American Gods (101), The Expanse (213) Better Call Saul (303), Fargo (302), The Leftovers (303), Justified (603), Summer Movie Draft, and Triage. With special guest Nicole Lee.

01:15 – Summer Movie Draft
05:19 – Triage
09:09 – American Gods (101)
20:32 – The Expanse (213)
24:44 – Better Call Saul (303)
32:46 – Fargo (302)
37:40 – The Leftovers (303)
43:27 – Justified (603)

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Twitter goes 24/7 video, DC might launch a streaming service with digital comics, and Nicole Lee shares her first two weeks as a cord-cutter. With special guest Nicole Lee.

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CordKillers: Ep. 168 – King of the Hypocrites
Recorded: May 1 2017
Guest: Nicole Lee

Intro Video

• House of Cards S5 trailer

Primary Target

• Twitter plans to broadcast live video 24 hours a day
  – Twitter COO and CFO Anthony Noto told BuzzFeed News that Twitter plans to stream video 24 hours a day 7 days a week covering news, sports and entertainment. Noto didn’t give a date saying it will take some time to ramp up the “many, many things.”
• Twitter will stream 24-hour news from Bloomberg starting this fall
  – Twitter and Bloomberg will partner on the effort. Twitter will not just retransmit Bloomberg’s existing live video stream but originate programs for Twitter and mix in live video from Twitter users. It would be broader in focus than Bloomberg’s financial-oriented news
• Twitter announces more live video feeds
  – Why Tom thinks this is significant: The Internet has had the promise to deliver infinite channels a la carte. The only reason it hasn’t been able to compete with cable was the difficulty of competing with the budgets of top providers who kept content on cable. Netflix broke the model on original scripted programming providing an a la cart channel. Twitter is trying to do that with mainstream news/sports. This could force compeititors to consider going a la carte themselves.

How to Watch

• DC Digital Service To Launch With ‘Titans’ Series From Greg Berlanti & Akiva Goldsman And ‘Young Justice: Outsiders’
  – Deadline reports Warner Brothers and DC Entertainment will launch a streaming service in 2018 with two original series. Titans written by Greg Berlanti, Geoff Johns, and Akiva Goldsman. and an animated series Young Justice: Outsiders. The service is supposed to include comics as well as TV and include fan interaction.

What to Watch

• House of Cards season 5 full trailer released. Season 5 releases May 30
• Amazon’s The Tick TV Show Premieres on August 25
• Apple delays release of first original series ‘Carpool Karaoke’
  – Apple had said its Carpool Karaoke show would debut in April but of course we’ve fresh run out of April and no show. After postponing its launch party twice, now all Apple is saying is that “Carpool Karaoke: The Series will premiere on Apple Music later this year.” It’s expected to have 16 half hour episodes.

What We’re Watching

• Brian: Better Call Saul, Justified, Fargo, American Gods, Leftovers, The Expanse
• Tom: Better Call Saul (303), Justified (603) Fargo (302) Doctor Who, American Gods (101) The Leftovers (303) Handmaid’s Tale, Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla
• Nicole: American Gods, Legion
• On the Lookout:  The Handmaiden’s Tale

Front Lines

• Comcast Beats Q1 Earnings Expectations Helped By Strong Film Sales
  – Comcast announced its earnings and there are a few tidbits of interest to cord-cutters. NBCU’s cable networks raised revenue from increased license fees even as cable distribution fell. In other words fewer cable subscribers but more money per subscriber. Universal films raised revenue too on the strength of Fifty Shades Darker, Get Out, Split, and Sing. And even Comcast cable bucked the industry trend by adding 42,000 video subscribers.
• ESPN Is Laying Off 100 On-Air Personalities and Staffers
  – Meanwhile ESPN continues to cut costs, announcing layoffs that the best guesses peg at around 100 staff. That includes on-air and online talent. ESPN cut 300 jobs in 2015. ESPN’s subscriber totals have dipped by more than 10 million over the past few years.
• Netflix has just found a backdoor into China
  – At the APOS industry conference in Bali, Netflix announced a content licensing agreement with iQiyi, a video service subsidiary of Chinese search company Baidu. The Hollywood Reporter says it will include day-and-date releases of Netflix originals, though no show titles were specified. Netflix said in a statement that “expectations of our deal are modest in scope.”
• Hulu scores deal with NBCU for its live TV service, will now carry all four major broadcast networks
  – Hulu’s live TV service is expectedto launch this month and it just announced it has reached a deal with NBCUniversal NBC, Telemundo, USA, Syfy, Bravo, E!, MSNBC, CNBC, NBCSN, Sprout and other channels to the service. Hulu previously announced deals with CBS, Fox and Disney-ABC. Hulu says it will have more than 50 channels available.
• Sling tries to lure customers with an AirTV bundle
  – Sling is offering new subscribers a discount on its AirTV Player which combines the sling service with over the air channels along with other apps like Netflix. If you sign up for three months of $20 a month service you’ll get the box for $50. It retails for $130.
• The YouTube Kids app is now available on even more screens!
  – YouTube announced its Kids app is now available on LG, Samsung, and Sony smart TVs in the 26 countries where the app is currently launched. This is in addition to versions available in the Google Play and Apple App stores.

Dispatches from the Front
Hi Brian,Bryce,Tom and Jackie if she’s in the chat room.

I did catch this last Tuesday on episode 167 “The UnSub Purge” . You both kind of called my bluff to cancel cable by May 1st .I’ve been a 3rd time cable subscriber with Charter Spectrum since last October….I simply haven’t found the time to watch anything on the Cable DVR. … There will come a time where I will have to call it and just loose whatever there is on it when I finally cancel service. I’m holding myself accountable to June 1.

… for the last 3 weeks, I haven’t even fired up the cable DVR to watch anything on it…..

– David

Patreon supporter since episode 1 in December 2013.

 

 

 

We are going to buy Starz to watch American Gods, any thing else we should make a point of seeing? Thanks and love the show.

– Pat

 

 

 

Hello Brian and Tom,

Last week Brian mentioned that he wanted to know if someone who hadn’t read the comics version of Locke & Key would find the audio version as riveting as someone who read the comics first. Upon hearing this I checked my Audible library to find I had Locke & Key, apparently it was a free read a year and a half ago, so I gave it a listen and here is my spoiler free review:

I enjoyed the full cast audio play when there wasn’t a lot of action going on. Once there was any action the director relied on sound effects or screaming/crying characters to tell the story and that was just confusing. Narration to tell that part of the story would have been a great help. I found the story interesting and compelling enough finish the 13+ hour book in three days. I felt scared and sad and frustrated along with the main characters but I was googling how to get the 6 books inexpensively after 4 hours because I felt I was missing something with just audio. I found some images from the comics online and that helped fill-in some visuals. I read some reviews, on Audible and Goodreads, which said to either read the comics first or use the audio version to read-along with the comics. I agree with those reviews. I’m going to go to the local comics shops this weekend to look for the books or comics, failing that I’ll buy the set on ComiXology. I do think this story could make a great TV series if done by the right people with a big enough budget to give the story the treatment it needs.

Now to figure out if you can get Hulu originals in the UK.

Thanks,
– Jennifer

 

 

 

Ok Brian, you were right… This is Reuben in hot, no chilly, no hot Durham, NC. As you predicted from my last note touting the “workaround” I thought I had with Spectrum internet, I failed; mostly. I was not able to cancel the cable and phone and retain the internet only for 29.99/month as the salesperson said I would, however, after grumbling at the cancellations department for a few minutes, I was able to get a discount from the regular price of $69.99/mo for 100 Mbps to $54.99/mo which is a better dollar per Mb price than the $42/mo for 50Mbps service I had previously. So, lesson learned on the lying sales people, but I think I can be at least satisfied with the new deal. Thanks for the great show!

 

 

 

I have an urgent need to fill if I am going to accept the #UnsubPurge challenge. You have often commented that there is so much good stuff to watch these days, and I agree. What I need is a good place to go and see all the things that are available on any streaming service. I haven’t made it a habit to follow many sources for such things, but if there is a single place I can go to look at what new or existing offerings are available, I’d be very happy to eliminate all bills and simply subscribe to the service(s) needed to watch what we are watching at any given moment.
Ideal requirements: covers the major services available through the Roku box, is up to date on what is available at any given moment, concentrates on series or full seasons, as we are generally interested in long-form story telling more than episodic stories, gives a brief description so I know what the series is about, and covers different age ranges, so that I can find good stuff for my kids as well.
Until we have the world where my tv, or some appliance knows what I want to watch, I am hoping for such a comprehensive information source. I could go look for this myself, but what’s the point of being a boss if you can’t delegate?
All kidding aside, I am a huge fan of both of you, as well as the variety of interesting guests you bring on. Your performance review will indicate this.

– Chris

• Justwatch.com

 

 

The Writers Guild voted to authorize a strike if they can’t come to terms by May 1st. (http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/US-Writers-Guild-Strike/2017/04/24/id/786157/) Cord Cutters News wrote about his awhile back, saying that this will be a win for on demand streaming services because the cable and broadcast channels would be forced to play reruns once the current seasons wrap up, and Netflix and Amazon will very likely have better reruns. (http://cordcuttersnews.com/new-writers-strike-big-win-netflix-amazon-cord-cutting/) I could be wrong, but couldn’t cable and broadcast shows just do literally totally unscripted reality shows while they’re waiting for the Writers Guild to get their act together?

From,
– Amar

 

 

 

Hey guys,
I was wondering if either of you suffer from what I’d like to call Binge Amnesia. Let me explain.

As a cord cutter I tend to watch most of my shows when they become available on various streaming platforms, usually dropping an entire season at once. I will binge the season within a few weeks and then I’ll have to wait almost an entire year for the next season to be released. By the time I watch the new season I have completely forgotten the details of the prior season.

Case in point, I had binged the prior seasons of The Leftovers last year. Last night I started watching the latest season and I felt lost for a while. Luckily I was able to pick up on the current story by the end of the episode. I still haven’t watched season 2 of Man in the High Castle or Better Call Saul because I want to be able to enjoy them at their fullest but I don’t have time to rewatch the prior seasons.

Always forgetful,
–Scott

 

Links

2017 Summer Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers