It goes without saying that Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows on TV. Every year it gets the honor of being the most pirated show on the internet and HBO hasn’t really concerned itself with illegal copies floating around on the internet after they’ve been aired. However it surely has a problem with unaired episodes leaking out ahead of time, this is why HBO is going to great lengths to ensure that it doesn’t see a repeat of last year.
Some of you might remember that almost half of the entire season five of Game of Thrones leaked online before the season premiere had even aired on HBO. This was a disaster as most people who had been waiting for an entire year quickly binged on the five leaked episodes. They then had to wait five weeks to sync up with the airing schedule.
HBO is doing all it can to prevent that from happening this year. The cable network’s programming president Michael Lombardo has confirmed that for the first time in the history of Game of Thrones, it’s not going to send out any press screeners. Those are copies released early to the media so that they can pen reviews of each episode before they air.
It makes sense because press screeners were the source of last year’s leak. It’s particularly important to HBO that episodes of season 6 don’t leak out early because there’s a lot that needs to be revealed in the new season and fans are dying to find out whether Jon Snow is dead or will he come back from the dead.
Season 6 of Game of Thrones premieres next month.