The explicit fantasy series Game of Thrones (M-Net, Fridays, 21:30) has just been yanked off of television in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) midway through an episode of the second season on the OSN First channel on Etisalat who clearly have never watched the show before, and obviously were clueless about what show they've actually bought (which is a bit like SABC1 with Torchwood: Miracle Day).
There will always be people working in television everywhere - South Africa too - for whom it's just a job and who don't actually watch TV or care for it. A lot of mistakes can be avoided if those scheduling, buying and making TV actually cared to watch their own product. If UAE TV executives knew what they were doing in the first place, it wouldn't be UAE viewers who were allowed to see a show; now suddenly pulled.
The UAE newspaper The National is first to report that UAE TV viewers on Monday were left with nothing to look at after Games of Thrones suddenly disappeared midway through an episode of the second season. The explicit nudity is in contravention of UAE law.
According to Humaid Al Suwaidi, the chief executive of Etisalat's eVision service who is quoted in The National, Game of Thrones was yanked because of its explicit nature. "Those shows are not really suitable for the family because of the nudity scenes." Now pay TV viewers are rightly fuming.
One has to wonder why it took a whole first season and new episodes for the TV channel and satellite TV operator to notice.
