Game of Thrones set ratings records when the first episode of the new season premiered last week but, in news somewhat less exciting for broadcaster HBO, it set records for piracy as well.
Media intelligence firm TruOptik recorded more than 13 million downloads of the first episode, reports BitTorrent news blog Torrent Freak, far exceeding the 8 million watermark set by last season's finale.
Taken together, the first four episodes of season five (which were leaked online ahead of the show's premiere) and the behind-the-scenes A Day in the Life feature were downloaded 32 million times, according to TruOptik's data.
While the majority of downloads were by users in the United States, the data shows Australia has the most Game of Thrones downloaders per capita.
Australia also has the highest ratio of pirates to non-pirates among Game of Thrones viewers in the world. Of all Australian viewers during the first three days of the new season's availability, 32 per cent were pirates. The rate in the US was 8 per cent. It's likely the rift is even bigger in reality, given the increasing use of VPNs in Australia to hide the true origin of web traffic.
If comment sections, blog posts, social media and general scuttlebutt is to be believed, the cause of the comparatively high rate of piracy here is down to access and availability.
In the US, viewers with a HBO cable subscription can watch Game of Thrones as it is broadcast live, or through the web on demand with the HBO Go service. The show can also be viewed on HBO Now, a new service that gives those without a cable subscription access to HBO content for $US14.99 ($19.37) a month.
HBO recently announced it will be cutting off Go subscribers using geo-dodging methods to access the service from outside the US. This means Australians determined to watch the show as it airs or shortly thereafter must do so with a full Foxtel subscription (which costs at least $660 for 12 months in HD plus $200 for installation), the Foxtel Play streaming service (currently $90 for the first three months, including HBO content) or pirating through BitTorrent.
While Foxtel Play is the least expensive way to watch the show in Australia besides piracy, many (including presumably that 32 per cent of viewers plus those using a VPN) have expressed a strong distaste for the service. Chief among the complaints is that the service streams in a lower quality (standard definition only and at a reportedly spotty bit rate) compared to full Foxtel and most US services. Many consumers also reject Foxtel's insistence on "bundling", arguing they shouldn't be made to pay for a whole raft of content they'll never watch when they only want HBO.
Of course there may be many others, in Australia and elsewhere, who would pirate the show no matter how low the price of the sanctioned version.
For now it doesn't seem like recent high-profile anti-piracy movements (including the court win of Dallas Buyers Club LLC, and new legislation giving increased powers to rights holders) have swayed Australian pirates. It will be interesting to see if piracy numbers fade once the likely penalties for pirates materialise next month, or if it merely drives more of them towards VPNs.
