Game of Thrones draws record ratings -but Australia also tops piracy
Ratings: A public holiday ensures HBO saga is the biggest series premiere in Pay TV history.
- Published by David Knox
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- Filed under Subscription, Top Stories
A public holiday has proven to be most generous for the season return of Game of Thrones.
The epic series pulled a whopping 396,000 viewers for its 11am premiere. Another 285,000 watched a primetime screening.
Adding up all the playouts (including +2 channel) it amassed 727,000 viewers -the biggest series premiere in Pay TV history. Showcase also enjoyed its second largest overnight share ever with 3.6%.
That was 31% higher than 2015’s total of 553,000 ( 242,000 / 311,000 for morning and primetime screenings).
Another 94,000 / 58,000 watched Game of Thrones: Story So Far while 54,000 viewed Game of Thrones: Greatest Moments.
The HBO drama managed to outrank the traditional Collingwood v Essendon ANZAC Day match at 321,000.
Foxtel’s Executive Director of Television, Brian Walsh said, “This is an absolutely incredible result and beyond our expectations. It doesn’t yet include all of the catch-up viewing from the Foxtel iQ, which will count when we calculate the cumulative audience for the week. When you include those figures, as well as encores across the week, we’re forecasting the first episode will absolutely top over 1 million viewers, a phenomenal result by any measure!”
Meanwhile TorrentFreak reports after many people failed to find a GoT copy of a rumoured leak, the first pirated copies of the episode appeared online shortly after the official broadcast. A few hours later, hundreds of thousands of people already grabbed a copy.
Data gathered by TorrentFreak estimates that after half a day, over a million people have downloaded the episode via BitTorrent. At the time of writing, more than 200,000 people were actively sharing one of the three most-popular torrents.
Despite the Foxtel ‘simulcast’ with the US Australia topped the piracy (12.5%) followed by India (9.7%), United States (8.5%) and the United Kingdom (6.9%). TorrentFreak notes its numbers are also timezone-affected.
No doubt the public holiday also drew out the pirates.
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- Tagged with Game of Thrones, Game of Thrones: Story So Far
16 Responses
If those figures are correct it means that every other show on Foxtel (except the footy) is a dismal failure.
No, you can’t compare STV with FTA figures. It’s apples and oranges.
People who engage in piracy always strongly justify it.
It is however definitely out and out theft.
Game of Thrones airing on HBO in the USA at 10pm eastern time. Which is 12 midday here. So in 12 hours from when it airs goes to midnight here. You would have to say that is prime time for downloading. After work/ school to watch that evening.
In the USA it covers 10pm to 10 am. Which would certainly not be prime time for downloading as people are asleep for most of it and probably like Aussies would download when they get home to watch that night.
Shift to Europe and it’s similar, might be 2 am to 2 pm.
It’s just a selected time period that more than anything just represents we’re around and downloading at that time, not that we’re the ones that pirate it the most. Lets see the 24 hour figures or the 48 hour figures.
It’s no coincidence the next nation on the list is one better suited to this time zone explanation.
That said, I watch it on Foxtel and honestly…
The pirated figures make light of people claims that the only reason they pirate is due to networks or Foxtel delaying shows. Even on same day broadcasts people choose to illegally download- so it really is just a case of people stealing others work- plain and simple so please stop trying to justify it. I don’t watch GOT but it would serve the thieves right if the producers stopped making it due to the number of people who steal it.
Stealing definition:
remove (another person’s property) without permission or legal right and without intending to return it.
Nothing is removed here.
However you care to dress it up, Piracy is intellectual property theft and a breach of copyright law. Foxtel has also offered a discount of $30 per month for the duration of GoT and is screening simultaneous wth the US. TorrentFreak notes the timezones have impacted their tally numbers (ie. we had a lot more waking hours to facilitate piracy) and having the nation on a public holiday would have also resulted in a greater increase for both Foxtel and pirates.
It’s not theft but it is a breach of the copyright owners right to exploit the material for financial gain. It is different to theft.
From a moral standpoint I believe there may be an argument for downloading when there is no legal way to access material. This is art, you have a right to access art. The creator of that art however has a right to seek money for access. Asking a price can block your right to access, but not placing a price shouldn’t remove access.
I subscribe to Foxtel and it’s great, I endlessly have shows others download recorded and ready to watch.
I am sick of the whinging arguments of pirates as when things are available, they simply don’t want to pay. If there is no option to pay, then I will accept arguments as having some validity. In this day and age it is easier to go for legal options and pay than to torrent. Watch a movie, look on foxtel, netflix or…
It was a really solid premiere too! I was there at 11 am watching! And then watched the Greatest Moments afterwards before glancing at the clock and seeing that it was twenty to 2 in the arvo… I don’t even know why I watched it but I was too lazy to change the channel…
I did wonder where the time had gone. Such is the power of GoT!
A show as super hugely popular as GoT is – but that’s also as terribly distributed as GoT is in Aus, due to how much of a ripoff it is, to pay to get it on Foxtel, will always be downloaded on torrents, by way more Aus viewers who torrent it, than those who subscribe to it on Foxtel. This has always been the case since season 1.
@Kevin so you are saying that people who do the right thing by subscribing to foxtel and the showcase channel, are suckers? People who illegally download GoT, TWD, or Doctor Who(or any other popular shows for that matter), are the suckers here, Pay for the TV shows, not download them for Free and watch them for Free.
Doesn’t stack up Kevin. GOT has largely the same lengthy exclusive pay window in the States as it does in Aus.
If there was a property to pursue pirates over it should be GOT. Applying hefty fines and criminal records that might potentially restrict travelling to certain countries would become a deterrent in time. I guess with Foxtel being so profitable, they just don’t have the will to pursue a good chunk of the population in court.
That is a huge paytv audience. It’s taken a number of series to build, but is now without doubt the most popular drama on television anywhere in the world by a long way!
I don’t think that is correct. I think there are tv dramas in China with much larger audience. And I think if you limit it to English language dramas, NCIS still pulls in a bigger audience.
NCIS still pulls a decent audience In the States, not globally.
As of last year, NCIS was the most watched drama series in the world.