‘Game of Thrones’ season 6 combats piracy with no press screeners
While it’s not often that press screeners are such a big deal that it’s worth writing a whole story about them, this is the world that we’re currently living in with piracy running rampant. For “Game of Thrones,” you don’t have to look any further than last year to see what sort of a huge impact they had on the way in which episodes were consumed. The first four hours were leaked early online, and there was no way for HBO to put the metaphorical genie back in the lamp at that point.
This year, HBO has come up with a new counter: They’re not releasing any screeners at all for the season. While this is mostly to combat piracy, we also think that there is probably another major reason for this move, as well: They don’t want anything out there about the story, given that this is the first time the show will be truly ahead of the books from George R.R. Martin.
Speaking about this decision to Entertainment Weekly, network head Michael Lombardo said the following:
“It’s painful for Dan and David [when leaks happen] … When you have press copies, inevitably friends ask, ‘Can I see your copy?’ There are things that happen. We talked about the upsides and downsides. Some of the press are fans who might be disappointed, but they’ll understand.”
Ultimately, we’re sure that there are some people out there who may be disappointed, but we’re also really in an era where there are some shows that don’t really need screeners. The main function of them, at least from our vantage point, is to convince people to watch good shows. They’re useful for a show like “The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story” that is brand-new, and doesn’t have anything for viewers to go on. However, it’s a little bit different for a show that has been around for a few years and already has plenty of viewers.
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