Tesco’s VOD service Blinkbox beat all other UK players to the punch when it hosted the second season of Game of Thrones well before the box-set launch, and it’s doing the same with season three. It’s only just ended, but from July 15th, the latest series will be available to download or stream in its entirety, and what’s more, its arrival marks the first time HD content has been accessible on Blinkbox. You’ll also be able to watch season three in SD, should you want to, and both previous seasons will get HD options when the third lands. Pricing isn’t yet confirmed, but we’d expect the cost to be similar to that of season two, which was £1.79 (around $2.80) per episode, or £17.99 (around $28) for all ten. If you haven’t seen Game of Thrones yet, and we highly recommend you do, you’ve got just over a month to prepare for the Blinkbox launch and subsequent marathon.
Game of Thrones was crowned as the most illegally downloaded show in 2012. Earlier this month when its Season 3 premiere aired, it was downloaded over a million times in one day, breaking the previous record for the largest BitTorrent swarm ever. The premiere was illegally downloaded the most in Australia. Game of Thrones airs on HBO and the network’s programming president, Micheal Lombardo, doesn’t mind all this piracy. Actually, he thinks that the blatant Game of Thrones piracy is akin to a compliment. The American ambassador to Australia since 2009, Jeffrey Bleich, doesn’t have the same sentiments though.
In a Facebook post, he said that as the ambassador to Australia he found it especially troubling to see that “Australian fans were some of the worst offenders with among the highest piracy rates of Game of Thrones in the world.” He also says that Australians can no longer hide behind the time delay excuse, adding that new episodes are now available from legitimate sources within hours of them airing in the U.S. While his comments won’t exactly stop Australian fans from downloading Game of Thrones via torrents, it is interesting to see such a high level diplomat speaking out against online piracy in another country.
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Netflix’s ‘Long Term View’ lays out predictions for internet vs. traditional TV delivery
Posted in: Today's ChiliHaven’t been reading every Netflix quarterly report or listening to each earnings call for the last several years? No problem: you can quickly get caught up on the company’s strategy thanks to a “Long Term View” document posted to its investor relations site. Boiling down many of the things executives like Reed Hastings have been saying into a single PDF, it’s an easier to digest road map of where Netflix thinks this whole online video thing is going. Among other things, it sees the simplicity of its offering — no ads, no VOD, no-hassle cancellation, access on any screen at any time mobile or TV — as a main selling point. How to keep customers happy? Make sure that they think of Netflix as the better option for their entertainment time than other possible choices. Hit the source link to dig into it yourself or check below for a breakdown.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Netflix (PDF)
Google announced it would be expanding its Google Fiber service to those lucky folks down in Austin, Texas by 2014, but today they’re announcing an even more important milestone for its customers: Google Fiber is getting HBO and Cinemax.
That’s right, Google Fiber users – you can now watch Game of Thrones straight from your TV instead of pirating it at blazing-fast speeds now that you can add an HBO package for an additional $20 per month. The package will not only get you HBO, but it also includes HBO2, HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Latino, HBO Comedy, and HBO Zone. Cinemax will also be launching today and will offer a similar set of packages for only $10 more per month. For you hardcore cable TV watchers who want every premium channel possible, you could get all of the mentioned additions as well as Starz and Showtime for $40 more per month. (more…)
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HBO and Cinemax come to Google Fiber, cable companies shaking in their boots
Posted in: Today's ChiliGoogle Fiber has a lot going for it, both as an ISP and a pay-TV platform. There was was one gaping hole in the service though: no HBO. Lets be honest with ourselves, its the big geeks that are looking to hop on that 1Gbps service first. And what do geeks love almost as much as blazing-fast Google-branded internet? Game of Thrones. Now Kansas City (and soon Austin) based nerds will be able to watch Joffrey become an even bigger monster live, rather than wait for some torrent site to get an illegal copy of it up (or, if they’re smart, mooch off of someone’s HBO GO account). Alongside HBO, Google Fiber has also added Cinemax: Home Box Office’s less cool sibling. The branded families of channels are both available today for $20 a month or $10 a month respectively. Or, if you’re a real premium TV fan, you can get both, plus STARZ and Showtime for $40 a month. Hit up the source for a few more details.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD, Google
Source: Google Fiber
Now that you can finally watch HBO Go on your Apple TV via AirPlay, the premium cable network has decided to sweeten its iOS app with AirPlay multitasking in a 2.1 update. The new version of the app also offers enhancements to Game of Throne‘s interactive features and general performance improvements as well. We’d obviously prefer that the app offers a standalone option instead, but being able to catch up on episodes of GoT on the HDTV while looking up how to say “winter is coming” in Dothraki is good too. (It’s “Aheshke jada.”)
Filed under: HD
Source: HBO Go (iTunes)
With all the hoopla that has been built up around piracy over the last several years, you might expect anyone associated with a television or movie studio to see people who pirate their content as the devil. At least one HBO executive seems to have a different opinion of pirates. Recently HBO programming president Michael Lombardo spoke with Entertainment Weekly about Game of Thrones and piracy.
In 2012, Game of Thrones was one of the most pirated shows on television. Lombardo says that being ranked as the most illegally downloaded TV series for 2012 “is a compliment of sorts.” He went on to say that the demand for the content is there and that despite the huge amount of piracy for Game of Thrones, “it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales.”
Lombardo sees piracy as something that simply comes along with a successful show on a subscription network. The executive also noted that Game of Thrones is currently on a per-seasonal basis and is the highest earner for the network. Lombardo specifically said when aggregate sales internationally and for DVDs are considered Game of Thrones is the highest earning show HBO has on the air now.
Despite seeing piracy as a sort of compliment, Lombardo says that HBO’s policy continues to be anti-piracy. HBO does try to stop piracy when it sees it happen according to the executive, particularly when people were selling pirated versions of the show. He does say that HBO hasn’t sent out the “Game of Thrones police” for individual users downloading pirated versions of the show.
[via Entertainment Weekly]
HBO exec sees Game of Thrones piracy as a compliment is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Game of Thrones season three premiered last night, and that’s kind of a big deal. If you’re a fan, you’ll need no convincing. But if you need proof of its potency, here you go: according to numbers collected by TorrentFreak, the Game of Thrones season three premier now holds the record for the biggest BitTorrent swarm ever. More »
Game of Thrones has a unique honor to its name. It became the most illegally downloaded TV show of 2012. According to latest numbers, it is not giving up that throne any time soon. Last night HBO aired the Game of Thrones Season 3 premier and in merely a day it has been downloaded over a million times. There have never been so many people sharing a file at the same time, with 160,000 simultaneous peers, its a new record. It broke the record for the largest BitTorrent swarm ever. Previously this record was held by the season premier of Heroes with 144,663 peers.
One of the main reasons behind this rampant piracy is the delay in airing for viewers outside the U.S. HBO has been working to plug these delays but adamant turn to piracy as they don’t want to miss out on the latest and greatest episodes. The data shows that Australia has the highest piracy rate, with a population of over 22 million. London was the city with the highest piracy rate followed by Paris and Sydney. The U.S. comes in at the top. We’ve got to ask, how did you watch the premier last night?!
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The Piracy Of Game Of Thrones Is Actually A Compliment, According To HBO’s Michael Lombardo
Posted in: Today's ChiliDownloading your favorite movies or television shows via torrents is seen as an act of piracy, and while some producers, record labels and artists are strongly against it, there are others who don’t mind it as much. Back in February we reported that hit television show, HBO’s Game of Thrones’ director said that he was not worried at the show’s piracy which was interesting considering that it was the most pirated show of 2012. While that is one view, what about HBO who is producing the show? How do they feel about it? Well it seems that HBO’s programming president, Michael Lombardo (via EW) thinks that having the show reach the piracy levels it is at is something of a compliment.
Speaking to EW, Lombaro was quoted as saying, “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts […] [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.” He also somewhat dispelled the myth that downloads will affect the revenue made from DVD or Blu-ray sales by saying that the demand for DVDs and Blu-rays of Game of Thrones is still there, and that the downloads did not negatively impact sales. Of course this does not make piracy right, or that it applies to all things downloaded, but it does show to a certain extent that fans are willing to pay to keep physical copies of the show, music, or merchandize despite initially downloading it.
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