In the past, HBO has been somewhat weirdly proud of the fact that Game of Thrones has always ranked as each year's most pirated TV show, because it continued to fuel the series' fire. But, with Game of Thrones Season 5 coming around, and the show's cultural dominance assured, HBO seems to be taking some measures to try and get Game of Thrones' many fans to start paying for the privilege of watching it.

The first move was HBO Now, announced several days ago, which will bring HBO to those without cable for $14.99/month via Apple TV (for the first three months, anyway, before that partnership no longer becomes exclusive). The global simulcast will also expand HBO's -- and the show's -- accessibility, as Game of Thrones becomes a talking point immediately after airing (and sometimes during) in the U.S.

game-of-thrones-season-5-ramsay
Image via HBO

Game of Thrones' entire fifth season will be broadcast simultaneously across all of HBO's branded networks, like HBO Asia, HBO Canada, HBO Europe, HBO Latin America, HBO Netherlands and HBO Nordic. That will also include "Home of HBO" services, such as Africa/M-Net, Australia/Foxtel, Belgium(Flemish)/Telenet, France/Orange, Iceland/365 Media, Israel/DBS, Sky Deutschland, Sky Italia and SKY New Zealand. Further, HBO will broadcast the series via licensing partners Belgium(French)/Betv, Greece/Intervision, Russia/Amedia and Spain/DTS.

This is exciting news when paired with Netflix announcing they would be streaming episodes of upcoming series Between one week at a time, one hour after each new episode airs in Canada. It feels like these things are opening the door to more simulcasting, or at least, making series available internationally shortly after they air.

Of course, my perspective is that of someone who adores British and other international programming, and would love for it to become available in a legit way (or at all) sooner than 6 months to a year after it originally airs, which happens now.

There are a lot of angles to this story, but HBO's move here makes for an interesting consideration of how we might consume TV in the future.

game-of-thrones-season-5-melisandre