Board Thread:TV Show Discussion/@comment-25366250-20160714152910/@comment-29999705-20170405100018

Based on experience, the only reason shows cut out episodes is because of, yes, budget. This could very possibly mean Game of Thrones is receiving a lower budget to work with, which may also mean that season 7 won't be as well polished as the previous seasons. Maybe it's the popularity of people torrenting GoT that caused the lack of budget (maybe they're not getting a lower budget), but there's no way to know for sure, just my opinion.