Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) kicks off HBO’s “12 Days of HBO Now” promotion

It’s that time of the year again. HBO is doing a Christmas-themed marketing push for HBO Now, its standalone video-on-demand service, and it’s recruited Liam Cunningham (Davos Seaworth) to get things started. The actor recorded a brief video talking about what HBO Now has given to him.

"On the first day of gifting, HBO Now gave to me, a realm where you can trust nobody."

Very intense reading, Mr. Cunningham. Check out the video on HBO Now’s Facebook page. One assumes that there are 11 more videos on the way, so hopefully we’ll hear Lena Headey talk about how HBO Now gave her an ingrained mistrust of everyone around her or something.

HBO’s efforts also include a website where viewers can watch 12 episodes from various HBO shows, including the pilot for Game of Thrones, for free. The network is trying to get people to gift the episodes to other people, which basically amounts to sending them a link to watch it (note that Cunningham says “on the first day of gifting” rather than “on the first day of Christmas”—the network has its priorities straight).

This marketing push reminds us a little of what happened on George R.R. Martin’s Twitter account last year. Martin (well, Martin’s people) did a 12 Days of Christmas countdown, with a different Game of Thrones-themed Christmas tweet going up everyday. That’s day three’s post above.

At the time, Martin’s fans went a little haywire wondering if the posts were counting down to an announcement regarding The Winds of Winter, or even better, to its publication. The hype got so pitched that Martin had to debunk the rumors himself.

Is HBO counting down to something with its 12 Days of HBO Now promotion? I really really doubt it, but hope springs eternal for Song of Ice and Fire fans, so if anyone would like to hop aboard the hype train, it’s idling in the station.