Comcast makes first six seasons of Game of Thrones available through Xfinity
By Dan Selcke
HBO has been giving fans more ways to watch Game of Thrones of late. Obviously, HBO subscribers can view the show, either on live TV or through HBO Go. They can also also watch it on HBO Now, the network’s standalone service. Then, last week, Hulu announced that it had entered a partnership with HBO whereby Hulu subscribers could watch all HBO programming — including Game of Thrones — for an additional $14.99 per month. And that includes watching the show live.
Now, Comcast has announced that it also has a new deal with HBO — Xfinity subscribers will be able to watch all past episodes of Game of Thrones, without extra charge, via Xfinity On Demand, no HBO subscription of any kind required. The deal is good from July 10 through the 16th.
According to the company, “customers can watch wherever and however with Xfinity X1, the Stream portal and the Stream app, available on your TV, laptop and smartphone.” This is a great way to get caught up on Game of Thrones for people who have yet to jump on the hype train as of yet.
Why is HBO making available so many new ways to watch the show these days? For one thing, it’s probably hoping people to watch, become interested, and spring for HBO accounts in the days leading up to the season 7 premiere. It may also be trying to fight the prevalent problem of piracy — after all, the more ways there are to watch Game of Thrones legally, the less people will be tempted to look elsewhere.
We’ll see how that works out for HBO when the new season drops on July 16.