In news that should surprise absolutely no one, HBO has already renewed their hit fantasy show Game of Thrones for a fourth season. After Sunday’s excellent season premiere, which was up an impressive 13% when compared to the season 2 premiere, the decision for a renewal was an easy one to make.
Sure, the first episode of season 3 may have not been as explosive as fans were hoping for, but it’s understandable since its purpose was more to set everything up and put all the characters in place for what will undoubtedly be an epic season.
Of course, with such popularity also comes piracy and as we’ve heard in the past, Game of Thrones is a heavily pirated TV show. Despite what you may think though, HBO isn’t too concerned. Programming President Michael Lombardo spoke out about the issue recently, saying the following:
“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts,” he explained. “The demand is there. And it certainly didn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. [Piracy is] something that comes along with having a wildly successful show on a subscription network.”
“We obviously are a subscription service so as a general proposition so we try to stop piracy when we see it happen, particularly on a systematic basis when people are selling pirated versions,” Lombardi said. “But no, we haven’t sent out the ‘Game of Thrones’ police” when it comes to individuals tracking down an episode they might have missed.”
So, there you have it, folks. It looks like we’ll be staying in Westeros for a while longer, which is fine by us. The ratings and the critical acclaim don’t lie. Game of Thrones really is one of the best shows on television and with the showrunners hoping to give us eight seasons of this brilliant series, I say bring it on!
