New "Game of Thrones" episode mistakenly airs in parts of Europe
MADRID -- What a spoiler. HBO subscribers in Spain and Nordic countries had access to an unaired episode one week ahead of schedule by mistake.
HBO said Wednesday that it was a mistake when they made the sixth episode of "Games of Thrones" Season 7 available early Tuesday morning to HBO Spain and HBO Nordic subscribers.
The 71-minute episode was up for about an hour before it was removed. It is due to be officially available Aug. 21.
News of the incident was immediately reported on social media and copies of the episode were reportedly available online later.
HBO Europe said in a note it had "learned that the upcoming episode of Game of Thrones was accidentally posted for a brief time on the HBO Nordic and HBO Espana platforms.
"The error appears to have originated with a third party vendor and the episode was removed as soon as it was recognized," it added.
It said the incident wasn't connected to the recent cyber issue with HBO US.
HBO has been the victim of hacking in recent weeks in the U.S. In India, episode four of Game of Thrones was recently leaked, leading to the arrest of four suspects.
The release sparked some criticism on social networks by people annoyed by the spoiler. Others welcomed it.