If you laughed, cried and said farewell to your fictional friends on How I Met Your Mother last night, you’re probably a pirate and deserve to burn in the fires of Kim Williams‘ basement (don’t sue me please). Channel Seven has confirmed to us this morning that it will air the HIMYM finale in around a month or so. Because piracy isn’t a problem in Australia, right?
Despite the fact that the HIMYM set ratings records in the US for its final episode ever a few nights ago in the US, the Australian network airing the hit comedy series, Seven, has decided to hang onto it for the time being.
Not for some inconsequential period of time like a day or a week, but over a month.
Seven has told us that the hour-long finale of the show will air some time in May, and given that episode 19 just hit Australian screens (there are 24 in total), it’s a fair bet Aussies will only legally be able to watch the show in over a months time. Cue every man/woman and his dog using this as an excuse to pirate the episode to avoid spoilers.
Sigh.
This isn’t the first time that Channel Seven has made decisions that would provoke Australia’s prolific pirate community.
Seven decided it would be a good idea to hold the premiere of Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D for a week because it could. It made up for it by screening a double episode that week and airing the remaining episodes within 24 hours of them debuting in the US.
There’s no telling whether Seven will speed up the schedule of HIMYM given the demand from Aussies, but it’s doubtful considering that the show has been a moving target for the last few seasons on the network.
The piracy risk of something like HIMYM would also appear to be much higher than something like Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D or Game Of Thrones, given its mainstream appeal and just how easy it is to find online.
Right now there are countless torrents online that you can nab to give you all the HIMYM finale action in glorious high-definition, just a click away.
Hell, there are even clips from the final episode up on CBS’ YouTube channel right now. They want you to watch this, Seven doesn’t. Or at least it appears that way.
As content creators ourselves, we don’t want you to pirate anything, but nor can we stand by and let Australian broadcasters hold content hostage because it suits their obnoxiously 20th-century schedules.
Channel Seven, pull your f*cking socks up.