Game of Thrones season 3 starts in the UK on 1 April, one day after its US airing, and will be shown on Sky Atlantic HD at 9pm. Thanks to Sky's deal with HBO, the broadcaster has also got the VOD rights to seasons 1 and 2, which it will be offering to Sky+HD customers through the On Demand service and Sky Go.

Both seasons have been available digitally before through services like Blinkbox, but not as part of an existing subscription. Neither Netflix nor Lovefilm has had them on its platform.

"Game of Thrones has a huge fanbase in the UK and we are thrilled that from 1 April we will be able to give our customers access to seasons 1 and 2 On Demand, as well as the new season 3 episodes exclusively on Sky Atlantic HD, less than 24 hours after the US broadcast," said Elaine Pyke, director, Sky Atlantic HD.

The creators of Game of Thrones have also confirmed that season 3 will be the longest-running yet. Although it is made up of the same number of episodes, 10, many of those will run at 56 and 57 minutes. Season 2 episodes, in comparison, had a lot of 52-minute running times.