At first this article reads like your typical anti-piracy screed. It rants about how 10x more people watched GoT illegally (confusing them with lost sales) and ends with how downloading movies can get your credit card stolen.
The middle of the article however, destroys the author’s case.
Time Warner (owning company of HBO) CEO Alan Bewkes stated in 2013 how becoming the most illegally streamed show in history was “better than an Emmy” and that torrenting ultimately led to more paid subscriptions.
“We’ve been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you’re right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world and that’s better than an Emmy.”
The CEO of Time Warner, who knows more about the finances of his own show than ForeverGeek writer Tom Llewellyn, championed piracy and said that it brought them more subscribers rather than nearly destroying the show as the article claims.
Needless to say, Tom forwent a rebuttal in favor of writing how you can get malware from downloading it…
Anti-Piracy Propaganda: 0 Truth: 1
If GoT had “ended” over privacy at the end of Season 7 it would still have a following. People would still wear their hair like the characters in the show… It would have created a pop culture sensation that lasted at least a generation. Now we have a funny reminder occasionally since so and so named their daughter Khaleesi in the middle of the “Breaker of Chains” season…
It’s actually interesting, I’ve never seen something so popular ruined so quickly. For a while you heard about GoT everywhere and then those two fucks destroyed it so much that no one even wants to rewatch it.
It’s really wild
It was a spectacular and extremely entertaining downfall.
Heres my theory. And keep in mind i have just smoked a bowl, the show runners tanked the show because martin paid them too. Create the greatest show in a generation, dont wait for the author to finish it, make everyone in the world want a good ending, and sell more books than any author has ever sold