Australia tops for Game of Thrones piracy (again)
Australia's appetite for GOT tops the list of downloaders but Foxtel defends its express, discount deal.
- Published by David Knox
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There are various reports today about how Australia’s appetite for Game of Thrones has again seen us top the list of illegal downloads.
According to TorrentFreak a sample of 18,333 IP-addresses collected yesterday showed that Australia took the crown with 11.6% of the total. The United States was second with 9.3%, followed by the United Kingdom with 5.8%. Canada, The Netherlands, The Philippines, India, Greece, Poland and Sweden rounded out the top 10.
Given the population difference between us and the others, the numbers are all the more, umm, stark.
Melbourne topped the list of cities of downloaders, followed by Athens and Sydney.
Foxtel remains the exclusive, first-run outlet for GOT in Australia but the move has incensed non-subscribers unable to legally purchase the show through iTunes, as has been available in the past. But Foxtel has offered a discount for its Premium Movies & Drama package, available through its online platform Foxtel Play.
Finn Jones (pictured), who plays Ser Loras Tyrell, Westeros’ Knight of Flowers, even said there were problems with the global distribution of the series.
According to a Fairfax report, he said, ”The way we distribute entertainment at the moment is quite archaic.
”People want it when they want it,” he said.
But Foxtel spokesman Bruce Meagher  said, “People attack our business model [of bundling] … while there will always be people who say, ‘We’d like to get this bespoke’, $35 a month is not a huge amount of money.”
“Yes, there is a price-tag … but HBO has to be remunerated. At about $7 million an episode, dragons don’t come cheap.
“We’re not so naive to think that we can ever eradicate piracy. We can never stop that. But if we give content at reasonable prices, quickly, in a way that is convenient, hopefully most people will do the right thing.”
The show still rated well for Foxtel with 158,000 / 115,000 for two screenings, as the top entertainment show on Subscription TV on Monday.
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24 Responses
Paying for things such as movies and episodes is very important. The artists who create these amazing things need to be rewarded. The main issue is trust, people don’t trust the corporate model, which is based around making more money no matter what, and corporations have proven they don’t care about people so why should people care about them. I personally don’t like any of the current distribution system for movies and episodes. I believe people who can afford to pay will pay if they trust the system to deliver what they want and not rip them off.
Currently you are saying that people are downloading everything using torrents. People use torrents because it gives them what they want, when they want, without crazy impedance/controls. DVD and Blurays are old school and take up far too much space, and if you want to watch something going through a hundred DVDs or so is not fun…
I purchase each season of Game of Thrones on Blu-Ray when it comes out, a year after it first airs on TV (Foxtel) mind you, so why would I purchase individual episodes on iTunes when I’m going to buy it as a complete set?
I am not subscribing to Foxtel just for Game of Thrones, and I buy the Blu-Rays when they are released, but I’d still be a pirate for downloading the episodes before I can legitimately acquire them any sooner.
Yes, I understand that isn’t the point, and HBO has the right to release these episodes exclusively, or however else they please, as it is their show to do with what they want. But this system is flawed and fractured in the multitude of ways to be able to view material, that is makes it difficult to do things the way you want to do it.
Thanks for the answers – for some reason I wouldn’t have been surprised if Foxtel thew in ads every 12 mins.
I don’t think the issue is as simple as availability at the right price. There are a large number that beleive that they are entitled to watch something without having to pay anything for it. I know people that could quite easily afford to pay for Foxtel however choose not to. They continually illegally download the bulk of content that is readily available on Foxtel and iTunes. Reducing pricing will have a minimal effect. Why pay for something when you can quite readily get it for free? I actually find this frustrating as I pay for something that these people are stealing.
Secret Squirrel: “Ooh, where can I get one of these dragon showbags?”
You need to be exiled to Essos, sold to a warrior prince as his bride, attempt to heal his injuries, then place your wedding gifts on his funeral pyre.
There’s a guy over in the left of the crowd handing them out…
@unclepete Cheers mate.
Glad you think my anger is feigned, it isn’t.
I seriously just don’t understand why people seem to think piracy is fine, that’s why I comment on occasion. Hope you remembered to put said clock back an hour too…..
And I read plenty of other stuff on this blog, thanks for not noticing! 😉
@David I’ll have a dragon showbag too if everyone else is!!
Im glad that some are seeing the ideas behind it. But sadly the vast majorty are in the “Im Australian so im entitled to what i want, when i want it even if its illegal” thinking.
as for the bundling with foxtel every Pay tv provider has that is some way or another, and to get HBO or Showtime you need basic cable. With showcase we get HBO, Showtime and some other shows from FX and AMC. along with the weekly wage being much higher in Australia. And i doubt many would have gone through Itunes if they still had it on a small delay even though with the Itunes T&C you dont “Own” the show.
As for the comment about if it was on free to air it would be downloaded less? haha thats the biggest joke. If FTA had it people would DL it because its either not in HD, has ads forced into it, Watermarks, Heavy cuts so it can be shown at 9:30 and the list goes on [Think Homeland x100]. FTA is a…
Ooh, where can I get one of these dragon showbags?
Kimbeth: I think it’s a right to enjoy basic human rights, democracy, running water, freedom of expression etc. I don’t think it’s a right to be able to legally purchase entertainment from HBO, sorry.
It’s up to them if they want to make it available in commercially mutual arrangements or hand out free disks to all and sundry with a dragon showbag.
Charlie, add free.
@Charlie Miso There aren’t ads in any of the shows on showcase, no watermark either (not that that is enough to make anyone pay for one show)
Can’t believe Foxtel actually think people will subscribe to get access to the one show?
Question – when GoT is on Foxtel do they puts ads in it, or does the whole ep run without a break?
Firstly, I don’t watch GoT. But for a fan of the show, someone who has purchased DVDs, bought on iTunes and other media outlets, these fans do have a right to watch the show at a reasonable price and promptly as in previous seasons. To ‘force’ people who have no interest in other programming to subscribe to foxtel is basically snubbing the fans that keep the show viable. I just hope that these people who declare they are fans and use torrents ultimately put their money where there mouth is.
Even Sky in the UK have realised they need to tap into a market beyond their usual customer and now rather than paying a bare minimum of £21.50/month for their entertainment channels on an annual contract they now offer their channels through Now TV for £4.99/month with no annual contract – meaning people can sign up and watch the series for £15, rather than a minimum of £258.
I’ll wait for the DVDs. Although free isn’t always free. Because people have to pay for internet services and downloading. Assuming your area has the capability to download video content. That said even if I had the ability I’d still prefer DVD. Although if there was a FTA option on a channel that isn’t too horrific to watch; afterwards get the DVD. Then I’d do that instead.
By the way it was the illegal downloading that got me interested in the show. So I watched it and obtained it legally. Sometimes illegality might lead to sales. Because I wonder how many watched it online (unlike me) then got the DVDs. Because the DVDs do seem to take awhile to show up. Although I do like the extras and hope that continues.
Lastly it doesn’t surprise me about the downloading. It’s the stupidity of making things exclusive to only a few people in the modern world. Even in the twentieth…
I am not seeing foxtels a strategy. Seems very narrow minded. Sure they get to bang their chests about exclusive GoT and they might win a handful of subscribers for that. But they are clearly pushing people towards piracy, and once people discover the convenience and free-ness of piracy they are not going to go back to overpriced foxtel, it will only cost them subscribers in the long run.
Foxtel has stagnated at 30% of Australian households over the last 10 years. That figure will probably drop even lower once the NBN is available and more platforms available to watch tv from. People aren’t going to pay so much $$$ per month for something they can get for free. Torrent and download sites are here for for long long time to come.
Ahhh, can almost set a clock by the way glennc comes out with feigned anger everytime there is a thread about piracy on this blog. It is quite obviously the only thing they read on this blog and the only thing they care about 😉
As to “reasonably priced” I concur with Qubec on that one. Foxtel’s “bundling” is a joke and a blight on their ability to get more subscribers. And by the way Bruce, I do do the right thing…
I wait, then when it becomes available on DVD (which isn’t that long a wait, and getting shorter all the time) I buy it, getting the entire season for far less than your “reasonable” $35. Perfectly legal too 😛
Patience pays **shrugs**.
And it will be a cold day in hell when I purchase Foxtel under their current anti-competitive, expensive, duplicitous scaaaaaammmm model.
If it was on FTA and Fastracked ie on the same day. Then I doubt it would be pirated as much. I know many people who watched it last night and not one saw it on Showcase, why not everyone has foxtel and to get Showcase it costs extra and no point in getting Foxtel for 1 show. You can’t really compete with free.
At the end of the day it is up to HBO to decides how it wants its TV shows distributed.
And if people don’t like that way, then sorry but its not up to you to decide.
They make the show, not you. In the big scheme of things you aren’t entitled to watch any TV or Movies you want.
I seriously can’t remember when it became people’s right to illegally download shows because they didn’t like how it was being provided.
Disgusting.
Reasonable prices? Bahaha!!!! Keep telling yourself that Foxtel. Say you only want to watch GoT for $35 a month, you’ll be paying $105 for the season, or $10.50 an episode. How is that reasonably priced?
The Foxtel exclusivity has made more people want to illegally download it this time and people were downloading it even before it screened on Showcase at 3.30pm.
I concur, HBO not releasing GoT all in one hit like Netflix do, is a very foolish move.
From yesterday to Sunday, there would easily be be a very minimum of 200 000 Aus torrent downloads of GoT, but it can vary, as some people may prefer to wait till a season is over till they opt to torrent it.