The fifth season of HBO’s popular fantasy series Game Of Thrones kicks off on Monday, April 13. The bad news is that Foxtel has extended its partnership with HBO, which means you can’t legally access the show anywhere else during its initial run. However, there are still a few options available that don’t require you to sign up to a costly pay TV subscription. If you’re a die-hard GoT fan, these are the choices you should be considering.
The idiot’s way of watching Game Of Thrones is to pay for a Foxtel subscription. While this ensures fast-tracked access to every episode of the new season, you’ll need to fork out a minimum of $45 per month on a 12 month contract, plus $150 in equipment and installation fees. In other words, you’re looking at a total spend of $690, which is a stupid amount of money if you’re only interested in Game Of Thrones.
Fortunately, there are a handful of cheaper options available; some of which provide immediate access without breaking the law. Let’s take a look at each in turn.
Subscribe to Foxtel Play for three months
Foxtel’s online streaming service Foxtel Play recently slashed the price of its Premium Movies & Drama package — which includes Game Of Thrones — to just $5. This works out to a minimum of $30 per month, instead of the usual $50.
While this isn’t exactly pocket change, you aren’t locked into a long-term contract and are free to cancel your subscription as soon as Season 5 ends. Watching the full run will set you back a total of $90. That’s still not cheap, but it certainly beats paying $690. The deal also includes access to Foxtel’s BoxSets channel which provides on-demand access to every episode of Game Of Thrones. The promotion ends 30 April: head to Foxtel Play’s website for more information.
Purchase a season download
Foxtel’s exclusive rights to Game Of Thrones only last for the duration of each season. After that, it becomes available from all the usual suspects including Google Play, iTunes and Quickflix. Last year, Season 4 popped up on Google Play barely 24 hours after finishing its run on Foxtel, with iTunes following around two weeks later.
The downside to this method is that you’ll need to wait until the final episode airs. On the plus side, you can then binge-watch the whole thing in one go and you’ll have more-or-less-permanent copies. Downloading the full season is likely to set you back around $30.
Wait for the DVD or Blu-ray
If you’re the patient type, buying the show on physical media is a perfectly sound solution: it’s legal, ensures high quality and provides oodles of special features that you won’t find on Foxtel. However, you will need to wait around ten months — which is a long time to avoid spoilers.
Sneak onto HBO Now
HBO Now is a new streaming service that is currently restricted to North American customers. However, it’s technically possible to scam your way in using an Apple TV media player, a VPN service and a fake US iTunes account.
The service comes with a 30-day free trial and then costs $14.99 per month. Just be mindful that the legalities of geo-blocking circumvention are a bit murky.
Pirate it
This obviously isn’t legal, but we suspect it’s what most non-Foxtel fans will end up doing. Many will justify the decision by either purchasing the Blu-ray at a later date or mounting an unconvincing “availability” argument. (As this article shows, there are plenty of options out there for paying customers.)
In any event, we reckon it’s a bad idea — apart from being morally wrong, there’s currently a big crackdown on piracy in Australia — proceed at your own risk.
See also: Our Favourite 25 Game Of Thrones Posts
Comments
32 responses to “The Cheapest Ways To Watch Game Of Thrones Season 5 In Australia”
Hey guys, just a FYI — I’ve just jumped in to change the image on this post. Didn’t want to even potentially spoil anything for anyone 🙂
How about using a picture that ISN’T a massive spoiler?It’s not a spoiler. The character in the image will never appear in the TV show.How do you know? Regardless, it’s still a huge spoiler for those who may be reading the books. There’s no reason to use it, just use some generic GoT pic.The producers have blatantly stated Lady Stoneheart will never appear in the tv show. It’s not a spoiler for the show, which is what this article is about. Not the books, toys, fanfics, just the show.then why put it as the pic for the article at all? I’m with Dman generic GOT pic would have sufficed
Maybe @chrisjager has always wanted to use that picture? who knows? I’m not championing for its usage, I was merely answering @dman’s question, which happens to have a definitive answer.I for one was disappointed that Lady Stoneheart isn’t in the shows. She would have brought in the good-old zombie warfare that every show needed.
Well you just spoiled that there is a character called Lady Stoneheart in the books and you just spoiled that she will never be in the show (something I did not know and did not want to know).
cry me a river.
the only way you can truly spoil yourself is if you research into it any further than a name.
OH and now you are spoiling that there are RIVERS IN THE SHOW!
Deja vu… http://www.kotaku.com.au/2014/06/will-game-of-thrones-author-george-r-r-martin-ever-finish-the-winds-of-winter/EDIT: all good now! Spoiler or not, I’m sure people will like the surprise of it and maybe show watchers will one day read the books (which is what I did)
I prefer to just listen to everyone who pirated it to tell me what happens then buy it on blu ray to watch all the non interesting bits they did not talk about………..My mum and sister like to borrow the DVD when I’ve finished watching it so you know, they would be gutted if I did something different this year.
Pretty sure it’s technically illegal to lend your mum and sister the DVD too… so there’s that.
Do you have a source for that claim?
I might be wrong but I thought the license that you get as an “end user” when you buy a DVD might restrict who can watch it.
For example you can’t play a DVD in public without a special licence.
I can’t find any information about lending other than that which specifically relates to libraries and similar organisations.
I think it comes down to what’s in each individual DVD’s licence agreement. I don’t have a DVD with me right now to check and I can’t seem to find anything online.
Maybe I’m wrong and you can show it without restriction in a private residence but I can’t find where it says that either.
Yeah, only the stupid will get caught, the rest of us will be behind a VPN!
I’m definitely looking more at HBO.
I mean it’s a little more complicated and barely cheaper than Foxtel Play (once you factor in exchange rates and VPN), but I can’t stomach giving money to FOX…
Anyone know if the HBO service is HD? Foxtel Play certainly doesn’t seem to be.
What laws do VPNs break? Not saying I disagree, but wild appreciate an analysis of why using one falls foul of the law.
Havent had time to bother at home and happily triaing Netfix at present.
VPN itself is not illegal.
The illegal part is using it to access something that’s not licensed/released/available in your country due to certain agreements/contracts etc…
Adding to that… I’m not sure exactly if it’s even “illegal”. It’s more a breach of terms and conditions. Which would be a civil issue rather than criminal and basically boils down to “breach of contract”.
Signed up for HBO NOW yesterday morning on my iPad. Was really easy. Just downloaded the HBO NOW app from the US iTunes store and installed it. Then registered through the app with HBO. I had to give a US Zip code (but not a complete address), I recommend using a hotel in New Hampshire as NH has no sales tax. The monthly fee will be automatically deducted from my US iTunes account balance, so long as I keep it topped up (which I do with voucher codes from itunesdirect.com.au). No need to have a US credit card. Once I was registered, I just logged in to the app on my AppleTV.
Watched ‘Gravity’ last night, which I’d been meaning to get for a while, at the same time as my wife was watching a TV show on Netflix US. Our download speed is ADSL 9mbps. Experienced no stutter or pauses. Not sure if it was HD, but looked bloody good.
One caveat: I’m assuming that once the first free month is finished it will just us my iTunes US credit, I can’t see HBO asking for a credit card at that point or they would have asked already (I’m assuming). Either way I get to watch the first few episodes for free anyway.
Update: I currently have Netflix US and HBO NOW through getflix.com.au. Total cost for all that is about $30 Aus a month (once the first month free with HBO ends). And I seriously never run out of things to watch. With iTunes US for renting new release movies (some of which are still playing in the cinemas here), I have no excuse to pirate, but YMMV 🙂
I’m having a pretty hard time trying to get my head around how to access HBO… I don’t own an Apple device, but could use the work iPad to create an account. But then I’d still have to create a US iTunes account (will I have to enter a fake US address? And it’s fine using an Aus credit card?). I think once you’ve created the account, you can download the app on the Xbox so I can watch on TV? But Getflix doesn’t list the Xbox for HBO, so now I’m not sure if it’ll work. I was really determined to do this the legal way (though using a fake address is probably not really legal) and I’m happy to pay for it, but they don’t make it easy!
Trialling HBO Now at the moment. That and Netflix together will eventually come to around $30 AUD per month. Covers all my entertainment needs as I don’t watch sport 🙂
With PIA VPN do I need to make adjustments in my router settings? or does it all go through the windows client?
I’ll be watching it on HBO Now in Australia thanks to this https://thevpn.guru/hbo-now-watch-outside-us-vpn-dns-proxy
(As this article shows, there are plenty of options out there for paying customers.)
The options you provide are
foxtel, wait for it (itunes etc), wait for it (dvd), break the rules (spoof your location), or break the rules (pirate it).
unconvincing availability argument? get off your high horse.
The Game Of Thrones options offered in Australia are no more restrictive than in any other market. We often get shafted when it comes to content availability, but this isn’t one of those times.
Exactly. It’s the biggest show in the world, if you don’t watch the episode within a week or so it’s very likely to get spoiled. Aside from Foxtel, the only way to watch it on time is to buy a VPN subscription in addition to buying the content. Which ends up being double or more what the original content price is.
Wrong, to be honest.
PIA vpn costs me $8 a month.
I cancel anytime, no fee.
I download as much game of thrones as I want. Or any movie/tv show, really.
Massive savings, zero guilt because I’m not bothered with the ‘moral’ implications, and I see it asap.
… That’s *if* I was a pirate.
Though seems like a good plan to me.
Great content coming to HBO Now. I got access to more HBO Now content. Luckily I found the instructions at PureVPN. Which explain exactly how to unblock HBO Now outside USA
The first four episodes of S5 have leaked with a possibility of the fifth episode coming soon.
Jesus, STOP trying to scare peopole. Telstra won’t and never has served ISP letters. I
– Use IP BLock/peer guardian,to filter IP’s that track
– Use a vpn
– Don’t use thepiratebay
– Go deeper in the web for sources
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