Thousands of people across the country and across the world have been looking forward to the television adaptation of George R R Martin's A Game of Thrones for months. I've read all the books in the series, and was looking forward to it as much as most, more than some. Sad then that the show aired yesterday and I didn't see it.
I want to watch it. I really want to give HBO my money and see the show. But there's no way for me to do that. HBO doesn't let you pay to stream their show. They don't sell it on iTunes or the Playstation store. The only way to watch is to subscribe to HBO, and I haven't had cable TV for many years. I'm not willing to pay $60 per month or more just to watch that show. That would come down to - what? - fifteen dollars per episode? That's a bit steep.
The really sad thing is that due to the broken distribtuion model, many people will end up obtaining the show without compensating HBO at all. There are about a bazillion results if you google Watch Game of Thrones Online, although I'm willing to bet that 98% of them won't do what they advertise. And if HBO sees that people are watching the show without paying, they may decide that it's no longer profitable to produce, and we may never see a season two. This alone almost made me want to get cable. Almost, but not quite. I really enjoy having streaming TV and mailed Netflix discs be my main source of entertainment. Netflix and Hulu Plus are great services, and I've always got the crappy Playstation Store video content. I'll almost certainly buy the BluRay set of season one when it eventually comes out. But that alone may not be enough to support the show. I just wish that HBO would invent a better way for me to give them my money. Until then, I may end up visiting a friend who has a DVR.