'Game of Thrones' season 8 premiere leaked early on DirecTV Now and fans are losing it

• HBO’s premiere episode of “Game of Thrones” accidentally leaked online early for DirecTV Now customers.
• Whoops.
• Customers of DirecTV Now received a notification letting them know the episode was available a full four hours before the 9 p.m. premiere.
• INSIDER has reached out to HBO about the early start, and did not receive a statement at the time of this post.
• A representative for AT&T told INSIDER: “Apparently our system was as excited as we are for ‘Game of Thrones’ tonight and gave a few DirecTV Now customers early access to the episode by mistake. When we became aware of the error, we immediately fixed it and we look forward to tuning in this evening.”

HBO‘s final season of “Game of Thrones” is one of the most hotly anticipated premieres in TV history. The script and plot has been closely guarded, with actors, directors, and crewforced to sign NDAs to keep the season’s secrets safe.

Well, DirecTV Now accidentally jumped the gun by releasing the first episode a full four hours before the set premiere time of 9 p.m. EST on Sunday, April 14. The subscription service is owned by AT&T and includes HBO channels at a premium rate.


<sup>DirecTV Now/INSIDERA screenshot of the episode on DirecTV Now.

DirecTV Now/INSIDERA screenshot of the episode on DirecTV Now.</sup>
Customers of DirecTV Now got a notification around 5 p.m. EST (INSIDER saw the notification on an Apple watch and iPhone) letting them know the first episode of season eight was currently available. Fans were able to click in and play the entire episode, INSIDER confirmed, which has a current run time with previews of around an hour and five minutes.

People quickly noticed on Twitter and began to share screenshots of the episode to confirm.





“Apparently our system was as excited as we are for Game of Thrones tonight and gave a few DirecTV Now customers early access to the episode by mistake,” a representative for AT&T told INSIDER. “When we became aware of the error, we immediately fixed it and we look forward to tuning in this evening.”

We won’t include spoilers for the premiere of “Game of Thrones” in this post. DirecTV Now also did not have the title of the premiere episode, which was only called “Ep 1.” The full episode will be on HBO at 9 p.m. EST.

INSIDER has reached out to HBO about the early start, and did not receive a statement at the time of this post.