Game of Thrones season six premiere leaks online

The premiere of the new season of Game of Thrones has reportedly leaked online, ahead of its premiere later today.

It comes more than a month after the US cable broadcaster announced it would not be distributing advance screeners, after four episodes from season five leaked online prior to the premiere last year.

Despite concerted efforts by HBO to nip piracy leaks in the bud, the full episode was purportedly posted to a Canadian streaming website today, The Telegraph reports.

The offending episode has since been taken down, however a range of plot spoilers have since been posted to Reddit and on IMDB by eager fans.

Purported screengrabs of the leaked episode, complete with French subtitles, have appeared on image-hosting service Imgur.

Season five has been credited with drawing the show’s largest audience yet, with the finale attracting an average of 8.11 million viewers, compared to season one final’s audience of three million.

The show, shown in 170 countries, has been illegally downloaded more than any other show on the planet.

Each episode alone received more than 1.6 million downloads.

A report by anti-piracy firm Irdeto recorded an almost 50 percent year-on-year growth in total amount of pirated downloads of the show ahead of the season five premiere.

Game of Thrones has also garnered critical acclaim and collected a number of awards, including 26 Primetime Emmy Awards, most notably the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series last year.

Season six of the popular show will be premiering in Australia today at 11am on Foxtel’s Showcase channel.