Cosmos makes us into stars, The Shield treads water, and Game of Thrones keeps killing it. Literally.
Cordkillers Ep. 17 – What channel is YouTube on?
Cable subs are stable are on the rise. Aereo looks like it might lose in court. So what’s the good news? Netflix might go peer-to-peer? Ah, Dish might bring an Internet-only TV service by the end of the summer!
CordKillers: Ep. 17 – What channel is YouTube on?
Recorded: April 28 2014
Guest: Philip Shane, Documetary filmmaker
Intro Video
Primary Target
- You Kids Are Still Watching — And Paying for — TV, Says Pay TV Giant
- TWC subs rise
- Comcast adds video subscribers, beats Street
- Comcast details plan to give up customers and create new cable company
- 75 percent of millennials are paying for TV – ESPN citing Nielsen
– TWC lost 34K video subs. Gained 269K data and 107K voice
– Comcast added 26K video subs. (second straight quarter) Gained 383K data,
– Comcast will ditch 3.9 million subs mostly to Charter if TWC merger approved.
Secondary Target
- With Aereo, Supreme Court digs into copyright nuances
- Inside the Supreme Court for Aereo’s last stand
- Supreme Court Conflicted on Legality of Aereo Online Video Service
- The Supreme Court Loves the Cloud. It’s Not Sure About Aereo.
- In Aereo hearing, Supreme Court expresses concern for cloud computing – but doubt over tiny antennas
- Transcript
Signal Intellegence
- Dish reportedly launching internet TV service this summer
- Dish Said to Target Summer Debut for Internet-TV Service
- Bloomberg now saying Dish will launch service over the Internet by end of summer
– Has Disney on board
– NBC has to say yes as condition of Comcast acquisition.
– A&E Television Networks LLC, Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Broadcasting and CBS Corp. also have spoken with Dish
– Apparently other networks holding out until Dish gets two networks on board and 10 of highest rated cable nets
Gear Up
- Fan TV’s Streaming Set-Top Box Will Soon Be Available To Time Warner Cable Subscribers
- Sky’s next set-top box rumored to do away with satellite dishes
- A tale of two cable boxes
IN THE US
– Fan TV, Yves Behar designed, gesture-based remote, mixes cable with streaming services (Redbox Instant by Verizon, Crackle, and Target Ticket, Rhapsody)
– Now available for pre-order to TWC subs for $99IN THE UK
– Project Ethan (according to Telegraph)
– all of Sky’s programming is available through the cloud, letting you pause TV and — if you like — resume it on a smartphone
Under surveillance
- Microsoft Xbox Struggles in Big Hollywood Foray
- Microsoft may use mashup of pricing plans for Xbox TV shows
- Documentary series found the ET cartridges!
- Yahoo announces its first two original TV series, coming in 2015
- Xbox Entertainment Studios chief Nancy Tellem at the Newfronts advertiser meetings in NYC
—Committed
Halo TV series (Spielberg)
Every Street United (street soccer unscripted)
Bonnaroo – Live
Documentary series “Signal to Noise” – INcluding Atari Game over
Humans (remake of Swedish “Real Humans”)
Halo feature (Ridley Scott)
— In development
Deadlands (Based on RPG)
Extraordinary Believers (Robot Chicken folks, hybrid stop-motion show)
Fearless (unscripted Navy divers)
Gun machine (Based on novel by Warren Ellis)
JASH comedy half hour
Winterworld (Earth encased in ice) - Netflix pays to play with Verizon, too
Front Lines
- Amazon’s getting old seasons of canceled HBO shows.
- They’re not getting Sex and the City or Game of Thrones. And they won’t get series like Girls or Veep until they’re 3 years old. BUT HBO IS SELLING SHOWS TO A RIVAL STREAMING PROVIDER.
- Netflix posted a job listing for senior software engineer “with a special focus in peer-to-peer networks.”
- Part of the job responsibilities include “research and architecture of large scale peer to peer network technology as applicable to Netflix streaming”. Hey remember when ISPs said Netflix should pay extra because they send more traffic into an ISP than the ISP sends to Netflix? Well yeah, this could change that balance.
- RCN, Grande Communications, and Atlantic Broadband will offer access to the Netflix service straight from their TV set-top boxes.
- If you’re an RCN customer you would pick up your remote control, tune to the appropriate channel, like say, channel 450, and there you’d find Netflix. You’d select it and that would launch the Netflix app.
- AT&T is teaming up with The Chernin Group.
- A investment group run by former Fox president Peter Chernin“”to acquire, invest in and launch over-the-top (OTT) video services.” Apparently the two companies have sunk $500 million in the venture.
- All current-generation Roku devices— which essentially means you bought it after July 2011 — can now add the YouTube channel.
- They also support DIAL, meaning you can send video from a YouTube mobile app to the Roku box.
- Arrested Development’s creator, Mitch Hurwitz, has signed a multi-year deal to create and produce a new original series for Netflix.
2014 Summer Movie Draft
http://draft.diamondclub.tv/
- DTNS: $225,059,241
- GodsMoneybags: $114,983,205
- Amtrekker: $24,763,752
- The Morning Stream: $24,161,059
- Night Attack: $0
- /Film: $0
On Screen
- Brian: Game of Thrones (HBO Go), Cosmos (hulu), Rick and Morty (Adult Swim)
- Tom: Archer (Vudu) Warehouse 13 (Amazon) The Shield Ep. 9 (Amazon) Agents of SHIELD (OTA) Arrow (OTA), Orphan Black (iTunes), Game of Thrones (HBO Go) Cosmos (OTA) Mad Men (Amazon)
- Philip: Game of Thrones (HBO Go), Cosmos (hulu), Mad Men (Amazon), Orphan Black (iTunes), Community (iTunes), Science of the Solar System (Coursera)
Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys, loyal patron here. I wanted to let you know that if you don’t already listen to or watch star talk radio with Neil deGrasse Tyson, his last episode was really great. It’s titled A cosmos conversation with Steven Soter. He is one of the original writers of the original cosmos and they cover a lot of things that you talk about such as the animation. I have not yet listened to the most recent It’s spoilering time so please forgive me if somehow you covered this already.
I love the show keep up the good work. And I love seeing my name in the credits.
Adam
Actually, most of the advertising on Detroit tv does take into account canadians. Many canadians cross the border to do their shopping, as food and other products are cheaper here than in Ontario. I live on the border in a small town, and a good portion of groceries are sold to people who do not live in the us. Many retailers here benefit, such as clothiers, grocery, and other businesses that are not restricted in some way due to duty fees when those products are taken through customs. So the advertisers on local Detroit stations are fully aware and are sold on advertising with people in Ontario.
ltsiver
An Aero opinion,I’m conflicted about the case. I want to root for them, yet since I have a windows media center setup with my own antenna I fear the over the air business model dying. I cut the cord years ago, but I fear the Aero fight might unintentionally push me back to comcast if the broadcasters pull their shows off the air.
Josh
Hi Tom and Brian, Given how you keep us up to date with What We’re Watching, it would be neat should you guys use a service like trakt.tv so your fans can easily track what you are watching and, more importantly, how you rated the material.
Love the show, etc, etc.
Gabe
Hey Tom Merritt and Brian Brushwood, don’t throw those first-gen AppleTVs away… They are worth a lot of money! I jailbroke mine and sold it on eBay for over $190 just two months ago! I used that money to buy two refurbished AppleTV 3’s.
David
Links
http://www.patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 16 – Cosmos, Game of Thrones, The Shield (Ep. 8)
Cosmos takes on big oil, Game of Thrones gets icky, and The Shield grows human emotions.
Cordkillers Ep. 16 – And we get five bucks
Why Netflix price rise is good news this time and odds on an Aereo victory.
Cordkillers Ep. 15 – Tamping the Musket with Chet Kanojia
We interview CEO Chet Kanojia about Aereo’s chances in the Supreme Court, what he’ll do if they lose, and his plan for dealign with the broadcaster’s threats to pull broadcasts from over the air.
CordKillers: Ep. 15 – Tamping the Musket with Chet Kanojia
Recorded: April 14 2014
Guest: Chet Kanojia, CEO Aereo
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Interview with Chet Kanojia
Signal Intellegence
- Netflix’s new rankings for fastest ISPs are out for March, Comcast jumped up to 5th place.
- Turns out that agreement with Netflix has been very good for Comcast streams. Back in January, Comcast averaged 1.15 Megabits per second, kinda like DSL speeds, but in March they jumped to 2.5 Megabits per second.
Gear Up
- Mohu preps Channels TV tuner release after raising $145,000 on Kickstarter
- Mohu Channels TV adapter Kickstarter funded! (35K goal 144,890 reached)
– Mohu spokeswoman Jenni Samp: “The majority of the stretch goal feature ideas were suggestions from backers – the product actually evolved during the duration of the Kickstarter campaign as a direct result of backer requests.”
– Programming guide for Live TV PLUS browser for additional Web sources, and Android apps. added playback local content, time-shifting
Under surveillance
- Amazon OKs two pilots for its next round of original series
- Debuting later this year as Amazon pilots
– “The Cosmopolitans” – half-hour dramatic comedy about agroup of young American expatriates in search of friendship and romance in Paris. roduced by Academy Award nominee Whit Stillman, the show features Adam Brody and Chloe Sevigny.
– “Hand of God” – Hour-long drama starring Ron Perlman as a judge who turns vigilante following a mental breakdown in which he believes God is talking to him through his son. Directed by Marc Forster (World War Z, Quantum of Solace), the show also features Dana Delany as the judge’s wife.
Front Lines
- Rumors were flying this morning that Relativity Media was going to outbid Disney to acquire Maker Studios
- Maker Studios issued a press release this afternoon saying “As per the announcement made on March 24, Maker Studios has entered into a merger agreement with The Walt Disney Company. The agreement has been approved by Maker Studios’ Board of Directors and the majority of its shareholders and is expected to close in the next few weeks, subject to regulatory approval.”
- Amazon says its video streams have tripled in the past year
- They cite numbers from a company called “Qwilt”, that they say show Amazon Instant Video is now the third largest video site overall behind Netflix and YouTube. If accurate that would put them ahead of Hulu and Apple.
- YouTube is loosening up on what video you can send to Chromecast
- Your private links now work as do YouTube Live streams. The feature is only active on desktop versions of YouTube not mobile… yet.
- The Sesame Workshop launched an app called “Sesame Go”
- The app lets you watch as many episodes of Sesame Street as you want for $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year. It also has episodes of the animated series Pinky Dinky Doo
- TV Bounces Back — For a Few Months
2014 Summer Movie Draft
- DTNS: $158,883,032
- GodsMoneybags: $39,327,869
- The Morning Stream: $9,783,603
- Night Attack: $0
- /Film: $0
- Amtrekker: $0
On Screen
- Brian: Game of Thrones, Cosmos, Archer, Adventure Time season 2
- Tom: Agents of SHIELD (OTA), Regular Show (Netflix), Archer (Vudu), Game of Thrones (HBO Go), Mad Men (Amazon VOD), Cosmos (OTA)
Dispatches from the Front
- Hey Tom and Brian,
I wanted to let you know something very interesting that has been happening with my parents. Some background on them is as follows: My Father, an Ex-Navy Seal turned High School Math teacher and my mom with two Masters degrees in English Literature and former teacher as well.
I got them to sit down and actually watch episode 1 of Cosmos with me. To see their mouths drop… literally drop when each knowledge bomb was explained… it was the EXACT thing that both you guys keep talking about how the old one did to you.
I have followed up with them since then, and every sunday night they sit down and can’t wait to see the next episode. They are blown away every time, and my mom Texts me just dumbfounded, each commercial break.
To see this from people in their 60’s, has me convinced that Cosmos was never intended for people who want to compare the original, but to be on its own window into that world. They pay tribute to the original but these are two DIFFERENT shows and as such must be viewed from a new lens.
As always, keep up the great work and I love hearing about how you guys experience this series and look forward to hearing more.
Kyle Kowalik
-
Brian,
You are Wrong about Microsoft programming. I am not a gamer and will not buy an Xbox of any kind, yet I wouldn’t mind seeing some that programs coming to Xbox live, but not at a cost of $500.00. I think sets a bad trend. Am I going to need a box for every ecosystem of content? I have a Chromecast, Apple TV, Boxee box, Popcorn hour, Pop Box and a Raspberry pi running XBMC. I am not buying another box to watch tv.
Robert Taylor
-
Tom! You’re wrong!
Microsoft is not forcing anyone to buy an Xbox One to view their content. You are forgetting about the millions of Xbox 360s that have been previously sold. If they don’t take advantage of the consumers that own a 360 and do not own a One then they are doing it wrong. The 360 outsold the PS3 in the United States. That gives them a large potential viewer base without counting One owners.
Bradley Herrin
-
I am currently watching a Korean drama called “love from another star”. I don’t know if you guys have thought about reviewing anything outside of box but this is a good one. Its available on hulu and it has been a bit of a phenomenon in Asia. Not since the popular drama “boys over flowers” has a foreign drama crossed over in such popularity. I know its a bit unusual but try watching an episode and see what you think. I know Tom likes scifi and the lead male character is an alien if that helps sell it to you 😉
Anyways i know before you had asked for suggestions and I really like all the other shows you talk about so I think its fair to assume you might like a show that I am really loving.
Mitch Couey
Links
http://www.patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 15 – Cosmos, Archer, Game of Thrones
Has Cosmos found its stride or lost its way? We catch up on Archer and our love for Pam, and does Game of Thrones shock us?
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 14 – Cosmos, Game of Thrones, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, The Shield Ep. 6 and 7.
We discuss the light shined by Cosmos, the premiere of Game of Thrones, how we weathered Captain America; The Winter Soldier, and Tom starts to get sucked into The Shield.
Cordkillers Ep. 14 – Will Google Light a Fire?
Amazon unleashes their set-top box, the Fire TV, but we get word from The Verge that Google might fire back with their own TV box, but don’t they have the Chromecast? Also HBO Go becomes HBO No, and WWE is either a hit or a failure, depending on who you ask.
CordKillers: Ep. 14 – Will Google Light a Fire?
Recorded: April 7 2014
Guest: None
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Amazon launches Fire TV, an Android-powered streaming and gaming set-top box for $99
- Here’s Amazon’s gamepad
- How Amazon Fire TV Stacks Up To Apple TV, Chromecast And Roku
- Amazon Fire TV – $99 Shipping today
– 0.7″” thin, size of a CD case. Yay another hockey puck!
– Quad-core processor and dedicated GPU, 2GB of RAM
– Dual-band, dual-antenna WiFi with Mimo
– Bluetooth remote control
– Hulu and Netflix
– “ASAP” predicts what movies and TV shows you’re going to watcha nd queues them up so they start instantly. Learns over time.
– Voice Command – speak into remote control
– works with search, wish list even searches genres across apps
– Cloud drive app can load photos from phone to TV (set album as screen saver)
– Music from Pandora I heart Radio, TuneIn and Vevo. Amazon music coming next month.
– Free Time kids time mgmt. product, Free Time Unlimited tier with PBSKids, Nick, etc.
– Gaming: Thousands of titles for next month (Disney, EA, etc..) app lets you use phone/tablet as controller but also Fire game controller is $39.99 with 1,000 Amazon coins (avg. price of games $1.85)
- Amazon just locked down exclusive rights to 24 including Live Another Day
Secondary Target
- This is Android TV
- “Android TV is an entertainment interface, not a computing platform,”
– Controller arrow keys, enter, home, back. Optional game controller.
– Voice input and notifications. Picks up where phone or TV left off.
– Recommends content on home screen.
Signal Intellegence
- WWE Smacked Down as Online Subscribers Fall Short of Estimate
- Profit in Sight: Nearly 670,000 Subscribe to WWE Network
- Sunday’s “WrestleMania 30,” which took place in New Orleans, selling out the Mercedes-Benz Superdome.
– World Wrestling Entertainment reported 667,287 subscribers
– Shares of WWE sank (WWE:US) 15 percent to close at $23.90 in New York, the biggest one-day drop since July 2001.
– VARIETY: The WWE Network is close to turning a profit less than two months after launching.
– The company will next roll out the WWE Network in Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Nordic countries in late 2014 and early 2015.
Gear Up
- Xbox One original TV shows will include interactive extras
- Microsoft already has six TV series lined up for Xbox and more are coming
- Ridley Scott is Master Chief of Halo ‘digital feature’
- 6 series coming to Xbox One”
Users can unlock bonus scenes, mini-games and subplots not featured in the actual show itself.
IN PRODUCTION
-“ Halo” television series, executive produced by Steven Spielberg
– A multi-film documentary series produced by Simon Chinn and Jonathan Chinn of Lightbox. The first project centers on the rise and fall of Atari
– Live event coverage of the Bonnaroo music festival in June 2014
-“Every Street United,” an unscripted series focused on the global search for soccer’s most gifted and undiscovered street footballers
-“Halo” digital feature project with 343 Industries and Scott Free Productions (EP Ridley Scott— Sergio Mimica-Gezzan directing)
– a sci-fi show about robots called Humans — based on Swedish programme “Äkta människor” - IN DEVELOPMENT
-“Fearless,” an unscripted series starring Paul de Gelder, an Australian Navy bomb clearance diver and shark attack survivor
-A sketch comedy show with comedy collective JASH – founded by Sarah Silverman, Michael Cera, Tim and Eric, and Reggie Watts
-A hybrid stop motion animation project by Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (Seth Green), creators of the longest running stop-motion show on television, “Robot Chicken”
Under surveillance
- HBO Go Still Recovering From Outage During Game Of Thrones Premiere
- The First Episode Of HBO’s “Silicon Valley” Is Now On YouTube
- HBO Go crashed during the Game of Thrones’ season premiere due to “overwhelming demand.” Some speculated that HBO purposely allows its streaming platform to get overwhelmed to stop subscribers from sharing their login information with non-paying users, which HBO CEO Richard Plepler has denied. HOWEVER The first episode of Mike Judge’s “Silicon Valley” is now on YouTube.
Front Lines
- Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is seeking to produce “a hit online show with viral appeal
- AOL said Tuesday that it plans to produce its first long-form video series, “Connected,” a US-adaptation of an Israeli series.
- The Qplay app is now available to ayone who wants it, as is the $49 Qplay box that will stream your Qplay videos to a connected TV
- Hulu will add past seasons of NBC/Universal-produced shows as part of a multi-year agreement.
- AT&T’s new HBO bundle promotion provides U-basic TV with HBO and an 18 Mbps AT&T U-Verse connection for $40, good for 12 months.
- Michael Franco, creator of Star Trek Continues, most recent episode is currently in postproduction and will premiere in June at Australia’s Supanova pop-culture festival.
2014 Summer Movie Draft
- DTNS: $95,023,721
- Night Attack: $0
- The Morning Stream: $0
- GodsMoneybags: $0
- /Film: $0
- Amtrekker: $0
On Screen
- Brian: Season 2 of Regular show is on Netflix, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Cosmos, Game of Thrones
- Tom: The Shield (eps. 6-7 – Amazon Prime), Agents of SHIELD (OTA), Archer (DTV – Purchasable), Rick and Morty (AdultSwim.com), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (Theatre), Game of Thrones (DTV – Avail. HBO Go), Silicon Valley (YT), Night Attack (Diamondclub.tv), Cosmos (OTA)
Dispatches from the Front
-
CBS said maybe they would pull out of broadcast. Tom mentioned what they might do in changing programming on over the air broadcast. But doesn’t CBS statement go counter to their primary reason for lawsuit, and that is rebroadcast fees and how big a money maker it is.
Woody
-
Hope your week is going well! Not sure if you guys caught this story, but now that it’s officially public, I can talk about it.YouTube to Offer Advertisers Some Guarantees. With upfront season in full swing, Google is taking some new approaches in their agreements with advertisers. What is of particular interest is this. YouTube also plans to reserve space for advertisers that agree to buy in advance in the best performing 5% of its content across channels such as Beauty & Fashion, Comedy, Food, Music, and Sports. In the last few years, MCNs have been building up business models around selling ads around original content on YouTube. With YouTube looking take that top 5% of the best content on their platform, we may see a shift in how these companies work. There have always been questions about the profitability and sustainability to how these MCNs operated. In fact, as of late, we’ve seen major changes with companies like Machinima and Maker Studios, both of which made deals with major studios (well, Maker Studios got entirely acquired by Disney). It’ll be interesting to see how this new arrangement works out for all parties. Personally, I think we’re still in the middle of this shift in content delivery – we’ll probably continue to see these companies evolve over time. Anyways, this wasn’t meant to be an in-show email; just thought it might be a topic of interest for Cordkillers this week. Love to hear what you guys make of it.
Best,
Derrick
Links
www.patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 13 – Cosmos, Archer, Rick and Morty, The Shield (Ep. 5)
We discuss the mind-bending power of Cosmos, the cocaine-fueled power of Archer, our take on Rick and Morty. Plus Tom keeps watching The Shield.
Cordkillers Ep. 13 – My algorithm loves it
Do you want a service that know what you want to watch better than you do? Why does Roku think it’s better than Apple TV? Will CBS really take its channel off the air?