Maisie Williams in Game of Thrones.
Photo: Helen Sloan/HBO
One by one, HBO is systematically dismantling any excuse you had for pirating Game of Thrones. Don’t want to be tied to a cumbersome cable package? Here’s a stand-alone streaming service. Don’t want to wait a few weeks for each episode to air in your country? Here’s every episode of Thrones’ fifth season airing simultaneously on various networks in more than 170 countries around the globe. The simulcast will be pegged to the American time slot — Sunday nights at 9 — which is slightly inconvenient for the rest of the world. (Ugandans, for example, will have to stay up until 4 a.m. to stay unspoiled.) Only the Australians have it easy; they can just duck out for an early lunch break at 11 a.m. Monday morning.