Hotstar declares war on torrents, Game of Thrones style!

It’s difficult to get through a whole day these days without hearing/reading about Games of Thrones atleast once! HBO’s GoT is certainly one of the most popular series all over the world and it’s on its season 7 now, just this Monday the most awaited premiere episode of season 7 was telecast in India.

While the creators of the show enjoy the fact that Game of Thrones is the world’s most avidly watched and anticipated show, unfortunately for them, it is also the most illegally downloaded show in the world!

Video streaming platform, Hotstar has exclusive rights to provide HBO content in India including the ever so popular GoT. The first episode of the new season (unblurred and unbeeped) was available for audiences to view within minutes of its US telecast, of course under the Hotstar Premium service, which is a paid service.

The creators of the show have tried to tackle the issue of illegal downloads by legally distributing the content all over the world. Hotstar however has declared war, GoT style. They are calling it ‘Torrents Morghulis’ which is a fun play on ‘Valar Morghulis’, if you are a GoT fan, you know it translates to ‘All Torrents Must Die’. This new marketing campaign by Hotstar, which includes 4 TV commercials and an outdoor campaign in key cities, is intended to upend the behavior of illegal downloading. Through the campaign, Hotstar wants to highlight the trouble people put themselves through for finding and downloading illegal content even when shows are readily available within minutes of its global release.

Well considering India is a big market for GoT and an even bigger market for illegal downloads, a mere ‘Torrents Morghulis’ is hardly going to solve this massive issue, the situation calls for a ‘Dracarys’!


Image Credit: Game of Thrones