How TV won, lost, and coexisted with the Internet all at once. What Hulu’s partnership with Showtime means.
CordKillers: Ep. 77 – We’re Pirates on Moon
Recorded: June 29, 2015
Guest: None
Intro Video
Primary Target
- How Television Won the Internet
– -NYTImes Michael Wolff “How Television Won the Internet”
– People spend more time watching TV than they spend on the Net
– Glut of traffic on Net drives down ad rates
– TV moving off advertising to pay model
– Half of broadcast and cable’s income is non-advertising based.
– Netflix bills itself as a disrupter of television — except that it is television, paying Hollywood and the TV industry almost $2 billion a year in licensing and programming fees.
– Yahoo just cut its first big sports deal. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook says that his company’s future is video. Just last week, BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post announced their new TV plans.
– A premium product that people pay attention to and pay money for. Credit cards, not eyeballs. - OTT and TV Will Coexist, and It Will Be Beautiful
– ReCode: OTT and TV Will Coexist, and It Will Be Beautiful
– Dermot McCormack, President, AOL Video and Studios
– “History has shown the new does not supplant the old, but is instead the catalyst for change and evolution. “
– TV tell stories. They can be told across screens
– “Imagine finishing an episode of a TV show, and turning to your tablet for a related short that fills in a key plot point. — – Then you open Snapchat to see what happened offscreen at the pivotal moment from another character’s point of view. Later on, you’re sitting at your desk and you get a FaceTime call from the protagonist foreshadowing what’s to come in next week’s episode”
– OTT will shape the development of TV, and (eventually) seamlessly combine with it to become something bigger and better than the sum of its parts.” - Years Of Pretending Netflix Cord Cutting Wasn’t Real Is Biting The Cable Industry In The Ass
-TechDirt Karl Bode “Years Of Pretending Netflix Cord Cutting Wasn’t Real Is Biting The Cable Industry In The Ass”
– FBR Capital Markets claims Netflix will have a larger 24 hour audience than any broadcast net iun US by end of year
– 2 hours of viewing per subscriber per day. a 2.6 rating on par with ABC and NBC
– Choose between Netflix and a cable or satellite TV subscription, 57% picked Netflix, with 43% opting for pay TV, according to a survey FBR conducted with ClearVoice Research in April.
Signal Intelligence
- Showtime Becomes The First Premium Service To Be Offered By Hulu
– Showtime purchased through Hulu will be $8.99 a month
– Hulu subsidizing the difference between that and normal $10.99
– Showtime shows will be available in Hulu app
– Please note: At launch on Hulu, you will be able to watch live only on the web at www.hulu.com.
Gear Up
- Sony’s pitch for Internet TV proves it’s hard to pitch Internet TV
– Sony’s commercially for Playstation Vue is very low on specifics
Front Lines
- Amazon’s Twitch attracts monster audience at E3, with 21M viewers tuning in online
– Amazon released some numbers for its E3 live coverage on TWiTCH. They had 21 million unique viewers over the course of its 41 hours of programming peaking at 840,000 concurrent. YouTube reported it had 8 million views over its 12 hours of programming. - HBO NOW Scores With Cord Cutters – App Topped iOS Revenue Charts In May
– Analytics firm App Annie says HBO Now topped its chart for worldwide revenue in May. Right in front of Spotify. Trends indicate it could repeat in June. - Facebook’s new HBO deal proves it’s dead serious about taking on YouTube
– Facebook really wants to be a place you watch video. Premiere episodes of HBO’s Ballers and The Brink are available to watch on Facebook for a limited time. Ballers is on Dwayne Johnson’s page and The Brink is on its own series page. - Amazon follows Netflix into the movie business with Elvis & Nixon
– Amazon is finalizing a deal to pick up Elvis & Nixon a movie with Kevin Spacey as Nixon and Michael Shannon as Elvis. Amazon will release the film theatrically BEFORE it comes to Amazon Prime. - Amazon now offers HDR streaming to Prime subscribers in the US
– Amazon has made streaming available in HDR for US viewers starting June 24. Mozart in the Jungle is the one HDR series available and it can be watched on Samsung SUHD TVs. - YouTube Star Michelle Phan Comes to Amazon’s Fire TV
– Fashion vlogger Michelle Phan who made her name on YouTube has brought her Icon Network app to Fire TV. Gadget vlogger Andru Edwards also previously launched a Fire TV app. Beachfront Media built the app for Phan and sells ads through it.
Under Surveillance
- All 180 Seinfeld episodes are now available to stream for the first time
- Brian: The Jinx (all 6 episodes), Ex Machina, Orange is the New Black (ep 2-4)
- Tom: Star Wars: Rebels – The Siege of Lothal, Sense8 (Ep. 9-12), Orange is the New Black (Ep. 7-9) The Shield (605) True Detective (202), Orphan Black
- Byrce: Between. Netflix, (Shomi in Canada)
Dispatches from the Front
Hey guys, this one is for Bryan!
Bryan, as one of your bosses at the UK office of Cordkillers, I’d like to hereby give you permission to use the BBC IPlayer to watch on demand content guilt free!
It’s a common misconception (that I’ve even heard before on Cordkillers) that UK citizens pay their TV Licence Tax to either own a TV, or to watch On Demand services like the BBC Iplayer. This is not true. People pay for the licence to watch LIVE TV as it’s broadcast.
This is shown on the Iplayer itself as when you try to watch live content, you get a popup that asks you to confirm if you have paid for a licence – you don’t get this for On Demand content.
I think it’s important to point out this distinction A.) So you don’t get more guilttrippy emails and B.) Because I’m sure there are many UK Cordcutters like me who don’t watch live TV and exclusively watch On Demand services like the Iplayer who could be saving £120 per year.
Thanks,
Your boss,
– Benno
(Link to the BBC guide that explains this below)
http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/topics/technology–devices-and-online-top8
http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/iplayer_outsideuk_app
Howdy boys,
Just wanted to share some recent observations I’ve made comparing television series rollouts on Netflix to a normal weekly schedule.
Recently, I watched the Game of Thrones season 5 and my wife watched Orange is the New Black season 3. I really think I got the better experience. Watching Game of Thrones weekly gave me two and a half months of entertainment. I enjoyed watching the episodes religiously each Sunday night, reading the reactions and reviews (especially on Spoilerin’ Time), speculating about what might happen next, and talking about it with friends during the week. She finished the OitnB season in 2 days, and that’s all she gets out of it.
Of course, she could have watched one episode a week, but there’s no way to keep the entire internet on that schedule. While I’ve binge-watched series on Netflix, such as Battlestar Galactica, the only new series on Netflix I’ve ever really gotten into was Daredevil, and I can only imagine how much better the experience would have been watching weekly along with the entire world rather than in a few days all by myself.
Now, there’s a simple way Netflix could satisfy both those that want to binge-watch the whole season right away and those that want a weekly viewing experience. When a new season debuts, people could select if they want all the episodes available right away, or on a standard weekly schedule that is the same for everyone, or on their own schedule they can set up themselves.
Just my 2 cents! As always thanks for the show and I’m glad to support it!
– Andy in Taylor, Tx
Having just completed Sense8, I feel compelled to share this [spoiler free] assessment.
Marketing this series was always going to be tough and dropping names like The Matrix into the promo material probably did more harm than good. It is like expecting to see Star Wars and getting 2001: A Space Odyssey instead.
In many ways, this seems like a refinement of what the Wachowskis tried to do with Cloud Atlas. Sense8 is heavy on mood, location and atmosphere, which all feel very “now”. The fantastical elements exist only to further the personal stories of these eight people who should have nothing in common but share hopes, fears and dreams despite being worlds apart.
Not all the subject matter makes for comfortable viewing and some of the emotional notes may hit a little close to home (well, for me at least) but if you can buy into the conceit, it is profoundly rewarding.
This is most decidedly NOT for everyone but a Netflix Original in the truest sense.
P.S.
I can’t help but think that the global, inclusive nature of this show helped it find a home at Netflix, which itself is increasingly trying to be all things to anyone with an Internet connection, wherever they might be in the world.
– Graham “Goucham-in-the-chat-room” Elliott
Links