New research has found that 30 per cent of game Of Thrones fans have plans to illegally download the coming seventh series.
The Finder.com.au study has revealed that just shy of a third of respondents plan to nick the series via pirate sites and illicit web streaming services.
The news follows on from revelations on B&T yesterday that Netflix users were set to abandon the SVOD provider following price hikes and pirate the content instead.
Presently, the only way to watch Game Of Thrones at the same time as the rest of the world is through Foxtel. You can either buy full Foxtel subscription or a Foxtel Now monthly subs for $15. However, once you opt out of the latter you have to pay a $30 get-out clause.
According to the Finder study, 32 per cent of respondents said they planned to watch series seven, which equates to about six million Australians. That means about two million of us plan to illegally download the series.
A further 32 per cent said they’d watch the series via a full Foxtel subscription and another 12 per cent said they’d opt for the casual Foxtel Now option.
Commenting on the study, Finder’s telco editor Alex Kidman said: “While there’s a sense of entitlement amongst many viewers, the reality is that a series like Game of Thrones costs actual money to produce, and it’s up to HBO to work out how and where it wants to sell it.
“We’ve seen Foxtel gradually erode its pricing structure around the series to better and better value levels over the years that the series has run, so the excuses around pricing are getting increasingly hollow.”
Those not wanting to illegally download the series nor pay for a Foxtel subscription will have to wait until after the series is over and becomes available on iTunes and other video-on-demand services.
