You want to know why you should really care about Brexit 2016? Not because of the implications it could have on the US Presidential election in 2016, not because the international markets are plummeting, it’s because Britain’s leave from the European Union could significantly affect HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones.
You see, the Game of Thrones is funded (in part) by the European Regional Development Fund, an organization whose purpose is to bring new business to the EU. Since a major filming location for GoT is in Northern Ireland (a member of the UK), HBO could lose that funding.
If the U.K. departs the European Union, HBO could lose one of its primary filming locations — Northern Ireland. Filming could become too costly for the company and would require HBO to either relocate or find alternative funding.
“It might be up in the air for U.S. studios who want to film in the U.K.,” Peter Chase, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Brussels office, told Foreign Policy. “There are EU programs to help fund all of this. If the U.K. is no longer part of the EU, that has the potential to go away. [source]”
There are other shows besides Game of Thrones that could also be negatively impacted. That’s one of the reasons that a ton of actors, authors and other members of the creative industries wrote an open letter begging voters to “Remain.”
We doubt that HBO would let something like the Brexit kill the show for good, but more expenses could mean that massive battle scenes like the one in “Battle of the Bastards” could go away forever.
