'Game of Thrones' Success Shows Darker Future for Live Linear TV, TDG Says

Viewing data for the season 8 premiere of HBO's Game of Thrones illustrates "the age of live linear television for non-sports programming is forever in the past," and the premium channel is facing a tough post-GoT future, The Diffusion Group's Rob Silvershein blogged Tuesday. He said the 54 million times the premiere was pirated in its first 24 hours was more than three times more than the legal number of viewers, with the 4 million U.S. illegal views "significantly disturbing." Silvershein said GoT's premiere attracted big numbers, but only 10 percent of the most-viewed live episodes of any TV show last year weren't sports, and non-sports content isn't likely to re-emerge as "must-see TV." The analyst said HBO has no other program likely to fill GoT's role once it wraps up. HBO parent WarnerMedia, part of AT&T, didn't comment Wednesday.