US Ambassador: Stop downloading Game of Thrones!
US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich has asked Australian fans to stop illegally downloading Game of Thrones.
- Published by David Knox
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US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich used UN World Book and Copyright Day earlier this week to make a plea on behalf of US creatives.
He asked Australian fans to stop illegally downloading Game of Thrones.
On Facebook he wrote:
“One episode was illegally downloaded about 4,280,000 times through public BitTorrent trackers in 2012, which is about equal to the number of that episode’s broadcast viewers. In other words, about half of that episode’s viewers stole the program from HBO. As the Ambassador here in Australia, it was especially troubling to find out that Australian fans were some of the worst offenders with among the highest piracy rates of Game of Thrones in the world. While some people here used to claim that they used pirate sites only because of a delay in getting new episodes here, the show is now available from legitimate sources within hours of its broadcast in the United States.
“A show like Game of Thrones takes a lot of work and talent by many artists to create. These artists can do this work only if we ensure that they are rewarded for their labors. Production companies are no different. Entire industries exist to locate artists, provide them a forum for their works, arrange contracts, record, promote, and sell their works, and free artists from doing other things – like waiting tables and parking cars in Hollywood — by paying them for their efforts.
“If the 4 million people who watched Game of Thrones legally had been illegal downloaders – the show would be off the air and there would never have been a Season 3.”
NB: A reminder that while piracy can be discussed on TV Tonight, endorsement of illegal piracy is a breach of Comments Policy.
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55 Responses
@BarrieT – So people should pay another $80+ dollars a month just to watch a single show? Guess you have more money than sense.
And just for you:
“The Game of Thrones season 2 DVD and Blu-ray is the fastest-selling home video release in HBO’s history, taking the title from… well, last year’s Thrones box set.”
HBO have renewed this year after year… something tells me they are doing just fine. Plus, if pirating wasn’t an issue, we wouldn’t be here discussing this right now. Think of all the free publicity they would be missing out on.
If you produce something superb and trumpet it’s production values and success yet limit it’s availability, then people will want to see what all the fuss is about. Limited to subscription TV, it excludes a whole viewing audience who may not be able to afford a subscription service or because perhaps they just don’t like the content on Foxtel – repetitive lifestyle shows, repeats and ads a plenty. I don’t condone theft at all especially for the artists involved. However, from my understanding the cost of HBO in the States is significantly less than a Foxtel subscription and also the iTunes season pass. Given we already know we pay more for entertainment content compared to our UK and USA peers perhaps this is something that needs to change.
@msd – that’s not good new for those legally buying them and HBO wonders why people are going else where. The need to reduce the iTunes price locally to encourage people to spend a couple of dollars a week on their favorite show.
Do they even promote the iTunes option?
Everything I would have said has been so perhaps, when the ambassador has finished looking after those poor Hollywood companies, he can ask his masters to stop invading sovereign countries, killing civilians, and installing their version of democracy. Oh, and stop f’ing with the world’s money markets too.
@Sammo360 When I looked at iTunes, I was under the impression that it was streaming, so I decided not to purchase the season, as I like being able to watch when I don’t have an internet connection. I might have to get an episode and test it to see if it works! Cheers.
What makes me laugh is all these people who say they can’t afford Foxtel or it’s too expensive are the same people who pay $80 or more a month for unlimited broadband so they can illegally download all the shows they want.
“the show is now available from legitimate sources within hours of its broadcast in the United States”
Umm, not for long. Mr Bleich is a bit behind the news. Foxtel said recently that they would block iTunes and Quickflix from selling GOT episodes until the entire season had aired on Foxtel first. So while you can (as of about a month ago) legally buy an episode for $2.99 on iTunes around 12 hours after the US screening, that won’t be the case next year. HBO are crazy to let Foxtel call the shots in Australia like that.
p.s Nice to see the ambassador has fixed all the big issues in US-Australian relations and is now just sweating the small stuff!
Pirates will always be Pirates. As long as there’s a torrent available they will continue to download it for free.
All this talk of “Oh, but I’ll by the DVDS” or “It creates more buzz” is a smokescreen.
Also it wouldn’t matter how many different ways they could access it, if it wasn’t free they’ll continue to make excuses.
As everyone else has already mentioned there’s several reasons why piracy is so high in Australia. The tv networks here are a joke and have treated viewers like crap for years, still are, and that’s driven people to look elsewhere. In the US when a show is one minute late, it’s a big deal and its documented. I check US ratings and it will often state the program ran from 9:01 to 10: 01. Here the networks start and finish when they want. It’s pathetic.
Then look at the price we pay for legal downloads and compare to the US. We get ripped off paying nearly double.
Then theres content that isn’t available at all in Australia. How many times have you been on YouTube or had videos and it states this is only available for the US?
Until the networks lift their game and downloads are made affordable and immediate then piracy will always be high.
There is no excuse for piracy whatsoever. GOT is available on both Foxtel and iTunes. You do not have an automatic right to watch it, same as you cannot go into a shop and take something without paying for it. I pay for Foxtel and I also regularly purchase via ITunes. Tough if it isn’t on free to air! If you want to see it, pay for it. Am all in support of illegal downloaders, or freeloaders which is what they are, being prosecuted! Theft is theft.
HBO should either work out a deal for Free to air or just continue to see this to happen.
Not everyone can afford the exorbodant Rates the current Sattelite channels are Charging just for the basic Packages.
And the sattilite companys here have a Monopoly here because the “Cable” network isn’t as Prolific or as cheap and the choice of package as varied as it is in the states.
They cost an arm and a leg just for basic packages here in Australia.
Which puts it out of the costs of most Australians who can’t afford the extra costs it would take to take up a Sattelite Package.
He’s not saying the 4.2m were all in Australia!
How about the DVD “box set” of some shows I recently bought on-line. Shipped from the USA. Carrying “SF”, “Hallmark” and other watermarks.
Clearly pirated and sold as “legit” DVDs – from the USA.
Never heard of this show. Don’t know anyone who has seen it, let alone downloaded it.
@Jesicka309 – You can download GOT via iTunes and watch it in HD. You don’t have to stream.
I don’t have pay TV but buy series I want to see. GOT S2 was months between airing and the availability of the DVD. Is it any wonder people torrent it.
They cannot stop those who commit piracy, they are too powerful
I guess the high rate of downloading bin Australia is due to the poor presentation from the networks here. The commercial networks start late and pack in up to 20 minutes of ads per hour while the ABC wastes its HD channel with 24 hour news. If you trear viewers with contempt it’s not surprising they will look elsewhere.
HBO charge around $18/month for their drama channel. They also get money from online, DVD and overseas sales.
And all of those illegal downloads are not a loss of income for HBO. It is only the people who would buy the episodes if they couldn’t illegally download them that would be a gain. They would also lose a bit because the audience for the show would halve and the buzz and publicity would decline.
The only way to reduce illegal downloading is make it cheaper and easier to watch or download shows legally. That would increase HBO’s revenue a bit but decrease revenue per view and their status as a luxury good.
HBO are making lots of money and are not concerned at the moment (they have said so).
But it is good to see the the US Ambassador is committed to stopping crime by politely asking criminals to stop it. Perhaps he should start by asking murders to stop murdering though because is a more serious problem than people downloading HBOs top show.
I guess given this is now fast tracked on Foxtel that the majority of illegal downloads are those without the service?
But then they do have the option of iTunes and buying the eps one at a time, maybe the price is too high?
The fact that this story is filed under “Pay TV” is the reason people are downloading. Majority of people can’t afford to buy Foxtel (and then a second package on top of that for Showtime!) for one show. You can buy it off iTunes, sure, but it’s streaming – not good for anyone with an unstable connection, or who wants to watch it on a HD TV.
Most Australians are used to the majority of TV being ‘free’. Until HBO do some research into the market, and realise that the US cable TV model is not very effective in Australia, there will continue to be huge levels of downloading.
After decades of being treated with contempt by Australian networks, it’s no wonder viewers are sourcing their own online content.
Channels Nine and Ten, in particular, have been notorious for chopping and changing their schedules, infuriating the fan bases of shows like Fringe, Damages, White Collar, and The Amazing Race.
The fact is, commercial networks are a business, and businesses are driven solely by profit. If a show doesn’t attract big enough ratings, and therefore doesn’t sell enough advertising, commercial networks will cast it aside without a second thought. Much like pop songs are merely ‘the things between the ads’ on radio, scripted programs are merely ‘the things between the ads’ on television.
That’s why it’s so distasteful to see these networks crying poor (although, admittedly, it’s not the network in this instance), and acting like some sort of community service organisation. The fact is, we’re little more than a set of eyeballs to them, used and abused for the purpose of selling advertising, ready to be cast aside on a programmer’s whim.
Now that the shoe’s on the other foot, and the consumers are the ones casting the commercial networks aside, they don’t seem to enjoy it one little bit.
But then, I don’t enjoy twenty-seven repeats of The Big Bang Theory every week, either; so, I guess it all balances itself out.
Perhaps the Ambassador should speak to the stars, producers and creators of the show, who all admit that the people who download the show have actually been an asset. They’ve all discussed in many interviews how it creates a larger buzz for the show, generates word of mouth and a higher awareness of the show. There has also been much research that suggests that those who download are actually more likely to buy DVDs and merchandise and eventually “pay back” their “debt” way beyond watching it legally.
Likewise, the numbers he brings up mean nothing if most of these people don’t have rating boxes. A person who doesn’t have a ratings box doesn’t actually count in a ratings survey, so it doesn’t really make a difference if they watch a show or not.
Perhaps the Ambassador should be looking at this another one. The TV networks have treated Australian viewers like crap for years and have conditioned the younger viewers not to bother with them. In a constantly updated world where spoilers are ruined through social media streams and news websites the second they happen, people are not going to wait weeks, even months to see an episode of a show. Yes, Game of Thrones has been very good on this behalf this year, but others are not. If you want to cut down piracy air things early! How about the ambassador uses his power to complain about that.
If this 4.2 million figure is true, and taking in to account that each of those downloads may have been watched by more then one person, then what we have here is singularly the most watched program ever on Australian television without even taking into account legal viewings.
I can’t help feel the figures have been played with here however. I don’t personally know a single person who has ever heard of the show, let alone watched it, let alone downloaded it or any other show illegally. The common narrative that even accepting these numbers as true, that somehow they are all lost ‘sales’ is nonsense. People don’t subscribe to Foxtel because it is seen as overpriced, not because they can pirate the programs easily. People are not downloading a show from iTunes because they’d prefer to pirate it. I doubt if 4.2 million people have even heard of the show.
The problem is every time those tasked with fighting piracy make up figures they undermine their own arguments. If you have to lie to make your case, you probably don’t have a case.
The damage has been done, Game of Thrones will only continue on slowly gaining more illegal downloads here in Australia.
Yes it is available on iTunes, that will grow in popularity too, but it won’t decrease piracy. Maybe HBO’s next big show should go that route from the get go, so as to not tilt people into illegally downloading it straight away and getting used to it.
Maybe the Ambassador should be pleading Foxtel to assist us in not making us look so bad. The reason piracy is so big here per capita, is because Foxtel is overly expensive in comparison to the developed world.
I suspect he’ll find that many of those 4m who go to the effort of downloading are more than willing to shell out for the DVD when it becomes available, or watch the FTA airing.
One thing for sure is that most of them just wouldn’t pay to watch on Foxtel etc. if they didn’t download – they just wouldn’t bother with it. Hence no money is lost – indeed if anything people downloading just helps create the buzz and leads to more of those who can actually watching.