Why the Power season 4 episode leak won’t have huge impact

[Len]

One of the bigger headlines that is coming out this afternoon, regrettably within in the world of piracy, is that some Power season 4 episodes are online. They were leaked by someone who logged into a screener access account, only to then record some of them on Facebook using a little bit of their commentary to go along with it.

The responsible party for this action has to win some sort of award for sheer idiocy, given that they basically outed themselves as the guilty party to the network and their lawyers. Why in the world do this? Anytime this happens, there is some sort of concern that it is going to impact the performance of the show, but there’s probably not match to worry about in this case.

For one, consider this: You’re a serious Power fan, and you spend a great deal of time sitting around and waiting for new episodes to come online. Are you really going to want to go watch some crummy low-quality version of your favorite show just because someone leaked it onto the internet? Makes zero sense, especially since Starz already gives you so many ways to watch the show in the first place. They are the only premium cable network that gives you early access to episodes on their app and On-Demand, prior to them even coming on the air. If you’re a true fan of the show, you’re going to want to wait for that. You get the episodes in their best quality, and also are supporting the people who bring you the content in the first place. Starz relies on those subscriptions and views to fund all of their shows.

In general, though, the impact of leaks sometimes is overblown because the majority of viewers by and large don’t care about going and pirating something on an illegal site. The people who do that are probably just going to do that, unfortunately. A great example of that is Game of Thrones setting a ratings record for this past episode, despite it hitting the internet early. That didn’t stop the show in any shape or form, so we definitely don’t think it will do so here.

The only thing that we’d caution you of if you’re a big-time Power fan is to be wary of where you visit on the internet, just in case there are some jerks who are ready and eager to ruin the fun for you. (Rest assured that we’ve got no serious interest in dropping spoilers here at the site. We stick to the stuff that is already released by the network.)

While everyone agrees in the industry that episode leaks are bad and should be stopped, at least Power already has a season 5 renewal, and is one of the network’s most-popular shows. In the long game, it’ll weather this storm.