As has been the case for the last few years, the season premiere of Game of Thrones has been preceded by plenty of hype, marketing and fan speculation. While the first episode of season five is still likely to be a big hit for HBO when it airs in the US tonight, it has transpired that four episodes of the new season have already leaked on to torrent sites online.
Variety reports that the episodes appeared online yesterday evening, and have already been downloaded more than 770,000 times.
Game of Thrones has always been a heavily pirated show, with the fantasy series reliably topping 'most downloaded' lists with tens of millions of downloads every year.
HBO and the team behind the show - which continues to be a massive hit for the network - have typically been relatively tolerant of piracy, even suggesting it helps promote the show and the station itself. HBO programming president Michael Lombardo told Entertainment Weekly that “I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts. The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales."
He explained, "we obviously are a subscription service so as a general proposition so we try to stop piracy when we see it happen, particularly on a systematic basis when people are selling pirated versions." However he added that "no, we haven’t sent out the Game of Thrones police.”
However, the company has confirmed they are investigating this weekend's leak - not surprising given almost half the series has been 'released' ahead of broadcast. In a statement, HBO said, "sadly, it seems the leaked four episodes of the upcoming season of Game of Thrones originated from within a group approved by HBO to receive them. We're actively assessing how this breach occurred."
With a new online subscription version of HBO Now recently launched in the US (exclusively on Apple devices for the time being), it will be interesting to see if the station takes a harder line on piracy from here on out.
Game of Thrones season five launches on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Ireland tomorrow (Monday 13th) at 9pm.
Originally posted at 15.17
