In one of the remaining episodes of the biggest will be seen on the TV staged a battle to fight and a record high number of viewers to captivate. The prelude to the final season of “Game of Thrones” saw in mid-April, 17.4 million people, and another 50 million they traced to an illegal way. Switzerland also recorded with 60’000 spectators, a record.
The cult of the Fantasy series has not only made the TV channel HBO big. Competitors such as Netflix, Amazon and Disney are forced to do their billion-investment in similar productions. In addition, the filming locations are in Northern Ireland, Iceland, Morocco and Croatia’s lucrative tourism destinations.
The conclusion of “Game of Thrones” is for the U.S. cable channel HBO is an ambivalent thing. Marketing experts estimate that the series is more than worth a billion dollars and years of license revenue is secure. This requires, however, that “Game of Thrones” lives on after the end of the eight seasons this summer. As is the case with any other transmitter of the further success of HBO depends on a single series. Although produced by HBO with “The Sopranos” in the 90s, already a cult series, but its financial impact was limits. This has changed with the fierce battle of the streaming services, from Netflix to Amazon and Apple.
Dangerous dependency
If HBO was able to keep up with the world’s 142 million subscribers with the stormy growth of Netflix (148 million subscribers), because “Game of Thrones”. Because 50 million viewers, according to “the Hollywood Reporter” just because of the series HBO customers, and contributed so significantly to the profit of six billion dollars in the last three years.
This has created a dangerous dependency, say good-bye but nearly 30 percent of the viewers of a pay-TV channel, if your favorite is due to expire series. The end of the series, but for HBO to be a most inopportune time. The Telecom giant AT&T has now acquired control after he buys about $ 85 billion, the entertainment conglomerate Time Warner, owns HBO.
The expectations of a continuation of the money blessing. “”Game of Thrones” was an incredible success for us,” says HBO President of programming Casey Bloys, “but now, we must not exaggerate it with a successor series. We want to avoid, that all of a sudden the lights go out.”
Nevertheless, four follow-up productions are already in the call, and a first relay is turned off recently in Northern Ireland with Naomi Watts. That Northern Ireland comes to the train, it is not surprising. Northern Ireland has benefited like no other country from the popularity of the series. Tourism Ireland promoted the spectacular locations similar to aggressive, such as the new Zealand with the “Lord of the Rings”movies, has done. More than 12 percent of the jobs in the entertainment and tourism industry in Northern Ireland has been created thanks to “Game of Thrones”. HBO is planning for next year in Belfast, the opening of a cinematic amusement parks.
range: the Fanatsy-series
in Iceland, Morocco and Dubrovnik on the Croatian coast turned thriving tourism thanks to the filming locations. In Dubrovnik, the mayor had to limit last year, the number of tourists, after citizens complained about the hustle and bustle of the “Set-Jetters”, and the Unesco had warned of the destruction of the cultural heritage of the city.
“the Lord of the rings” and “Star Wars” revived
With the successor series HBO hopes to be able to also use the license revenue to secure. The market value of the “Game of Thrones” is high because more and more luxurious goods is on the market. To have a black-and-red watch from the Swiss manufacturer Ulysse Nardin for 10’ $ 500, a plastic replica of the iron throne for 30’000 dollars and a hand-painted leather jacket the fashion designer John Varvatos for 2698 dollars. Adidas threw a collection of six ultra boot footwear on the market, and the cosmetics firm Urban Decay offers shades 20 Eyes, inspired by the “strong women of the seven kingdoms”.
the marketing wave is Driven by the fear that in the flood of new TV series to go under. Meanwhile, viewers can select in the USA from more than 500 series, and the end is not in sight. So Amazon is planning for a billion Dollar “Lord of the Rings”series, and Disney invested a billion in a ten-part remake of the “Star Wars”movies. Both productions were successes in the cinema major and will now be revived for commercial reasons.
What it’s about, John Stankey, the head of Time Warner and HBO, last year. “We have to occupy every hour in the day. Our competitors are the smart phones that draw the attention of the user every 15 minutes again.”
(editing Tamedia)
Created: 25.04.2019, 21:38 PM
