DON’T GET LEFT OUT DURING WINTER —
THE IMPORTANCE OF
QUALITY OF EXPERIENCE
By RICHARD BRANDON, CMO, EDGEWARE
Game of Thrones (GOT) and
The Handmaid’s Tale have been
keeping audiences on the edge
of their seats – and not just
because of the fight for the
Iron Throne or the battle to
escape Gilead. When GOT aired
its season seven premiere, both
HBO Go in the US and Foxtel in
Australia crashed. Those who
lost the fight with their OTT
services did what disgruntled
viewers do best in 2017 – shared
their frustrations on Twitter.
Not long before Game of
Thrones trended up a twitter
storm, The Handmaid’s Tale
was the center of attention
when the violent dystopian
drama was constantly inter-
rupted on all networks through-
out the globe with ironic and
untimely adverts ranging from
IUDs to pregnancy tests – all
in a show about women being
property of the state and forced
into surrogacy. Viewers watch-
ing Australia’s SBS IP-delivered
service also complained of ads
popping up mid-sentence, with
no appropriate segue.
If the content distributors of
these shows can’t guarantee
a high quality of experience
(QOE) for programs with as
much popularity, anticipa-
tion and intense drama as The
Handmaid’s Tale or Game of
Thrones, it begs the question
– is today’s TV killing itself? At
what point to do these content
distribution crashes and annoy-
ing adverts start driving people
towards piracy?
CONGESTION ON THE ROADS
TO WESTEROS
In the fight against content
theft, it was Game of Thrones’
own popularity that helped
contribute to its own downfall.
The season
seven
pre-
miere alone
was viewed
more than 16
million times
t h r o u g h
legal chan-
nels – six mil-
lion of which
were deliv-
ered
over
the internet.
Distribution
networks’
s e r v e r s
weren’t able
to
sustain
this demand
however, with many crashing
across the globe – including in
the US and Australia. On top
of these 16 million legal views,
the episode was also report-
ed by piracy analyst company
MUSO to have been viewed
Broadcast Beat Magazine • www.broadcastbeat.com • 61