Time Warner Cable numbers rise, The FCC tries to save cable companies from themselves and The Fine Bros. piss off the Internet. With special guest Iyaz Akhtar.
CordKillers: 106 – Cordkillers React
Recorded: February 1 2016
Guest: Iyaz Akhtar
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Fine Brothers react when backlash over ‘React’ videos licensing gets heated
- The Verge story on Fine Brothers backlash
- Trademark filing
- Hank Green on trademarking React
- Trademark Law Does Not Require Companies To Tirelessly Censor the Internet | Electronic Frontier Foundation
- The Fine Bros. address the ‘confusion’ and backlash around React World
- Introduction to How Trademarks Work – How Trademarks Work
- Trademark Basics
- Can you trademark common words and phrases?
- BBC coverage of Fine Bros.
- Media Law Resource Center
- FINE BROTHERS RESPONSE: Retracting Trademark
- Content ID complaints biting bigger channels
-Complaints from Douglas Walker at Channel Awesome (370,456) , Eli the Computer Guy (634,706 subscribers), Alternate History Hub (509,114 subscribers), and I Hate Everything (379,838 subscribers) over “strikes” copyright or community.
– Complaint is consistently about communications and the appeals process.
– Tom’s theory: Content ID is a nightmare but YT needed it to defend itself legally. It has tried to damp down problems by proactively helping its biggest stars and responding quickly when smaller ones get loud.
Signal Intelligence
- Time Warner Cable is getting new TV subscribers for the first time since 2006
– Time Warner Cable had a net addition of 54,000 subscribers in Q4
– That made a net 32,000 growth in subs for the year,last time that happened was 2006.
– BY comparison Internet subs grew 281,000 - Verizon is allowing TV subscribers to turn premium channel free previews once a year for 48 hours. HBO, Showtime, Starz, EPIX and Cinemax
Gear Up
- The FCC is going to war over set-top boxes
- Actual proposal
– FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposes requiring multichannel video programming distributors, like cable TV companies, to allow subscribers to use any set top box to access service in the following ways
– What programming is available (channel listing, on-demand offerings)
– Entitlements – can you record the programming, transfer it to mobile etc.
– Content delivery
– Companies could use any published transparent format to do so.
Front Lines
- Time Warner Loves Hulu, But Also Wants To Ruin It
– The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Warner (NOT the cable part but the part that owns HBO and Turner) is in talks to buy a stake in Hulu. At the same time Time Warner would like Hulu to stop showing current season episodes of TV shows. - Apple could pull a Netflix, start creating original TV shows
– Sources told TheStreet.com that Apple’s Eddy Cue, chief entertainment architect, and Robert Kondrk, VP of iTunes content, has been talking with TV producers about creating original programs to offer exclusively in the iTunes store. - Time spent online ‘overtakes TV’ among youngsters
– Childwise has been tracking children’s media usage in the UK since the mid-1990s. For the first time their latest survey said children 5-16 in the UK spent an average of 3 hours a day online and 2.1 hours a day watching television. Netflix was the most popular TV service of any kind followed by ITV1 and BBC1. - Sundance champ ‘Birth of a Nation’ chose Fox over Netflix
– Birth of a Nation from Nate Parker won the Sundance film festival Grand Jury and Audience prizes for drama. Netflix sidles up and offered $20 million according to Hollywood Reporter. But Turner took a lower bid of $17.5 million from Fox Searchlight in order to insure a wider theatrical release, as well as showings in high schools and colleges. - Sky’s Now TV Smart Box looks a lot like a Roku 4
– Sky and Roku have introduced the Now TV Smart Box which combines pay TV content and 60 free-to-air channels along with streaming services. It looks very similar to the Ultra HD Roku 4. The box will be available to Sky subscribers later this year.
Under Surveillance
- Louis C.K. surprises fans with new show Horace and Pete, co-starring Steve Buscemi
– Louis C K is selling a new video series starring himself and Steve Buscemi, called Horace and Pete for $5 an episode. It’s centered around an Irish Bar and Alan Alda, Nick DiPaolo, Aidy Bryant, Edie Falco, Kurt Metzger, and Steven Wright all make appearances. - Netflix is bringing ‘House of Cards’ back for S5 in 2017 without creator and writer Beau Willimon
- Netflix is officially bringing back Gilmore Girls
- The Wertzone: AMERICAN GODS names its lead, British actor Ricky Whittle will play the role of Shadow
- Watchup, like Haystack is like a Pandora for news clip, now available on the new Apple TV app store.
- The New York Times made a nine-minute VR video called The Contender that follows four of our current presidential candidates through their campaign rallies
- Deadline says the Blade Runner sequel starts filmming in July ( Denis Villeneuve directing, starring Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling)
- Brian: The Expanse, Mad Dogs (through 105), Justified, SO MUCH Bob’s Burgers and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
- Tom: The Magicians (102), X-Files (2) The Expanse, Agent Carter, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Star Wars: Rebels, Mad Dogs (104-105), Justified (103), Grease Live, Clone Wars
- Iyaz: The Flash, “Wrestling with Wregret” (on YouTube), “Mr. Sunday Movies” (on YouTube), way too much WWE Network and “My Crazy Ex” on Lifetime
- On the Lookout: Chelsea Does
Dispatches from the Front
Hi fellow Cordkiller dudes! A longtime fan, (aka MaxxAmmo) with a possible story or lead. Seems Amazon has taken Star Wars Rebels S2 Ep11 and called it Season 3 Ep 1!! Can you say “”Money grab?”” As a cordkiller and someone who has bought the Season Pass, I was outraged! Many season pass holders were furious and left harsh comments on the episode 11 page demanding Amazon fix this obvious problem. The comments have since mysteriously disappeared overnite. As an Amazon Prime member and long time loyal Amazon customer I called and expressed my outrage, the only resolution offered was a full refund of my Season 2 pass and the price of Episode 11 in HD credited to my account. I was told this is being investigated by Amazon and no clear answer why (S2 Ep. 11) is called Season 3 Ep. 1 was offered at this time. Link to Amazon’s Star Wars Rebels Season 3 page here.
– Kevin
Netflix/Hulu blocking VPN
Another use case of why you’d need to use a VPN legally is our phones.
With the presence of Free Wifi everywhere, including my employer, I don’t want anyone watching my phone’s web traffic just because I don’t want to chew through cellular data so I run an always on VPN on my phone.
Because of this when these conditions are present
– I’m at home
– the VPN is still on
– I’m in the US
– I’m connecting to a US VPN endpoint
The end result is Hulu and Netflix are blocked. 🙁
– Dave
Hello Tom and Brian,
On last week’s episode you guys were talking about how Netflix had no real reason to release viewership numbers, that made me wonder how the show creators and production houses felt about this. Wouldn’t it hurt their ability to negotiate with other networks or services when shopping around other shows they make? Seems like that could backfire in the long run. Anyways love the show, keep up the awesome work.
Your boss,
– Juan
Links