Media Release: Tuesday July 18, 2017

Game of Thrones Season 7 premiere smashes ratings records for Foxtel

The premiere episode of season 7 of Game of Thrones has smashed records for Foxtel, achieving the highest ratings ever for a series in the history of subscription television in Australia.

Airing exclusively on Foxtel’s showcase channel and streaming on Foxtel Now, the much-anticipated first episode of the worldwide television phenomenon was televised yesterday at 11.00am AEST in a global television simulcast.

The day one Episode 1 audience of 820,000 viewers was an all-time record and an increase of 13 percent on Season 6’s launch in 2016. This figure includes streamed views on Foxtel Now. Episode 1 reached a total of 893,000 unique individuals.

Brian Walsh, Foxtel’s Executive Director of Television said, “Game of Thrones has again broken records worldwide cementing its place in television history as one of the most watched programming events of all time. The audience of 820,000 who tuned in to Episode 1 is unprecedented for Foxtel and we are ecstatic with the result. I fully expect this number to tilt at 1.5 million by the week’s end once more customers have viewed the episode through our catch up On Demand service and encore screenings which are scheduled on the showcase channel throughout the week.

“As has been reported, HBO in the US, its affiliate in Latin America, and Foxtel all experienced some technical glitches with our respective streaming products and we reiterate our disappointment for those customers impacted by the outage. Foxtel engineers are working to resolve the issue to ensure smooth transmission for the remainder of the series,” he said.

Game of Thrones has received a mind-boggling 100 Emmy Award nominations since 2011, and has won a total of 38 Emmys – the most of any fictional series in history. After winning a record-shattering 12 Emmys in 2015, Game of Thrones matched that same total in 2016, repeating for Best Drama Series, Writing and Directing.

Based on the bestselling book series by George R.R. Martin (a co-EP) and fuelled by storylines that have gone beyond the narratives set forth in those novels, Game of Thrones is set in the fantasy continents of Westeros and Essos, where summer can last years and winter (which is finally arriving) can last even longer. With David Benioff and D.B. Weiss again serving as showrunners, Season 7 was shot in Northern Ireland, Spain and Iceland.

Following each episode on Foxtel’s showcase channel, Game of Thrones will be available to watch from Foxtel’s On Demand library, or streamed On Demand via Foxtel Now or the Foxtel App.

Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres on Mondays at 11.00am at the same time as the US
Encore screenings at 8.30pm Mondays, Tuesdays at Midday and 9.15pm
Wednesdays at 1.20pm, Thursdays at 10.10pm, Fridays at 11.25am and Saturdays at 8.30pm (All times in AEST)
Only on Foxtel’s showcase channel or stream it on Foxtel Now

-Brad