HBO coming Now to Apple, later to others and Sling TV gets better but how much better?
CordKillers: Ep. 61 – In Time for VEEP
Recorded: March 9, 2015
Guest: Robert Krekel
Intro Video
Primary Target
- HBO NOW to launch in early April
- Apple first to offer HBO’s standalone online service
–Richard Plepler HBO Now – EXCLUSIVE partner at launch (At launch, HBO NOW will be available on iOS devices and on PCs.)
– All TV and movies
– Early April $14.99 first month free if you sign up through Apple in April, in time for April 12
– GoT trailer
– $69 Apple TV price
–Apple exclusivity lasts through July.
–No word on restrictions to logins etc.
Signal Intelligence
- AMC, IFC and Epix go live on Sling TV
- Dish Sling TV Service Grabs 100,000 Sign-Ups in First Month
–– Sling TV got AMC and IFC Some 3-day replay. I had Better Call Saul and TWD available. None for IFC.
– as well as a new “Hollywood” pack $5 a month package that gives 4 Epix channels, Sundance TV and on-demand up to 7 days.
– ReCode sources say 100,000 signed up for SlingTV
– Tom called and got the Roku Stick for free by pre-paying three months
– You can now add and subtract service from the website without calling.
Gear Up
- TiVo revenue, profit beat estimates as subscriptions rise
-TiVo’s net subscriber additions rose to 340,000 in the fourth quarter from 319,000, a year earlier.
– Better than expected revenue and profit
– Customer acquisition cost fell 25%
– The company sells its products through cable TV partners such as Virgin Media in the UK, ONO in Spain and Com Hem AB in Sweden.
– AND TiVoo Roamio OTA don’t forget
Front Lines
- Roku vs. Apple TV vs. Chromecast vs. Amazon Fire TV: Which streamer should you buy?
–CNET has a great article and chart up comparing Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast and Android TV. Just a tip to check out. We’ll have the link in the show notes. - Millennials Find YouTube Content More Entertaining, Relatable Than TV: Study
–According to a study from Hunter qualitative Research, People aged 13-24 spend 11.3 hours a week watching free online video compared with 8.3 hours of regular TV. They can relate to online video it makes them feel good and helps them relax more than regular TV. Keep in mind the study was made by YouTube content producer Defy media. - Why No One’s Talking About ‘Cord-Forevers’
–Meanwhile Jay Fulcher, President and CEO, Ooyala wrote an interesting guest column on ReCode pointing out we never hear of Cord-forevers because nobody is saying they will never cut the cord. A recent Nielsen report found that, from 2013 to 2014, digital video grew 53 percent among 18- to 34-year-olds, 80 percent aged 35-49, and 60 percent in 50-64 year-olds. - Video news app Haystack wants to be the CNN for cord cutters
–GigaOm profiled a an app that is sort of Pandora for news segments that works best with a Chromecast or through airplay.. Called Haystack it collects preferences from you then streams news segments from various sources which you can choose to skip by swiping. It learns from what you skip as well as from offering hashtags of topics that you can star. - HBO GO is finally coming to the PlayStation 4 today
–Game Consoles are getting crippled apps! HBO Go finally came to PlayStation 4 but the tech press is less than pleased as Comcast is not supporting the login yet. And TimeWarner’s app came to the Xbox One but without any live channels, only its on demand offering. Hooray! - NBC wants you to pay for streams of Jimmy Fallon, SNL
–The Wall Street Journal has SOURCES and those sources say NBC is working on a subscription comedy service. It would include full eps of SNL and the Tonight Show as well as other clips and online-exclusive programming for around $3 a month.
Under Surveillance
- New game of thrones Trailer premiered at the Apple announcement. Led by Khaleesi.
- Netflix buys Beasts of No Nation for theaters and your queue
–Netflix acquired distribution rights o “Beasts of No Nation” the story of a child soldier in Africa, starring Idris Elba. Netflix will release it worldwide later this year as well as in select theaters in the US so it can go after Oscar nominations. - Hulu’s Latest Kids’ Deal Brings Disney Jr. Content To Its Service For The First Time
–Hulu got exclusive rights to Disney Jr. kids shows Doc McStuffins and Bunnytown and non-exclusive rights to all episodes Handy Manny. All of it arrives sometime this spring. - Brian: Big Hero 6, Better Call Saul, House of Cards, The Walking Dead (last week’s), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- Tom: Star Wars: Rebels, Better Call Saul (Ep. 5), Agents of SHIELD, Last Man on Earth, Archer, The Shield (501) Bob’s Burgers, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Walking Dead
- Robert: American Sniper, The Hurt Locker, Star Wars Rebels, Raiders of the Lost Ark, John Wick
Dispatches from the Front
My wife and I were thrilled to see House of Cards show up in our long list of shows just like anything else would. We then sat down to watch the first episode and…. I remembered why we never use the Netflix app on our Tivo. It’s super slow to start up in general, it doesn’t even look as nice as the app on my no-longer-supported Google TV, and the last straw was that when we hit play on the episode it buffered to 25% and just stopped. We tried to play it this way five times, but gave up. I just switched over to the Chromecast and was up and running in about 30 seconds.
I absolutely love my Tivo, but they’re making it SO HARD TO LOVE THEM! 🙂
Matt
A hobby I enjoy is making the DYI antennas from the internet and the one I built this weekend is the best performance antenna to date. It can be found at http://www.instructables.com/id/Indoors-Fractal-HDTV-Antenna/ This is also one of the cheapest designs I have made. There are no 2×4’s or PVC or reflectors to make. I have yet to try this on a longer run of cable but I was able to get every local channel at nearly full signal in the basement with this one. This weekend i’m going to swap this with my attic antenna for fun and see how it performs there. The design of this one is really designed to be right next to the TV on a short run of cable. I highly encourage anyone looking for a fun project for an evening to try this one out. One complaint is I found the download of the pattern to not be scaled correctly. I had to re size it to get it to print out to proper scale. So just make sure to check the listed dimensions on the print out before you start making it.
Dan
I live in the DC Metro area, and I’m paying Verizon about $200 a month for a phone number I don’t want (that I’d rather move to google voice), 300+ TV channels I don’t use (mind you SD+HD count as 2 channels) only because it’s the cheapest tier that has BBCAmerica, and 75/75 internet, which isn’t terribly bad, when I get it.
Mostly the service is pretty good, the 75 down is consistent and often better. Upload isn’t even close (usually more like 15). I try getting fewer channels from time to time, or ditching the phone altogether, but in the end neither really saves me money. Last time I tried, I instead got all of the major pay channels for free for a year (SHO, HBO, STARZ, Cinemax, etc.)
I do have a question that I haven’t heard addressed. The Beeb geofences the iPlayer so only those paying the license fee (more or less) have access. I understand the reasoning here.
Why do they not have an option for those of us not required to pay the fee to sign up for a paid account, thus allowing us to pay the fee. I’m pretty sure I pay more trying to get time-delayed BBC content via BBCAmerica (and even more delayed via PBS) than the license would cost me. That might cut down on the “piracy” even Jeremy Clarkson mentioned in this season’s Top Gear premiere.
Rob
I was curious if anyone on the show knew anything about what has happened to Hitbliss? When they started I was more than happy to use their service as an alternative to torrenting and was quite confused when they stated on their blog that they were shutting down the beta to focus on bringing the service back in a few months. I think that this was about a year ago. They gave no mention to any opposition. However, I have never seen a service stop their beta if it was successful unless it had opposition.
Mike
Hello Tom and Bryan,
I want to know your thoughts on the future of internet since people are cutting the cord. Will this force the cable/internet providers to up their speeds to remain competitive (especially with 4k becoming a future standard), with or without the new FFC law?
Thank you,
John
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