Game of Thrones News and Update: Beats Breaking Bad as Most Pirated TV Show for 2013
The Internet-savvy love to binge on the hottest shows using illegal downloading methods. According to TorrentFreak, a file sharing and BitTorrent protocol news site, Game of Thrones, followed by Breaking Bad were pirators favorites this year and were named top-two most-pirated television shows of 2013.
The HBO hit Game of Thrones saw its season three finale in June. Within one week of the episode's premiere, Mhysa was pirated 5.9 million times, making it the most pirated show of 2013. This is Game of Thrones' second year winning the title, having been the most-pirated television show of 2012 as well.
The second most-pirated television show was AMC's Breaking Bad. Its September series finale set network records, but also earned the second most downloads this year. Felina was downloaded 4.2 million times.
How do the people behind these hit shows feel about their hard work being illegally downloaded?
According to Jeff Bewkes, Time Warner CEO, the level of piracy Game of Thrones receives is "better than an Emmy," Variety reports. Vince Gilligan, Breaking Bad creator, told BBC that although piracy is a problem, it helps with the show's "brand awareness."
Not everyone agrees over the benefits of television piracy however.
"There's a mistaken belief by many of my peers that piracy is somehow good, that viewers will develop a habit to pay for it," Gale Anne Hurd, The Walking Dead executive producer, said at Variety's Content Protection Summit. "I'm not sure they really understand other than anecdotal evidence that their ratings go up, that the people who pirate are not then going to choose legal downloads or legal viewing in the future."
Hurd probably isn't too happy to hear that AMC's The Walking Dead is No. 3 on this year's top-10 most-pirated TV shows with 3.6 million downloads.
Next on the list is CBS's The Big Bang Theory with 3.4 million downloads, followed by Showtime's Dexter with 3.1 million downloads, CBS's How I Met Your Mother with 3 million downloads, USA Network's Suits with 2.6 million downloads, Showtime's Homeland with 2.4 million downloads, History's Vikings with 2.3 million downloads and finally, The CW's Arrow made it to the No. 10 spot with 2.2 downloads.