House Of The Dragon finale leaks online; HBO "aggressive" and "disappointed"

The Crabfeeder might be dead and gone, but piracy is still a major problem for the Targaryens and their chroniclers at HBO: Variety reports today that the tenth and final episode of the first season of Game Of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon has been leaked online, two days before it was set to air on HBO and HBO Max. HBO—which unhappily dealt with extensive leaking of Game Of Thrones episodes during that show’s last few seasons on the air—has said that the leak originated from “a distribution partner in the EMEA region.” (That is, Europe, the Middle East, or Africa.) The network has also said that it’s “aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet” as we speak.

In a statement to fans of the series today, HBO basically pulled the “But don’t you want to watch it the right way?” card, bemoaning how “this unlawful action has disrupted the viewing experience for loyal fans of the show, who will get to see a pristine version of the episode when it premieres Sunday on HBO and HBO Max, where it will stream exclusively in 4K.” (God knows, you probably don’t want some of those scenes any less lit than they already are.)

Piracy is, of course, an inescapable outgrowth of the fact that TV shows these days are mostly moved around on the internet; the mere existence of a system to send a distribution partner in another country a copy of your episode online opens up the easy ability for it to then be turned around and distributed to the public at large. Game Of Thrones has, at various times, carried the not-exactly-coveted title of “most pirated show of all time”; mildly flattering, maybe, but mostly just upsetting to the networks that would like to translate their program’s popularity into money. HBO eventually got so fed up with the piracy that it stopped issuing screeners for Thrones to the press at all; it’s not clear what, if anything, they can do about loose lips at one of their distribution partners.