After two seasons on Channel Seven, Agents of SHIELD is leaving free-to-air viewers in the lurch and switching to Fox 8.

While it's annoying that HBO blockbusters like Game of Thrones are locked away on pay TV, at least viewers know up front what they're signing up for. It's much more frustrating when a show like Marvel's Agents of SHIELD builds up a following on free-to-air television and then makes the leap to pay TV.

It seems Phil Coulson and his agents of SHIELD can stand up to any threat, except Foxtel.

Australians keen to keep following the adventures of Phil Coulson and his team are now forced to choose between signing up for Foxtel, holding out for the DVD/Blu-ray release, waiting for the show to trickle down to streaming services or simply turning to the BitTorrent channel. It remains to be seen if new episodes will be available for sale in Australia each week via services like Apple's iTunes and Google Play.

Agents of SHIELD returns to US television this week, screening Thursday night on American ABC, but Fox 8 will broadcast it on a two-week delay in Australia – ensuring that the show will remain popular on file-sharing services. Agents of SHIELD is unlikely to be the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to Australians holding out on signing up for Foxtel, you can be sure that many disgruntled viewers will feel fully justified in turning to piracy.