'Game of Thrones' Season 6 kicks off with high ratings globally
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
Ratings continued to be high for the sixth season premi猫re of the HBO drama "Game of Thrones," though in the United States, they received some help from streaming platforms to get there.
"Thrones," which debuted on April 24, had聽7.9聽million viewers tuning in to watch,聽according to Nielsen. When streaming numbers are added in from such services as HBO Go and HBO Now, that number climbs to 10.7 million viewers.聽This year's numbers show consistency in strong performances for "Thrones" premi猫res.聽In 2015, about 8 million viewers tuned in for Season 5 opener.
And that success is continuing abroad as well. In Britain, the premi猫re of Season 6 gave network Sky Atlantic the best overnight ratings ever.聽In Australia, "Thrones" also performed extremely well, with the Season 6 premi猫re airing on Foxtel and the episode becoming the most-viewed show on a subscription channel ever.
These numbers show the international appeal of the program that takes place in a fictional fantasy land known as Westeros and stars various non-American actors. (Actor Peter Dinklage is one of the few actors from the US on the show.)
International viewership can be important for HBO. "HBO is a global business," noted in 2012. "It has about 60 million subscribers outside the United States 鈥� mostly in Central Europe, Latin America, and Asia 鈥� and it licenses its programs to channels around the world.... ['Game of Thrones' and its] epic tales of clans and kingship travel particularly well."
Richard Plepler, chief of HBO, announced earlier this year that HBO streaming will arrive in Argentina and Brazil. notes that this echoes Netflix's strategy, which seems to involve going after international viewers as well.
"Now we're starting to see that HBO wants to become more like Netflix 鈥� particularly with regards to international expansion and supersizing production," writes Mr. McAlone.聽"[HBO's plans]聽echoes Netflix almost exactly, which has said it will double its production of originals this year, and produce聽a whopping聽600 hours of original content, and which recently聽added 130 new countries.聽Netflix's thesis is that it can soar to profitability聽by creating a ton of (globally available) original content, and simultaneously聽expanding its subscriber base to reduce its聽cost per user."
