Making it harder for people to legitimately watch Game of Thrones seems like a major step backwards in the war on piracy. Foxtel argues that its fast-tracking deals help fight piracy, but it's delusional if it can't see that a deal like this is only going to drive once-paying customers to BitTorrent. They're not all going to turn around and happily sign up for Foxtel.

It's tempting to heap all the blame on Foxtel for this situation, but I think the real blame lies with HBO – the US cable giant which produces Game of Thrones. If HBO really cared about Australian viewers then it wouldn't offer Foxtel such a deal. If it really cared about fighting piracy it wouldn't offer Foxtel such a deal. Instead HBO would ensure that Game of Thrones was easily available to as many paying customers as possible. Obviously Foxtel has coughed up enough money to cover the lost sales from other Australian outlets, but HBO must realise that more people will turn to piracy in order to watch Season 4 this year.

Unfortunately the situation with Game of Thrones isn't an isolated incident. More HBO programs will likely follow suit, as Foxtel and HBO signed a major content deal last year. Foxtel is also planning to launch its BBC First channel later this year, locking down deals on premium BBC programs which will likely come at the expense of viewers via services like iTunes and Quickflix.

Doctor Who seems safe from Foxtel's clutches, although the ABC's current deal with the BBC expires in the middle of this year so many programs will be up for grabs. Some BBC programs may well disappear from Australia's free-to-air networks. If new services like Netflix come to Australia this year they'll also be hamstrung by such deals (Netflix doesn't offer Game of Thrones but it does offer other HBO and BBC shows).

Of course beyond the cold, hard cash, cable giant HBO has a vested interest in signing exclusive deals like this. In the US, HBO is fighting the cord-cutting trend as people abandon their cable TV subscription in favour of streaming services. By shoring up the position of foreign pay TV incumbents like Foxtel, HBO is stifling the worldwide cord-cutting trend and holding streaming services at bay for a few more years.