Two weeks ago, “Game of Thrones” set a new record for the most highly-torrented single episode of any TV show ever. It was downloaded 1.5 million times on the first day it was available. I’m sure HBO would be pretty impressed if it weren’t for the fact that they’re not seeing a single cent from it.
Many people cannot afford to spend $15-25 a month to watch TV shows, especially since subscribing to HBO means purchasing a cable package that’s probably going to cost close to $100. But this minor roadblock doesn’t keep people from watching the shows they love, especially when there are so many other ways to access the content they want.
According to Torrentfreak.com, if you’re only using your HBO subscription to watch “Game of Thrones,” it costs $52 per episode, or $520 a season. We live in the “right now” generation. Information spreads so quickly from person to person that people can’t afford to wait a whole year for the DVD release. Somehow, some way, the plot will be spoiled for you, and in an instant, the suspense and magic of the story is lost.
People turn to torrent sites, where the content will become available a few hours after the show airs.
It’s not that HBO is going to go out of business because of this, but why miss out on the chance to expand their demographic?
Simply making HBO GO available on its own for, let’s say $5 a month, would pull in a lot of the streaming audience who might be open to the idea of subscribing for the convenience. This also will pull in everybody not initially open to the idea of paid TV, or those who aren’t tech savvy enough to torrent or stream the show online.
This brings in more paying customers who were watching but not paying, and a brand new audience who might not have seen the show at all.
HBO should not be completely free to everyone, but only making HBO GO available as part of a cable plan is segmenting so much of its audience that HBO’s leaving money on the table. People who regularly torrent television shows aren’t against paying for content. They are the biggest fans of the shows who simply don’t want to navigate through the company’s maze.
It’s like placing a big juicy $20 steak in front of someone, and then putting another steak in front of them that’s only $5 and just as delicious. Also, you can only eat the $20 steak on Sunday at 8 p.m., while the $5 steak’s freshly prepared for you whenever your heart desires, seven days a week.
Anybody feel like eating that $20 steak?
