The most pirated show of 2012 returned to screens big and small yesterday, and we're willing to bet you were one of the millions who watched it. But did you pay the gold price, or the iron price?
Within hours of the Game of Thrones season three premiere in the US, yesterday afternoon Australian time, pirated copies of the episode – both in standard and high-definition – had shot to the top of nearly every torrent site and newsgroup indexer.
Meanwhile, 224,000 viewers watched the episode on Foxtel's Showcase channel, according to OzTam figures released by MCN.
In a statement, MCN strategic integration director Elizabeth Minogue said: "The show has experienced a fantastic start, which we expect will only continue as more and more fans begin to enjoy the benefits of viewing new episodes as soon as they’re available on Australian TV. We've received some excellent feedback from viewers as well as partners of the show."
As of this morning, there were over 200,000 active downloaders on the most popular torrent site, The Pirate Bay. This does not account for the large proportion of users who finish downloading and shut down their BitTorrent client, meaning the total number of downloads is far in excess of this number.
(The ability to see total downloads was removed by the site in 2006 as it provided ammunition for copyright lawyers.)
The news will come as no surprise to anyone. Australians were revealed as the biggest culprits in pirating Game of Thrones last year, accounting for around 10% of all downloads.
The show's rampant piracy has been blamed on a lack of adequate online distribution models and delayed broadcast outside of the US. Foxtel inked a deal with HBO in an attempt to address some of these issues, with episodes now fast-tracked to air on Showcase two hours after the US.
But for many, particularly young people, the price of a Foxtel subscription is too hard to justify to watch one show. Indeed, such was the sentiment expressed by fans when the Game of Thrones Facebook page spruiked the Foxtel express airing for Australian viewers.
Foxtel will no doubt be unimpressed with comments from HBO programming president Michael Lombardo. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly on Sunday, he said: "I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but [piracy] is a compliment of sorts. The demand is there. And it certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network."
According to MediaCom head of innovation and technology Nic Hodges, data from MediaCom's mBuzzTV Twitter analytics platform showed Game of Thrones was the most talked-about show on Australian TV right now.
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