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> It's not really HBO's fault that Game of Thrones is pirated so much. It's the fault of the entire ecosystem. It's the fault of the entire ecosystem that a co
by sirclueless 14y ago
> It's not really HBO's fault that Game of Thrones is pirated so much. It's the fault of the entire ecosystem.
It's the fault of the entire ecosystem that a company is targeted by pirates when it chooses to make a small number of high-quality TV shows with excellent production value and put them behind an expensive paywall only available to people with cable TV subscriptions?
I mean, I understand the rationale of HBO in accepting the cost of piracy in order to maintain a lucrative symbiosis with cable affiliates. But I'm sure they recognize that in doing so they cause a significant amount of piracy, and it harms everyone in the TV business, not just HBO.
There's basically two driving forces behind piracy. One is price, but there is a good argument to be made that people who pirate because they couldn't otherwise afford to pay otherwise don't actually affect the bottom line very much. The other is universality. Ten dollars a month to a usenet provider or VPN service will give access to every single major movie, TV show, and album within a few days of release. It comes in multiple DRM-free formats, and can be played basically anywhere.
So long as piracy has a distinct service and price advantage over HBO, they are encouraging piracy. And the worst part for TV producers is that there is a negative network effect: once someone spends the opportunity cost to pirate Game of Thrones, the marginal cost of pirating something else goes way down, and services that do compete favorably with piracy from a service perspective like Netflix and iTunes suffer as well.
- cubicle67 14y agoIt's not really HBO's fault that Game of Thrones is pirated so much interestingly, Game of Thrones, Season Two, is available on iTunes here in Australia and follows only 10 days after US release. We pay rather more here than in the US, but at $28 for a season pass, it's cheaper than the cost of the DVDs when they come out
- kldavis4 14y agoInterestingly, Game of Thrones season 2 is not available on iTunes in US. What's up with that? I wonder if it is relating to cannibalizing the US cable subscriber base as discussed in the article. I would definitely pay for it via itunes if it were available, even with 1-2 week delay.
- FuzzyDunlop 14y agoOne major advantage piracy has over the current distribution model for most entertainment is its embracing of globalisation. It doesn't matter where you are, you can still consume the content. Compare this to films and TV, where any non-US viewer has to wait possibly months before they get to see it legitimately. Considering these shows are discussed openly on the net, you have no feasible way of engaging in the discussion that surrounds these shows when the new episode airs in the US. In some cases, the shows won't even see a DVD or Blu-Ray release outside of the US (see: Breaking Bad after season 2). Maybe I'm naïve, and there's really not much profit in truly borderless global distribution. But assuming there is, the sheer determination of Big Content to enforce those borders and boundaries is really blinding them to simple opportunities to capitalise. In fact, I think HBO are in the UK, now you can see some of their shows on Sky Atlantic. But generally, we have to wait a while before we enjoy something that came and went weeks or months earlier.
- erichocean 14y ago> only available to people with cable TV subscriptions You do realize that in the US, that covers over 90% of households.