CHINESE Internet firm Tencent is partnering with Time Warner’s HBO network to stream its TV shows.

    Tencent will be the exclusive online provider of HBO series such as “Game of Thrones,” “True Detective” and “Boardwalk Empire,” China’s top social network and gaming firm said Tuesday.

    “This partnership enables us to distribute some of the most groundbreaking programing in the world through our robust technology platform, to the benefit of Chinese Internet users,” Martin Lau, president of Tencent, said in a statement.

    But even as China’s Internet TV firms have pumped more than US$1 billion into foreign content in less than two years in a bid to attract more viewers, government regulators have stepped up their oversight of the previously freewheeling industry.

    Tencent declined to say how much it spent on HBO’s content, nor did it give a date for release.

    The TV series and films are set to be broadcast in the very near future, said Tencent, as they are still subject to approval from China’s regulators and may need to be censored.

    Earlier this year, China’s State broadcaster CCTV aired a chopped version of “Game of Thrones” which one viewer said resembled a “medieval castle documentary.”

    In May, China’s authorities ordered streaming services to take down popular U.S. shows “The Big Bang Theory,” “The Good Wife,” “NCIS” and “The Practice.”(SD-Agencies)