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Cape Town – TV's dragons are now aggressively going after Game of Thrones pirates with South Africa that has cracked the 9th place on the list of countries where the HBO show, broadcast on M-Net Edge, has the highest number of illegal downloads.
In a stark – no pun intended – turnaround, HBO has now started to aggressively go after illegal watchers.
HBO previously said "it is a compliment of sorts," to have its highly popular fantasy drama series eagerly devoured by viewers globally not just through official TV broadcasts but also illegal downloads and file-sharing, has now started to aggressively go after illegal watchers.
HBO previously said illegal torrents and downloads which pop up within hours after a new episode is broadcast "certainly didn't negatively impact the DVD sales" and that TV piracy comes with having a highly successful show on subscription television.
With the new 6th season of Game of Thrones, HBO is apparently done with its relaxed approach to copyright infringement of the hit show by millions of people worldwide.
While NCIS remains the world's most watched TV show on broadcast television, Game of Thrones annually breaks the record for the most illegally downloaded show, and by implicating being the TV show most actively sought out by people worldwide.
According to TorrentFreak, HBO, since the start of the new season, is sending out thousands of copyright infringement warnings to alleged pirates in the United States, encouraging them to get an HBO subscription.
In addition, HBO is requesting torrent sites to remove Game of Thrones torrents and is doing so incredibly fast – both old torrents as well as new ones after they spring up.
According to TorrentFreak, hundreds of torrents on torrent search sites like KickassTorrents and Torrentz have been removed already, with most of the most popular Game of Thrones files that's not available and being removed within minutes after being uploaded.
While South African and Africa DStv subscribers can watch Game of Thrones episodes at exactly the same time as it's broadcast in the United States on M-Net Edge (DStv 102) on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform and with episodes made available on the DStv Catch Up, South Africa has now climbed to the 9th place on the list of biggest Game of Thrones pirates.
The 6th season of Game of Thrones instantly lured the pirates, with the top 10 list of countries where the show is downloaded spanning from the United Kingdom and Canada to Australia and South Africa.
According to TorrentFreak the top 10 list of countries downloading and sharing Game of Thrones since the start of the 6th season the most are:
1.Australia
2.India
3.United States
4.United Kingdom
5.Philippines
6.Canada
7.Netherlands
8.Greece
9.South Africa
10.Saudi Arabia
TorrentFreak says another interesting trend is how fast the number of viewers are growing who are no longer satisfied with standard definition (SD) episodes but want to watch Game of Thrones in high definition (HD) although such a file is much bigger and uses more data.
"An interesting trend among pirates is a move from standard definition (480p) to high-definition (720p and 1080p) video. A few years ago roughly 10% downloaded HD copies, which are larger in size, but today this is getting close to 50%," TorrentFreak reports.
"There's little doubt that Game of Thrones is once again the main contender for the title of most pirated show of the year."
