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Game of Thrones leaked

Four episodes leak online ahead of today's season premiere.

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Four episodes of the fifth season of Game of Thrones have been leaked online ahead of today’s season premiere.

Mashable reports the four confirmed leaks appear to originate from a screener sent to reviewers ahead of the show’s launch.

The leaked episodes are in 480p, which is equivalent to the quality of standard TV. The show is normally shown in 720p or 1080p through HBO.

HBO has regularly sent out reviews to media of its content on DVD, with each disk coded with a watermark identifying the recipient. TV Tonight has previously received such review disks via Foxtel.

But in the latest case the watermark has been blurred.

The purported leaker noted on a private Torrent tracker that the fourth episode would be the final upload for the evening, although they teased that more may be coming.

18 Responses

  1. What surprises me most about the whole thing is that HBO even provide critics screeners of GOT, it seems like a pointless exercise. GOT fans are going to watch it regardless of what critics say and non GOT fans are not going to suddenly start watching season 5 of a complex show, GOT isn’t something you dip in and out of. GOT is probably the most well known show in the western world at the moment, by this stage they don’t need the publicity from critics, season 1 they needed the extra buzz for sure but by this stage it’s not necessary. A review after the show airs is enough.

      1. That’s exactly what I’m more interested in – reading critic’s reviews after an episode airs so they can go into detail without worrying about spoilers. For firmly established shows like GOT, fans love to read post-show reviews and forums but I don’t think it really affects audience growth. Whereas for shows without much recognition reviews can encourage people to watch a new programme – for instance I had never heard of Rectify until you wrote about it and now it’s one of my favourite shows.

        1. Recaps have grown in popularity elsewhere but I preview to offer a review ahead of broadcast to offer you the chance (and thus the network) to participate in a premiere. Or you can then go back and read after to compare your views with mine. I think they offer more value than a piece which is essentially telling you what you have already seen. Or worse, missed.

          1. Yes, I think recaps that just lay out what happened are very dull. The ones I read are either humorous takes or ones that posit theories about why something may have happened or what a character’s motivation may have been, etc – when situations can be interpreted a number of ways this is interesting.

            My main point though is I think it’s not worth the risk for a show like GOT to send out screeners, there is no advantage for them to do so. But definitely for shows that aren’t already so popular or if it doesn’t matter a great deal if things are ‘leaked’ a preview really helps draw public attention to it. On your blog for instance I find those really helpful and also your ‘Daily Pick’ – it reminds me when a show is on or if it’s something I don’t know I often check it out.

  2. We only get ten weeks of new GoT a year; personally I like to savour what we get, so they can keep their leaked eps. I’ll be watching on HBO Now tonight in (hopefully) high definition.

  3. It’s not going to affect HBO or Foxtel subscriptions in the short term, people can’t unsubscibe for April. Episode 1 will up in HD by now.

    But if illegal downloaders watch these 4 eps what are they going to do for a month until episode 5 airs? They’ve just created a production break for themselves. I’ll watch episode 1 tonight after after the end of the golf. And will get to episode 10 the same day as the illegal downloaders on my IQ.

    Spoilers would be a problem for many shows but, as the book was published a decade ago, anyone who wants can know what will happen to the main characters and in the main plot. There are a few deviations from the book to see.

    Mostly this is just an embarrassment for HBO and points out the danger of fast ubiquitous internet to a high cost subscription model based around a few shows in the long term.

  4. It’s so easy to add a digital ID to the encoded video stream that wouldn’t be visible to a viewer. Plus, if you know the algorithm used to blur the watermark (and it will prob just be a standard tool on common video editing software) then you can apply the reverse algorithm and have a good chance of restoring an identifiable watermark, even with some loss of information.

    1. Any smart encoder would first add a 20-40% white transparent box over the size of the watermark, and then apply an aggressive blur filter to the same patch, rendering reversal techniques pointless

  5. how dissapointing. Will completely ruin the enjoyment of the premiere and weeks to come. Part of the fun is talking about it with friends, and if no one is at the same point in the show then that is taken away.

    1. Well it’s already ruined by book readers, so makes very little difference and only first 4 eps, I’m still gonna watch them one every week but isn’t a big deal unlike if this happened in other shows

  6. Coded watermarks have been blurred on screeners and previews are years.. when will studios learn? They need to add different identifiers into their copies to find the source of leaks

    Remember about 10 or so years ago, the movie industry was using “cinema dots”? They placed morse like dots over the films at sporadic intervals that helped identify which cinemas the bootlegs were being created in.

    Or they could just copy 7News and shove a massive HBO watermark over the whole screen, rendering any blur pointless

    1. A fair point only if this story was an exclusive, but the leak has been reported on widely so it is a story that should run on this site as it will impact reviewers being able to get early access to critique all shows.

      Can understand why fans are upset as it seems a purely malicious act to put the episodes out there too early

  10. I’m a stickler for 1080p so I won’t be downloading these leaked episodes. Also Showcase are doing the right thing by us GoT fans by showing this at the same time as the US and should be rewarded for doing so with my eyeballs. Now all I have to do is avoid spoilers.

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