The online international piracy of the downloading and viewing of episodes of Game of Thrones seen in South Africa on pay-TV broadcaster M-Net and MultiChoice's DStv platform "is a compliment" says HBO which commissions and shows the hit fantasy drama in America.
The third season of Game of Thrones with 10 episodes is set to start in South Africa on M-Net in high definition on Friday 12 April at 21:30 after the first episode of the latest third season was shown in America yesterday. It means that South African M-Net viewers will get to see episodes 2 weeks after they've been shown in America.
In 2012 Game of Thrones topped the lost as the most illegally downloaded TV show of the year, having been downloaded illegally 4,28 million times in 2012.
"It is a compliment of sorts," says Michael Lombardo, the president of HBO programming talking to Entertainment Weekly. "The demand is there. And it certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales." Michael Lombardo says that it "comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network".
"If you look at an aggregate of international and DVD sales - which are the two revenue streams we look at since we're not selling it domestically on another platform" Game of Thrones remains the top money earner for HBO Michael Lombardo says.
He says HBO is actually concerned about the creative side of things when it comes to piracy and illegal downloading as far as Game of Thrones is concerned. HBO is worried that people who watch Game of Thrones illegally, don't/won't see it in the way it is actually intended as a high quality version with high production values.
"The production values of this show are so incredible. So I'm hoping that in the purloined different generation of cuts, that the show is holding up," says Michael Lombardo to Entertainment Weekly. He says HBO is anti-piracy but is not sending out "the Game of Thrones police".
"We obviously are a subscription service, so as a general proposition we try to stop piracy when we see it happen, particularly on a systematic basis when people are selling pirated versions."
