And the battle between TV distribution and the internet continues. On August 4, an unaired episode of the new season of Game of Thrones appeared on the internet. This is significant as it means that Time Warner (NYSE:$TWX) subsidiary HBO is continuing to struggle with hacking attempts. Despite having HBO’s servers breached earlier this week, we have now been made aware that this episode leak was not actually apart of that successful hacking.
So what happened? According to sources close to HBO’s security breach, the leak came from Star India, which is the premium channel’s distribution partner. How can we be sure it was Star India? Well, for starters, the company’s logo appears watermarked throughout the entire episode. “This confirms the compromise of episode 4 of ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 7, earlier this afternoon,” a Star India spokesperson told The Verge. “We take this breach very seriously and have immediately initiated forensic investigations at our and the technology partner’s end to swiftly determine the cause. This is a grave issue and we are taking appropriate legal remedial action.”
For those who don’t know, HBO gave distribution duties to Star India back in 2015, as the TWX subsidiary struggled to run its own operations in India. While it’s true that additional episodes could soon appear from this distribution partner, many speculate that the HBO hackers haven’t managed to obtain the full episodes of the seventh season. On Monday, Entertainment Weekly announced that hackers stole 1.5 terabytes of data, but only published scripts for the episodes.
Regardless, a leak from a distribution partner is bound to cause more trouble for HBO. Particularly because HBO has struggled to keep episodes of Game of Thrones under wraps over the years. For instance, the first four episodes of season 5 leaked online, and an HBO subsidiary released a season 6 episode a day early.
Featured Image: twitter
