For television shows such as The Walking Dead, illegal downloading of episodes has always been a major issue. Now it seems AMC’s latest series, Fear The Walking Dead, the problem of pirating might be set to get worse with no network yet signed to screen the new zombies series.

Australians are among one of the largest illegal downloaders in the world. When HBO’s Game of Thrones season 4 became one of Australia’s most favorite thing to illegally download, Australian cable provider, Foxtel, stepped up the game and finally brought episodes to air in Australia in line with the US release date. This did seem to curb piracy somewhat and when new laws were introduced in relation to website content blocking, some fans finally turned away from a life of piracy. Foxel lowering their prices and the advent of Netflix also helped. So did the compensation Dallas Buyers Club LLC and Voltage Pictures LLC were able to seek in relation to Australians illegally downloading their movie, Dallas Buyers Club. But some are still determined to get their content on time and cheaply – and it they can’t they will download it illegally rather then wait.

For Australian TV fans, HBO and AMC are among the hardest content to access in a timely and cost effective manner. Now it is less than a month until the worldwide premiere of AMC’s Fear The Walking Dead and not one single Australian provider has put their hand up to claim ownership to season 1. Even Foxtel who has the rights to The Walking Dead and Presto who is a Netflix-like content service that is owned by Foxtel have said they will screen it. TV Tonight has asked all the major Australian contenders about Fear The Walking Dead. According to a spokesperson from FX (the Foxtel channel that airs The Walking Dead in Australia), no network has done a deal for Fear The Walking Dead yet.

“That’s still to be determined. I don’t think any channel’s officially done a deal for it yet.”

Stan, another Netflix copy that also holds the rights for Better Call Saul, have told TV Tonight there is “no news from us on this.”

So, considering the huge fanbase behind The Walking Dead and no news on an Australian provider for Fear The Walking Dead, it looks like many Australians will put their piracy hat on again and risk their necks rather then miss out on AMC’s newest program.

Another option that is less illegal but still a large legal grey area is to obtain AMC’s content via US sites. Australian’s can do this via geo blocking technology that allows then to access region coded content via a VPN service such as GetFlix that will hide a users location. Australian users can then invent a US address to access services such as Hulu and HBOGo without having to risk the law as much. Many Australian’s are already doing this to obtain the US version of Netflix in order to access a larger database of content.

But even Americans are a little concerned at how they will watch Fear The Walking Dead when it premieres on Sunday August 23. While there was originally a deal struck with Hulu for rights to Fear The Walking Dead, AMC’s website doesn’t yet list Hulu as a service provider for Fear The Walking Dead. However, Hulu does have a page set up for Fear The Walking Dead.

Are you excited about Fear The Walking Dead? Are you from Australia and are worried you might miss out on seeing season 1? Let us know your thoughts by commenting below!

[Image credit: AMC]