HBO Won’t Send Press Screeners for Game of Thrones Season Six

By Reuben Levine | Mar 2, 2016

Press won’t be able to preview Game of Thrones’ newest season, as HBO won’t be sending episodes early.

Game of Thrones has had its trouble with piracy in the past. This problem came to a head last year, when the first few episodes of season five were leaked onto the internet early. Although it didn’t end up causing a huge stir, it wasn’t exactly an ideal situation. On top of that, script pages were leaked from season six last November. It turns out that when you’re the most popular television show of all time, it’s hard to keep secrets.

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HBO, it would appear, has finally had enough of this. The network is hoping to stem the tide by, according to Entertainment Weekly, cutting off press screeners. That means that the media won’t be able to view the episodes before everyone else, a tried and true practice. HBO’s Michael Lombardo spoke about the decision:

"“It’s painful for Dan and David [when leaks happen]…When you have press copies, inevitably friends ask, ‘Can I see your copy?’ There are things that happen. We talked about the upsides and downsides. Some of the press are fans who might be disappointed, but they’ll understand.”"

While this will inevitably put more pressure on the press since they won’t have the luxury of reading reviews beforehand, it’s one of the only things HBO can actually do stop leaks on their end. This may actually lead to a more exciting season, since everyone will be forced to experience it at the same time — there will be no preferential treatment.

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There’s nothing wrong about going in blind — or as blind as possible with something as huge as Game of Thrones — and it could be nice to not have the early review chatter clouding expectations. Whether season six of Game of Thrones is going, it is now guaranteed to be most unique season yet.