"Game Of Thrones" is the most pirated TV show around the world based on recent studies. According to torrentfreak, the "Game of Thrones" is the most downloaded TV show in 2013, with 5.9 million downloads via BitTorrent.
The number of downloads for the 2013 season finale of "Game of Thrones" made it the most downloaded TV show of 2013. Time WArner CEO Jeff Bewkes reacted to the recent studies saying, "if you go around the world, I think you're right, that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world," he said. "Now that's better than an Emmy," the CEO added.
Even the show's director, David Petrarca, has expressed similar feelings, stating that piracy contributed to the show's "cultural buzz". Even "A Song of Ice and Fire" author, George R. R. Martin called it a compliment.
According to Todd Spangler of Variety, Jeff Bewkes was reported saying that Internet piracy actually helps spread the word about original programming like the "Game of Thrones" which ultimately leads to more paying subscribers.
HBO launched an Internet-steaming service to its subscribers called "HBO Go", which was met with another problem, namely password sharing.
When asked about the problem of piracy, Bewkes said "Piracy would be a larger problem, if people who might subscribe to HBO were just downloading episodes for free but we don't see much of that." He compared it, instead, to cable splitting. "People have always been running wires down the back of apartment buildings and sharing with their neighbors," he said. "Our experience is, it all leads to more penetration, more paying subs and more health for HBO."
"Our experience is, it all leads to more subs," Bewkes said. Word-of-mouth about HBO shows lets them spend less on advertising and more on developing the shows, he added: "We let the programming and reviews talk for us."
Also on the call, Bewkes discussed the possibility of the paid television moving to a la carte programming.
The Time Warner chief said that a shift to pure a la carte is probably not in the offing, with a more likely scenario being a shift to smaller bundles of channels. If that happens "we do believe we are very well positioned."
"We doubt (a la carte pricing) will happen but if it does, it will happen in a way that will help us," he added.
