[jiggy2011]

They're trying to get you to continuously subscribe, rather than just subscribe for the 13 weeks Game of Thrones is on.

This may have worked in the 90s but people have other options now and they expect other options.

Pirating their content just signals it's valuable and HBO is right to keep availability costly (whether through direct pricing or obnoxious distribution terms).

I think that's the point though, people do find it valuable and may be happy to pay a premium price for it but they don't want to have to pay for a ton of other stuff especially on a monthly subscription.

If it is popular then there is no real reason they should be losing money on it, I think the piracy signals an untapped market.

It's arguably worse for those in the UK, if we want to see game of thrones then we have to fork out for a sky subscription which adds yet another set top box to our already overburdened collection and puts the money into Rupert Murdoch's pocket (there are many who would feel that piracy is a morally superior option to that).