Game of Thrones to premiere April 18th in UK

Sky Atlantic, an exclusive station of British Sky Broadcasting, has announced the premiere of Game of Thrones in the UK and it is April 18th, the day after the States. The Guardian reports:

Sky Atlantic will begin broadcasting Game of Thrones, the fantasy drama based on George RR Martin’s novels, on 18 April – the day after its US premiere on HBO.

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It has been adapted for TV by David Benioff and DB Weiss. Benioff said no one had ever done fantasy “the HBO way, where the focus is on character and psychology rather than spectacle”.

Stuart Murphy, Sky Atlantic director of programmes, added: “We know our customers’ anticipation for the series has reached fever pitch, so we wanted to ensure they could see the show as close to its US broadcast as humanly possible. The series is a true spectacle that will surprise and captivate audiences, and it’s a huge testament to HBO’s bravura film-making that they continue to subvert the genres we know and love, this time in the fantasy genre.”

In related news, HBO Canada has announced that they will be airing the series simultaneously with HBO in the US, which means an April 17th premiere for HBO Canada subscribers.

Check out the rest of the announced air dates around the world at our International Airings page.

Winter Is Coming: Great news for all our UK-based readers! This was as close as they could get to the HBO air date without actually airing it before HBO. This means, of course, that you UK readers will have to wait an extra day before joining in the discussions on each week’s episode. But I suspect that is much better than having to wait weeks and weeks.

• Published on 02/21/2011 at 2:49 PM CDT
• Last updated on 02/21/2011 at 2:54 PM CDT