Game of Thrones [HBO & Sky Atlantic] **Spoilers** (Read Warning Post #1)

ziedth wrote: »

I think they needed to sell Sean Bean before Season 1 to get those (like me) who hadn't looked at the books. I would have watched it but his involvement really got me excited.

Gotta agree with this... It was the involvement of Sean Bean and Mark Addy that really sold it to me prior to season 1 (as I knew nothing about the books and had gotten past giving something a chance just because its on HBO)...

don ramo wrote: »

to be fair to most people on this board i never saw eddards death coming, must have been excruciation for some people not to say anything about it,

fair play

I was generalising tbh. Most threads go as far to analyse actors contracts to figure out storylines. I thought things like that would have popped up in this thread during the course of its first run. I dont know how closely this is to the books but if it was in the books and people kept quiet then fair play, it was really well done imo.

krudler wrote: »

it'll be interesting to see how Sky market it

without Sean Bean as he was the face of the show in the first season marketing ads and tv spots, he'll hes on the cover of the first book now as well since they redid it to fit in with the tv show

Cue Hollywood to go through a spate of killing off their leads in the first season to be original. Once again, HBO goes where most wont! Kudos

titan18 wrote: »

Well, it's not like they could completely change the book's storyline

Why not?

Not being smart but its not like hollywood to buy rights to books to only bastardise them.

I know absolutely nothing about the books btw, fair play if HBO are sticking to them.

Dempsey wrote: »

Why not?

Not being smart but its not like hollywood to buy rights to books to only bastardise them.

I know absolutely nothing about the books btw, fair play if HBO are sticking to them.

Well, tbf, the death was a huge plot point. If they did go against it, it'd piss a huge amount of book fans off. You can change minor plot points but not something as big as that.

ziedth wrote: »

Slightly off topic but in Lord of the rings there was to be a massive sword fight between Aragorn and Sauron in some vision or something but it would still be "real" and I think it was only time issues that stopped it happening so they can change big time given the chance.

Although titan18 has a point in that about half the book/series wouldn't work without without Starks death and I'm really glad that it wasn't spilled here. saying that I wouldn't rule out a few flashback's or dreams next season and have Sean Bean involved.

I wasn't so lucky on the Walking dead thread and have had a future death spoiled.

Ya,tbf,minor stuff like the LOTR example is ok. Same with how they left out Prince Imrahil or how Glorfindel's role was left out to introduce Arwen.

Leaving out Eddards death would be like leaving out Gandalf's fall in LOTR

I don't see how marketing is a problem. If you haven't seen season 1 yet, you really need to see season 1 first anyway, and the word of mouth has been encouraging latecomers to watch it. You're not going to want to just jump in partway when there are so many characters and parallel storylines that it took half the first season just introducing everyone. When the DVDs for season 1 come out, they can advertise them with Sean Bean the same as season 1, and that's how new people will be introduced to the series.

If you have already seen season 1, then it shouldn't take much to sell you on season 2, you just need to be reminded that it's on. They can market it with all the characters that you're now familiar with, such as Peter Dinklage, Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams, Kit Harington, etc.

pixelburp wrote: »

Perhaps, but I wonder where do the DVD / Blu-ray sales figure in a studio's analysis of a shows success.

I don't know if they've figured out how to judge online streaming yet, but they claim to have learned their lesson about factoring in revenue from DVD/Bluray sales when deciding whether to order new seasons. They wouldn't have canceled Rome if they knew it would make so much on DVD sales. A highly vocal fan base online and critical acclaim are good signs when it comes to DVD/Bluray sales as well as for second season viewing figures. A lot of people who don't subscribe to HBO have been hearing about it all year and are waiting to see it. And a lot of rabid fans who have seen it already still want to own the box set. We'll see how that turns out in a couple of months.

Re DVD sales. HBO use the dvd to promote a series awalys waiting for the dvd to have sold well before airing the second series. Online streaming is a new thing and seen as a third income stream.
What has most effect is TiVo and Sky+. Non subscription channels depend on advertising revenue more than dvd sales or streaming. The trend towards watching later(and skipping the ads) is killing shows faster than anything.
Quality shows are now the domain of Subscription channels. They have the budget and control of viewing that ad based channels cant manage. BBC have the state subscribing on the audiences behalf, the rest go with the reality shows that can generate cash from phone ins or hold an audience with event like presentation.
How the Subscription model decides whats worth another season or not is anyones guess, so many factors affect the production of a show before it even gets to air that audience figures are only one factor of many. The big one but not the only one.

pickarooney wrote: »

If only they could somehow harness the cash the reality-cretins throw at them and spend it on proper telly. The whole idea of breaking up a television program for ads was terrible to begin with and they pushed it and pushed it until there was 1/3 commercials to 2/3 content (excluding product placement). They have only themselves to blame when people got pissed off and jumped on the opportunity to skip past ads.

Has there ever been a PAYG subscription model where you 'buy' only the programs you want to watch?

Stupidity tax for the win! I reckon that a 10cent levy on every phone vote for Big Brother or the X-Factor and their likes should go towards supporting quality productions. (Perhaps a percentage of the advertising revenues they raise could also be spent funding vasectomy clinics for the viewers)