Tired of being the only person in your circle of friends who doesn't know who Jon Snow is and what the big effing deal is about him? Have you found yourself out in the cold after your parents finally decided to stop sharing their HBO Go password with you? Never fear. There's never been a better time to jump on the Game Of Thrones bandwagon than this Sunday's much-hyped premiere — and you don't even need to be an HBO subscriber to do it. This Thursday, the world was greeted with the joyous news that the network will be offering the Game Of Thrones Season 6 premiere for free.
That's right: free. As in, zero dollars. You'd have to be as blind as Arya Stark to miss this golden opportunity. And GoT isn't the only thing included in this deal, either. The free HBO preview begins this Friday and ends the following Monday, so it spans an entire weekend's worth of programming… and what a weekend. Not only do you have the Game Of Thrones premiere on Sunday, you also have the pay-TV premiere of Jurassic World on Saturday, followed by the world premiere of Beyoncé's Lemonade , that mysterious must-see event that has music fans everywhere buzzing in anticipation.
On Sunday, you'll get to catch a re-run of the HBO original film Confirmation , starring Kerry Washington as Anita Hill, followed by a re-run of Lemonade in case you missed it the first time, or in case it was so amazing you need to watch it again, like, NOW. Then get ready for a night of premieres, starting with GoT, continuing with Silicon Valley and Veep, and ending with a new episode of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. That's not even including all the awesome movies that will be running during the daylight hours, like The Fault In Our Stars, Taken 3, Pitch Perfect 2, Furious 7, Trainwreck, and San Andreas. Seriously, this is like Christmas morning all over again.
So what do you need to do to get in on this awesome deal? Absolutely nothing — so long as you have one of the participating television providers. If you're on AT&T, DirecTV, Dish, or Verizon Fios, then HBO should just magically become available on your television sometime this Friday. If you don't have one of the listed providers, then you may be SOL… unless you can find a friend who's willing to host a weekend-long HBO binge. (They bring the HBO, you bring the wine; sounds like a fair trade to me.)
Last year, Game Of Thrones was the most pirated show on television; the Season 5 premiere alone was downloaded 13 million times around the globe, accounting for about $44 million in lost revenue. HBO is clearly trying to curb these hemorrhaging profits by offering one episode for free, like tobacco companies handing out free cigarettes at schools to get a whole new generation of kids addicted to their product. Obviously the idea is that you'll get so hooked to their network by the end of the free preview that you'll just have to become a paying subscriber. But just because we know it's all a devious plan doesn't mean we're not going to fall for it — because who are we to turn down free sh*t, amiright?
Images: Macall B. Polay/HBO; Giphy (2)
