In an effort to curb the seemingly inevitable high degree of piracy of the last episode of the last season of Lost, Sky has announced that it is to broadcast the show simultaneous to its being shown in the US on Monday morning.

According to a report from the Guardian, Sky is hoping that the move will see viewers deciding to stay up until 5am to watch the last episode of what we’re assured is to be the last season of Lost. Of course, it being such a big event, a standard episode just wouldn’t cut it, so instead they’ve opted to go with a somewhat more drawn out affair. Instead of the usual 40-45 minutes plus ads, the show is set to last a fairly staggering two and a half hours.

For those keeping score, that means that anyone who wants to watch the last episode of Lost is either getting up at 5am or staying up until half past seven (and likely skipping out on work on Monday). It’s strange to see it happening, but it’s by no means exclusive to Sky; word for the moment is that the same is being carried out in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Israel, Turkey and, perhaps a little less surprisingly, Canada.

Of course, the big question is, if they’re attempting to stop the widespread illegal piracy of a show, is this approach likely to help an awful lot? While there are doubtless plenty of Lost fans who’ll go out of their way to see the finale, the fact is that one of the reasons that piracy of content from TV is so difficult to stop is that it offers the convenience of being able to watch a show if and when you get around to it, rather than having to set aside a certain time on a particular day.

It being two and a half hours and at five in the morning, it seems that this simultaneous broadcast could well end up precipitating as much piracy as it stops.