Foxtel Keeps Its Stranglehold On Game Of Thrones For Another Season

Remember how “fun” it was to get access to Game Of Thrones last season? How it only aired on Foxtel once per week and you had to subscribe to either an expensive package to view it once or a streaming service that didn’t let you keep the episodes once you unsubscribed? Get ready for another year of it: Foxtel just reaffirmed its “exclusive” partnership with HBO for 2015.

Foxtel announced at its up-fronts event last night that HBO’s shows would aired exclusively on the pay TV network in 2015. Here’s the company’s statement:

The deal ensures showcase, the Home of HBO will continue to bring subscribers a host of HBO content including Game of Thrones, True Detective, Girls, The Leftovers, Looking and many others.

That means all your favourite shows will still be tough to get access to unless you have a Foxtel subscription, either via a set-top box or its standalone Play subscription service.

Foxtel’s exclusive arrangement with HBO made the US network’s shows some of the most pirated on the planet thanks to content hungry Australians looking to watch the show on their terms rather than those of a pay TV provider.

The situation got so bad that Foxtel’s head of corporate affairs decided it was time to put his foot down publicly, likening the situation to car theft: “[it’s] like justifying stealing a Ferrari on the basis that the waiting list is too long or the price is too high”.

Get ready for another year of that, folks.