Hulu’s gonna make money (promise!), Netflix gets chatty, and Twitter’s going local. 

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CordKillers: Ep. 208 – Red is the New YouTube
Recorded:  February 19 2018
Guest: None

Intro Video

• Cobra Kai teaser

Primary Target

• Hulu is going to be big and profitable, according to Disney’s chief strategy officer
  – Hulu loses close to $1 billion a year
  – Disney’s chief strategy officer, Kevin Mayer said “It takes an investment for sure, and we’re happy to undertake that. There’s going to be a big, profitable service.”
  – Lots of pundits seem to think Comcast will yank licensing rights from Hulu if Disney takes over Fox’s share of the service.
  – But Mayer talked about selling shows directly to consumers.

How to Watch

• The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale premiered Sunday.
• Netflix preps late-night series with ‘Daily Show’ vet Michelle Wolf
  – Netflix will also do a weekly half-hour talk show hosted by Daily Show contributor Michelle Wolf. It will have humor they couldn’t do on TV and premiere later in 2018.

What to Watch

• ‘Stargate: Origins’ debut brings the 1994 flick along for free
  – The first three episodes of Stargate: Origins launched. MGM is charging a one time $20 fee for access to Stargate Command where you can watch the show plus old episodes and movies.
• Chris Rock’s first Netflix special debuts February 14th
  – The first of Chris Rock’s two Netflix special debuted February 14th. Chris Rock: Tamborine was filmed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and was directed by Bo Burnham.
• Netflix’s ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ returns May 30th
  – The first six episodes of Netflix’s ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ return May 30th. No date for the second half of the season yet.
• Amazon greenlights the fifth season of Bosch
  – Amazon has renewed Bosch for a fifth season. The fifth season is based on the novel Angels Flight. An attorney is murdered the night before his civil rights trial begins.
• CBS announced it will make a second season of Carpool Karaoke for Apple Music.
• Apple is developing a scripted basketball show inspired by Kevin Durant’s life
  – And Apple announced it’s partnering with Warriors star small forward Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Media and Imagine Media to create Swagger, a new scripted series based on Durant’s early life. About a month ago, YouTube announced that it was partnering with Durant’s video business to offer up original sports programming, though not in a scripted format.

What We’re Watching

• Brian: Counterpart, Black Panther, little bit of Olympics, Deadwood
• Tom: Counterpart (105), Black Panther (again), Olympics, Deadwood (109)
• On the Lookout: The Polka King, The Man Who Would Be Polka King

Front Lines

• Hulu’s weekend outage affected some users trying to watch Olympics, NBA All-Star game
  – Hulu had another outage of its live streaming TV part of the service during the Olympics and NBA all-star game this weekend. Outages happened in streaming on Saturday and in login on Saturday and Sunday. TechCrunch sources say the outages were a result of an issue at Hulu’s Las Vegas data center.
• Twitter will broadcast local TV news to avoid misinformation
  – Twitter will begin streaming local TV news coverage alongside its timeline in certain cases. The new feature was tested during coverage of a school shooting in Florida Wednesday. Twitter is partnering with local channels to carry the streams and display them alongside tweets about the events.
• YouTube TV raises pricing, expands with Turner, NBA, MLB additions
  – YouTube TV has added channels from Turner as well as NBA TV and MLB Network.And after March 15, new subscribers will have to pay $40 a month now, $5 more than now. It’s also now available in all top 100 markets covering 85% of the US.
• YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki also said YouTube Red will expand its subscription service to as many as 100 countries soon.
• Netflix signs up ‘Glee’ producer Ryan Murphy
  – Netflix announced it has a multi-year agreement with Ryan Murphy, creator of Glee, Nip/Tuck, American Horror Story and Scream Queens. Murphy is already working on two shows for Netflix, Ratched and The Politician.

Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys,

I don’t have a TV, and watch broadcasts via Youtube TV. The interface is great for me, and I love watching on various other devices (i.e. cell phone).

My girlfriend cut the DISH cord and was trying PS Vue with a Roku. She found the interface/experience frustrating. So when Roku added Youtube TV, I convinced her to try it out… and we have a winner!

Two thumbs up for Youtube TV.

Thanks, your 1/2000 boss,

– Steve

 

 

 

Hi Tom/Bryan – With T-Mobile’s impending launch of yet another streaming service with their purchase of Layer 3, here is one way they can differentiate themselves. Provide a box that runs on their LTE and is not data capped. The one main reason I haven’t been able to move to streaming only is because we regularly hit our Comcast 1TB limit even with Cable. So if there is way I can stream and not hit my data limit I will be extremely swayed.

Looking for your thoughts on this.

Thanks,
– Josh

 

 

 

Tom and Brian,

Day one supporter love the show. Thought I would share a funny story, that shows just how far we still have to go.

I got engaged two years ago, and my fiance could not get on board with just having internet. She needed cable.

So the Cox bill was $250 a month, 3 tvs, DVR, internet, HBO, Showtime, Starz.

We also have a 1TB cap, and $50 of my bill was to add an additional 500GB. (3 teenage boys will blow through a cap pretty quickly.)

After living with me for the past two years, she finally realized that, in fact, she never used the cable box anymore, and agreed that we could cut the cord. Success!!!

So I called COX and told them I just wanted an unlimited internet plan. NO GO. The best they could do was $180 a month for JUST Internet, which included me paying the extra $50 to get a 1.5 TB cap.

And that was all they could do. Sorry, take it or leave it. So, $180 + about another $80 for Hulu with Live TV, and Premium Channels and I would be back where I started.

So I called AT&T.

And here is where it gets nuts.

Internet alone is $70. I can live with that, but it has a 1TB cap, and their price for overages are nuts.

BUT, if I added Direct TV, they had a bundle that gave me UNLIMITED Internet and DirectTV for $72 a month for the first year. Going to $112 the second year. I could live with this. And I wouldn’t need the Hulu Live TV option.

I said great, but we can skip the dish install, and I would just like to get DirectTV NOW.

NO GO.

I had to get the dish and cable box.

So, they sent a guy out who spent 8 hours installing the dish, wiring the house, etc. INSANE.

End of the day, I am all in is $72 for unlimited Internet and DirectTV, and about $40 for all the premium channels (I decided to get them through AMAZON, as you can now tell Alexa to pretty much do everything on a FireTV and it now has deep integration into channels. “Alexa, play This Is Us” “Getting This is Us on Hulu”, but that integration is an entirely different email.)

So I’m all in at $112 for the first year and $162 for the second. Total savings of $2712 over the next two years.

Keep up the good work.

Your Boss,

– BrettFM

 

 

 

I am hoping the Game of Thrones creators will take the Star Wars universe in a different direction in the same way Deadpool took the Marvel movies in a different direction. What are the chances that they will bring the nudity, sex and graphic violence of Game of Thrones to a rated R Star Wars movie?

– Ken

 

 

 

Re: Ep. 207 – ViaCon
In episode 207 your guest mentioned how the kids in Disney show give no respect to their parents. This really struck a cord with me. I noticed this 10 years ago with my daughter. That was the catalyst to get me to finally cut the cord and we have not looked back since.

– George

Links
patreon.com/cordkillers