Sky's Neon subscribers ask: Where is Game of Thrones?

Technology Editor/Senior Business Writer·NZ Herald·

15 Apr, 2019 01:46 AM2 mins to read

Don't give up - the stream is coming.

UPDATE 5.15pm: Episode one is now on Neon, Sky says.

The final season of Game of Thrones kicked off at 1pm on Sky TV's Soho channel, as scheduled (the 1pm screening is a simulcast with HBO in the US, where it's Sunday night; they'll be a repeat screening at 8.30pm).

But while Soho viewers were enjoying GoT fresh off the satellite, subscribers to Sky's on-demand streaming service Neon were left scratching their heads.

Where was GoT, and when will hit Neon?, they have been asking on Twitter

Like winter, it's coming - but no one seems to know exactly when.

"It will be up Neon later today," a Sky spokeswoman says.

"As soon as it's available we'll send out an update via social and app alerts."

Problem: many fans say they'll stay off Twitter and Facebook for fear of spoilers.

In another twist, others were baffled that once the show was on Neon, they would only be able to download a single episode, not binge watch.

Welcome to the world of broadcast TV, Generation Netflix: HBO is releasing one episode per week on its channel in the US, so that's all you'll get online.

The better news for Sky is that Parrot Analytics - which analyses social media mentions, streams (legal and not), crowd reviews and other factors to assess a show's buzz - is tracking the usual huge spike in interest for GoT; in fact, more so than ever before.

Parrot VP Samuel Stadler says, "My team has analysed the audience demand in New Zealand for Game of Thrones in the lead-up to Season 8 and we have found that it is currently 95 times more in-demand than the average TV show in New Zealand.

"This level of demand easily puts Game of Thrones into our 'Exceptional' category; only 0.01% of all TV shows are able to achieve this level of success in New Zealand.

"During the lead-up to the premiere of season 8 today, the chart clearly shows that demand for the last season of Game of Thrones is significantly higher than during any of the prior two seasons:"