Sky! - GUTTED!

[mormont]

[mod] To be quite clear on one point:

To put it mildly, it would not be a good thing for the board if someone from HBO were to see any comment here suggesting, endorsing, facilitating, or even justifying the viewing of the show by illegal means. Whatever your personal views, we'd rather you think carefully before posting them whether they really need to be posted here. Thank you. [/mod]

[The Mormegil]

Sky Atlantic GoT Bus shelter poster

Posted on Twitter by Renly Baratheon.

[Pebble thats Stubby]

I have been looking at Sky Player

Now you can watch Sky TV without a dish, set top box or long term contract. Subscribe for as little as one month to watch channels live online, with a selection of programmes included to watch on demand. Alternatively you can simply rent or buy individual programmes to see what Sky TV has to offer – with no commitment at all!

GOT has not been mentioned as a program they can't show this way. It looks like a 1 month package including Sky Atlantic cost £15. alternativly we may be able to buy the esipsodes for cheeper.

[Werthead]

Just checked the listings for tonight and was startled to see that Sky 3 - Sky's free-to-air digital channel - are showing the first two episodes of Boardwalk Empire back-to-back. This is surprising as Sky Atlantic only started showing the series 2 weeks ago.

My guess is that this is a marketing thing to get people hooked and to encourage them to pick up a paid-for Sky subscription. It'll be interesting to see if some of Atlantic's other shows start showing up on Sky 3 as well, including Game of Thrones. At the moment I don't think it's likely, but worth keeping an eye on the situation as Sky 3 is available to everyone in the UK with a digital receiver (which should soon be everyone, as the analogue signals are being shut down region-by-region as we speak).

[Werthead]

Sky and Virgin are still trying to come to an agreement about getting Sky Atlantic onto Virgin Media. Virgin have said that it's a great product, but are in disagreement over the value. Virgin think Sky's price is unrealistic, whilst Sky think Virgin want the channel on the cheap. Expect that one to run and run.

Interesting information: after Sky's blanket advertising for the channel, all of its billboards and tons of TV adverts and huge previews on the other Sky channels, Boardwalk Empire's first episode drew 438,000 viewers. Blue Bloods, which ran after it, saw the audience drop to 225,000. I haven't seen further ratings info, so it would be interesting to see if those figures have held steady or if there has been a further tail-off following the massively-publicised launch.

The ratings sound bad, but compared to Sky 1 dramas shown around the same time, and actually beat several free-to-air digital channels (like ITV2, whose Vampire Diaries was unexpectedly beaten out by Boardwalk).

Based on that, GoT will definitely not be delivering notable seven-figure audiences in the UK. Interesting to see how it does do.

[Werthead]

Boardwalk Empire's ratings for its first showing on Sky Atlantic have declined precipitously. After opening with 438,000, the second episode fell to 352,100 and the third to 247,000. Obviously not very encouraging, those even these low-sounding ratings actually stack up reasonably well against comparable satellite and cable channels.

More encouraging, the catch-ups, repeats and timeshifted ratings are apparently significantly higher, but the article is one of those ones you have to register to see, so I don't know the exact figures.

The Guardian suggests that the launch of Sky Atlantic has generated significant attention for the advertised programmes (one of which is GoT, but they don't mention it), but this has backfired as a lot of people have gone off and downloaded them for free instead of getting Sky. The article also points out a major concern over Mad Men, the first episode of which to air on Sky Atlantic got just 18,000 viewers, just 10% of what it got even on BBC-3.

One of the reactions to news that people are torrenting TV shows is quite amusing:

People download television from the interweb, you say? With something you call a "stream" or "torrent"? Further research tells me that films, musical recordings and football matches are also freely available! I must say, Good Sirs, that young people today disgust me! As a gentleman on the cusp of my fourth decade, I was not previously aware of this heinous trend in technological thievery only known of by the young, with their funny haircuts and their eye-pods. I must praise you, Mr. Guardian, for bringing it to my attention. In future editions of your fine organ could you take some time to explain, in terms as if to an audience of elderly simpletons, as otherwise I may not understand, who these "Beatles" are, and what's all this I hear about horseless carriages?

So, to reiterate, I doubt GoT is going to be generating high ratings in the UK, which is a shame after that massive advertising campaign Sky ran. It should be getting talked about a lot though, and DVD sales could be impressive.

[Cot]

I'm pretty mad. Moved to a great new flat a few months ago, SKY were being their useful selves and not very helpful so I decided to switch to Virgin Media after 4 years with SKY.

Then I find out about this.

AAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG.

Wert, regarding the negotiations between Virgin and SKY, I have it on fairly reliable authority that SKY are deliberately pricing themselves out of a deal with Virgin. Which makes sense, as its one of their few remaining USPs.