Sorry, ratings junkies; pretty soon you’ll have to wait a while to see how many people tuned in to the latest episode of “Game of Thrones.”
Starting Jan. 1, HBO will cease issuing or confirming Live + Same Day ratings for its shows.
In a note to press Wednesday, the premium cable channel said that it will hold viewership numbers for a show for “approximately two weeks,” so that Live + 7 Day ratings — which take into account those who watched a program on its airdate and over the next seven days — can be taken into account, as well as preliminary HBO on Demand and HBO GO data.
The move is an effort to acknowledge time-shifted viewing for HBO’s programming.
“HBO subscribers have available to them an array of entry points to watch our programming — HBO linear feeds, DVR, HBO On Demand and HBO GO — and a single airing is no longer representative of an HBO show’s true audience size,” HBO said. “Today, it is common for final gross-audience figures to grow anywhere from five to 10 times viewership after an initial airing.”
HBO isn’t the first outlet to become a tease with its ratings data; earlier this year, FX announced that it would not release ratings data until Live + 3 Day numbers are available.