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Take it from this science fiction novelist and avowed geek: Game of Thrones is the show that will finally break Canadian media.

Getting good content in Canada has always been what kids these days might call “A Thing.” It’s an interesting proposition. Canadian content rules and CRTC regulations have ensured that Canadian producers are rewarded for creating content, so long as it’s aggressively Canadian. Too often, this means rewarding mediocrity. We’ve come a long way since The Trouble with Tracy, but it still takes a special kind of nationalist fervour to believe that Corner Gas was actually funny. Occasionally there’s a genuinely revelatory piece of art, like Orphan Black, or The Kids in the Hall, but what those shows did right was creating something that everyone – no matter what country they live in – can enjoy.

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Which brings us back to Game of Thrones. In the past, Canadians who obtained their media through traditional legal means had to wait for certain shows to arrive on their screens; what was on screens in the United States might not appear until a week later, and what was on screens in the United Kingdom might not appear until months after the fact. This was due to antiquated licensing agreements that “windowed” content in separate markets. The availability of certain titles on Netflix, for example, still follows a similar model. Netflix (and other streaming services) hold the licence to certain titles or bundles of titles, and they can show those titles for as long as the licence holds. This is why film and television regularly appear or vanish within your queue.