HBO 'aggressively monitoring' and trying to scrub House of the Dragon's first season finale from the internet after thousands torrent and download episode leak from EMEA region.

by Thinus Ferreira

The first season finale episode of HBO's House of the Dragon leaked on Friday and had been illegally downloaded and shared on torrent sites thousands of times by Saturday morning, three days before its linear broadcast is supposed to take place on M-Net (DStv 101) on Monday in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa.

HBO said that it was aware of the leak of the episode, is "aggressively monitoring", was trying to get it scrubbed from the internet, and that it appeared that the leaked episode came from the system of a distribution partner somewhere in Africa, the Middle East or Europe, known as the EMEA region.

"We are aware that the 10th episode of House of the Dragon has been posted on illegal torrent sites," HBO says in a statement.

"It appears to have originated from a distribution partner in the EMEA region. HBO is aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet."

"We're disappointed that this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday on HBO and HBO Max, where it will stream exclusively in 4K."

In South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa HBO's House of the Dragon is shown on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV service, with M-Net which has a long-running licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO. 

Viewers are however not getting access to the behind-the-scenes companion show, The House that Dragons Built, which is a documentary series on the HBO Max streaming service chronicling the making of each episode and which has also been uploaded to torrent sites.

It is the second leak for House of the Dragon which also saw its first episode leaked online in August days before it had its linear TV debut, when thousands of people worldwide swarmed to pirate-watch the start of the series online with a pristine, high-definition (HD) 1080p, full surround sound version of the first episode that was shared, complete with an HBO logo in the top-right corner and enabled subtitling in various languages.

What is happening with HBO's House of the Dragon is similar to what happened with George R.R. Martin's latter seasons of Game of Thrones which all saw episodes being pirated before broadcast, including almost all of the episodes of the widely-panned 8th and final season which leaked online.

Game of Thrones was the most-pirated TV show of the year globally, for several years.

ALSO READ: HBO's House of the Dragon leaks online as pirate viewers in their thousands swarm to watch it before its linear TV debut.

HBO's House of the Dragon on M-Net drew 7 701 DStv Premium subscribers on Monday to watch on linear TV in South Africa.

by Thinus Ferreira

On Monday 7 701 South Africans watched the linear TV broadcast debut of HBO's new fantasy drama series House of the Dragon on M-Net (DStv 101) with 1 500 who were up at 3am to watch the episode at the same time as it was airing in the United States.

While 7 701 DStv Premium subscribers in South Africa watched the first episode of the new dragons and danger series on M-Net as a TV broadcast - the number most important to broadcasters and advertisers - there would also have been some more watching it online on DStv Catch Up who are not included in the official TV ratings tally, as well as people who started watching the pirate copy that leaked on torrent and download sharing sites a day before the show's TV debut.

TV ratings for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa are hard to come by or non-existent since many African countries don't have one but M-Net also showed House of the Dragon on its M-Net Africa channel feed elsewhere on the continent.

According to ratings compiled and provided by the Broadcast Research Council of South Africa (BRCSA), M-Net lured 1 505 DStv Premium subscribers who watched on Monday morning at 3:00, with another 6 196 viewers who watched M-Net on Monday night at 21:30.

In the United Kingdom House of the Dragon pulled 1.39 million Sky subscribers to tune in to the Sky Atlantic channel with 394 000 who watched at 21:00. "Viewing over the last 24 hours for House of the Dragon across Sky and NOW has been as epic as the show itself," Sky said.

Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) which didn't provide viewership numbers, said in a statement on Wednesday said that House of the Dragon had the largest ever collective viewership across 21 countries for a new TV show or movie in Europe on its HBO Max video streaming service, which is not available in Africa. 

"The platform saw unprecedented demand starting in the early hours which peaked on Monday evening. House of the Dragon is by far the biggest launch in the history of HBO and HBO Max in Europe, breaking previous records for a new title. The number of viewers for the first episode exceeded all expectations."

In America, WarnerMedia in a statement on Monday said "The premiere of House of the Dragon drew 9.986 million viewers across linear and HBO Max platforms in the United States on Sunday night, the largest audience for any new original series in the history of HBO".

ALSO READ: IN IMAGES. M-Net's beautiful gold-embossed 'black box' press drop for HBO's House of the Dragon on DStv.

ALSO READ: IN IMAGES. Photos from M-Net's Friday night watch party in South Africa for HBO's House of the Dragon.

ALSO READ: HBO's House of the Dragon leaks online as pirate viewers in their thousands swarm to watch it before its linear TV debut.

ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. Here won't be dragons: How HBO and M-Net fire and iced out South Africa's media with no advanced digital screeners for House of the Dragon reviews and very belated watch-parties. 

ALSO READ: TV REVIEW. HBO's House of the Dragon on M-Net ticks many of the boxes from Star Wars Episode I as Westeros' entropy story is set in motion.