Bring down the king, Sky

Did you see Game of Thrones last night? If you did you saw it only one of two ways: you paid Sky TV over $80 per month to watch it on Soho in HD or, like hundreds of thousands of people worldwide, you downloaded it.

Game of Thrones (GoT) is one of the biggest TV shows in the world right now. When the first trailer for season 4 was released the internet, as they say, blew up. Everyone is excited about this show. During and after each episode Twitter and Facebook will be full of people sharing their favourite quotes or discussing major plot points (“I can’t believe they just killed [major character]!”).

Season 4 will run for 10 episodes, or roughly two and a half months. So in New Zealand to watch season 4 of GoT in HD (high definition) you’ll pay $245.70!

If that’s the only show you’re interested in, then that’s $25 per episode. Notably last season Australians could buy single episodes on iTunes and Quickflix for 3AUD (I’ll talk about this more next week).

The blu-ray box set for season 3 costs $65 while the entire set of seasons 1 through to 3 costs $110. The price you pay Sky for immediacy and the possibilities of spoilers is $146.

This is TOO MUCH MONEY!

It’s been widely reported that GoT is the most downloaded TV show of all time. Within an hour of the first episode of season 4 screening in the US, the Pirate Bay had dozens of torrents available, including many in HD – and given the content, you shouldn’t watch it in SD (standard definition)

Why are so many people flouting the rules? The reasons are many, varied and complex. It’s not as simple as “they’re just pirates” as some would have you believe.

As the weeks go on of season 4, we’re going to explore the issues around why people are downloading Game of Thrones and a lot of other content in more detail. We all want the content, and we’ll pay you a fair price for it. We want the Iron Throne for the people.

About the author:

Hadyn Green is a geek. He loves shiny new tech and the chance to try to break it. Because it's the kind of thing people ask, here is the tech Hadyn currently uses. Phone: iPhone 5s Tablet: iPad Air. Music player: Spotify. Headphones: Sony MDR-G55 (for walking because I hate earbuds) and Beats Studio noise-cancelling (for sitting at my desk and tuning out the world). E-Reader: Kindle Touch. Gaming: PS4, PS3, Xbox One and Xbox 360. Internet Service Provider: Snap.