I was looking on how to legally watch Game of Thrones here in Belgium.
It's pretty complex to figure this all out.
Basically you got to have a set-top box of at least 54 euros/month, and add 12 euro's extra to watch certain extra shows and movies (which includes Game of Thrones).
I found a solution without set-top box, but then you stream it on your mobile phone, and somehow need to remotely show it on your TV. This solution is 100 euros/month since it includes internet, tv, mobile provider, etc.
So yeah... I have Netflix, I have Spotify. I never need to download MP3's since they are all available on Spotify.
For movies and tv.... yeah...
And then people wonder why torrents are still so popular? Because it's the most convenient, not because it's free.
There is another option available for that I've moved towards. You can obviously purchase content on a digital library. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google Play are my 3 favorite (in no particular order) since a lot of the content syncs with the new-ish Movies Anywhere digital locker. If Movies Anywhere includes your show or movie then it syncs across all your accounts and is available everywhere. So if Google decides to stop selling movies, you can easily just switch over to Amazon, or whatever, without losing your content that you purchased.
Basically, I buy good movies and shows that I actually enjoy rather than subscribing to crappy services that rotate through a dozen or so good movies and a mountain of complete crap. I also don't have to watch commercials, and I can watch my movies on my phone or through a chromecast/fire tv/roku whenever and wherever (as long as I have internet). Also, most of these platforms allow you to download to a mobile/tablet device for streaming on a flight or train or whatever.
This can get expensive, of course, doesn't work for live events and you're still relying on all these systems staying active, but I don't like the societal move away from ownership and towards renting. If I know I love Back to the Future, why do I need to pay Netflix/HBO/cable/etc subscription so that I can hope that they add it to their library on the days that I feel interested in watching it again.
Game of Thrones Season 8 is $27 on Google Play. And if it takes you more than a month to get around to watching it, or if you ever want to watch it again ever, it won't cost you more than that. I think that's pretty nice
It used to be that more internet/TV providers offered HBO, but apparently one bought exclusive rights hoping everybody would switch to them. I certainly didn't.
As for Pirate Buy, it's blocked in Netherland, so Kickass Torrents seems to be the place to go these days.
Pirate bay is blocked in the Netherlands, but just Google "pirate proxy" to see about two dozen sites that give you access to the pirate bay. These sites make money from inserting ads into the page while you view the pirate bay through their proxy, but you can access it just fine. (Some of them do insert a ridiculous number of ads, mostly for adult content)
I recently went all in- I cancelled Spotify and bought premium YouTube and YouTube music. The music discovery system in YouTube music is far far better than anything Spotify have. I suppose it's due to YouTube already knowing what music I listen to when I can't find it on Spotify.
You mean you don't want to sign up for 15 different services, essentially paying more than you used to for cable, just to see all the things you used to see on cable?
I'm not interested in Belgian cable: old shows, interrupted with commercials, and not on demand. The world has moved on.
But it seems the content owners haven't moved on, and so there is no legal way for me to get HBO. So even signing up is already the problem. I wish I had the problem of having 15 different services.
Also living in Belgium and I have a Telenet internet subscription, but without a the cable-TV option. I don't watch any traditional TV, but if I want to legally see GoT, I would have no other option than to take the normal TV subscription just to be able to take the "extra shows & movies" option. I stream everything and have no problem paying for streaming services, but that I will not do.
An HBO streaming service is on my wish-list since they consistently offer quality content. However, this is not easily possible, torrenting is quicker and more practical - so yeah...
Can't you subscribe to NowTV in the UK for about €10 a month? I thought that country-by-country restrictions had been removed inside the EU by law (single digital market)
No you can't. You can't even watch BBC documentaries from the official web player here in Ireland unless you use a vpn. They are only licensed for the UK and a handful other countries. Very sad situation.
I don't know about HBO, but Netflix has spent a lot of effort building quite sophisticated methods for detecting and blocking people trying to connect via VPN
In my experience, it varies... I had one VPN service start to get blocked consistently, so I switched to another, and that's been going smoothly for two years. And I'm sure Netflix can put cookies on my machine and know what's up... I'll be in Japan and then minutes later I'm in the US again with the same computer.
Basically you got to have a set-top box of at least 54 euros/month, and add 12 euro's extra to watch certain extra shows and movies (which includes Game of Thrones).
I found a solution without set-top box, but then you stream it on your mobile phone, and somehow need to remotely show it on your TV. This solution is 100 euros/month since it includes internet, tv, mobile provider, etc.
So yeah... I have Netflix, I have Spotify. I never need to download MP3's since they are all available on Spotify.
For movies and tv.... yeah...
And then people wonder why torrents are still so popular? Because it's the most convenient, not because it's free.