Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes this week crowed that piracy of the hit HBO show Game of Thrones is not an entirely bad thing because it brings attention to the show, the boss joking that heavy piracy is almost as good as winning an Emmy. "If you go to people who are watching it without (subscriptions), it's a tremendous word-of-mouth thing," the exec told investors on their recent earnings call.

"We've been dealing with this for 20, 30 years—people sharing subs, running wires down the backs of apartment buildings. Our experience is that it leads to more paying subs. I think you're right that Game of Thrones is the most pirated show in the world," he said. "That's better than an Emmy."

Unfortunately though, you still can't get HBO as a standalone streaming service without a cable connection, something that the exec has yet to realize is at least partially to blame for the show's staggering piracy numbers.