This should come as no surprise to Game of Thrones fans, but HBO has a leak problem. And here’s the rub: there’s really no way to fix it. During this final season, the first and second episodes both leaked ahead of time, thanks to distributors airing them early. Images and clips of the third and fourth episodes were released online before they aired. “The Bells” didn’t have anything like that — better late than never — but if you knew where to look, you could find pinpoint accurate spoilers before the episode aired. (And no, we’re not going to post a link to that.)
So what’s the deal, HBO? Why can’t this info be kept under the lid? Well, according to a report from Vulture, it has to do with how HBO distributes Game of Thrones to its partners, who broadcast the show both in the United States and abroad. You see, unlike pure streaming services like Netflix and Hulu, HBO depends on third parties like DirectTV and Sky Atlantic to get its show out to the masses. HBO may have control over what its own people do, but it has far less over employees at other companies, and once the episodes get into their hands, anything can happen.
The largest problem comes from HBO’s push to have Game of Thrones air in foreign markets at the same time it does in the United States. While this makes it fun for people across the pond to take part in social media discussions as the episode airs here, it means that HBO has to get the episode to all these affiliates at least a day in advance, and that means there’s an extra day for something to go wrong. Maybe the affiliate airs the episode early by mistake, or maybe, as one HBO exec put it, “some asshole decides to grab a couple clips and put it out.”
Now, let’s say that HBO decided to stop airing the show simultaneously across the globe, meaning that people in foreign markets would have to wait a while to see it. That would create its own problems, because as soon as the episode aired in the U.S., it would be pirated and spread around the internet, so if people knew where to look they could watch it immediately regardless of where they lived. Said a network insider:
If HBO decided, ‘You know what, we’re gonna withhold it from the international market until it airs in the United States,’ well then you’re impacting the [international] consumer experience. Or if you’re going to choose not to dub something, then you’re messing up the consumer experience. And nobody wants that. It’s not that we don’t take every step possible in trying to protect the content, but when you have to deliver it to 180-something markets, it’s just not going to be 100 percent secure.
And there you have it. No matter how hard HBO tried to keep season 8 a secret, and despite the tireless efforts of the cast and crew to keep the twists and turns of this season on lockdown, there just isn’t anything they can do from leaks and spoilers from happening, at least not close to the air date. And that’s not something that’s going to change with any show from HBO.
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