Westeros Blog: BSkyB to Broadcast Game of Thrones in UK

[lacuna]

Despite their flaws I'd still subscribe to them if I could since they do show a lot of good TV, but unfortunately I'm not allowed to put up a satellite dish here and there's no cable either.

A bit of a threadjack, but...

Not even a flat one?

I'm thinking of getting my parents to get one of these, but I have to find out if it works in bad weather, which is the main problem with their old, traditional sat dish.

[Ratty]

I have virgin cable so have access to Sky 1 if Sky do intend to show Game of thrones there, but here is the thing, will they, they have shown a few things recently on premium channels unexpectantly. I would think that they would keep it on sky 1 as that should be their flagship channel whihc they need content for, but they really do love a good money gouge.

[Padraig]

If they think they have put a lot of money into buying the HBO products then they probably will consider putting the new material on their more exclusive channels. One way to recoup their investment. The older stuff can go onto Sky1.

[Alexia]

I have to ask: what is it that the BBC did to Rome?

[Lady Blackfish]

The BBC did not want to renew their contract (which was for two years) because of the cost of the series, so they had to wrap up a lot of the projected story into a very rushed end half of S2. They also cut up some of the episodes, IIRC, making a fairly complex plotline rather difficult to follow.

[Alexia]

Thanks Lady Blackfish, I didn't realize the BBC was responsible for all that.

[Werthead]

Yup, the BBC cut the first three episodes into two, pushing out most of the politics and history in favour of the sex and violence. This made the episodes hard to follow and look like they were more focused on being controversial than making good drama. The critical reception to the series in the UK was horrendous and ratings plummeted like a stone.

Because ratings were so bad, the BBC (not acknowledging that the situation was completely their own fault) told HBO they were pulling out of funding after Season 2. The amount they contributed was large enough (15%) for it to be a dealbreaker for HBO. HBO's bean-counters had told the heads of programming that S1 got great ratings solely because of its lead-in from The Sopranos, which S2 would not have. They were expecting the show to bomb, so HBO decided they couldn't carry on alone and canned the series after Season 2.

Of course, what happened is that Season 2 got pretty much exactly the same ratings as Season 1 and the DVD sales of the first season were also very healthy, along with international sales. HBO realised they could have kep the show going themselves and still turned a profit, despite the hideous costs, and were pretty annoyed with themselves (and presumably the BBC) for cancelling it prematurely.

For this reason, despite the resulting lack of profile for Thrones in the UK, the BBC not being involved is something I am not altogether unhappy about, despite the Evil Murdoch Empire coming in to replace them.

[Xanrn]

The Internet is for Porn All kind of videos especially Fantasy with some scenes that can be considered Porn like the Hands Tournement.