'Airing delays and limited legal download options' were the main reasons for which Game of Thrones became the most pirated television show of 2012, according to Torrent Freak. The TV series saw up to 4,280,000 downloads for a single episode.
Coming in second place was Dexter, which was last year's winner of Torrent Freak's cursed title, with 3,850,000 downloads.
It does not come as a surprise that a strong majority of these downloads come from outside the U.S. , where most of these popular TV shows aren't legally available for purchase. And for this reason, fans turn to sites like Bit Torrent to follow their favorite shows. As far as the airing of the show is concerned, several countries around the world receive the show a little later than the folks in the U.S. For example, the show airs a week later in Australia then in the U.S.
However this does not mean that the number of free followers in the U.S is low. Despite the fact that most fans would like pay for and purchase the show, the makers, HBO, do not offer a standalone HBO GO subscription.
There is immediate need for a proper business model that will allow users to purchase their content on time form the makers without either party loosing anything in terms of value.
Apart from Game of Thrones and Dexter, other big names that made the list include The Big Bang Theory (3,200,000 downloads), How I Met Your Mother (2,960,000 ) and Breaking Bad (2,580,000 ) in descending order.
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