

There's an old saying, if it's fantasy the women are dressed in fur bikinis. If it's science fiction, they are wearing metallic bikinis.

So, just take any science fiction story, and if the storyline itself could play out just as well in medieval Europe, Middle Earth or some spell casting land (swap guns and gadgets for wands, staves and magic items) then it's really just fantasy.