Cordkillers 161 – Bigger Than a Britbox (w/ Amos and Kent from Ritual Misery)

Cordkillers / March 14th, 2017

Some people get enough TV without cable. Whether Britbox is a failure or genius. What’s coming to Hulu’s live service. With special guests Amos Lemos and Kent Fellure from Ritual Misery.

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CordKillers: Ep. 161 Bigger Than a Britbox
Recorded: March 13, 2017
Guest: Amos Lemos and Kent Fellure

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Real answers: Why people are choosing to cut the cord on cable
  • For the first time, more people subscribe to Netflix than have DVR
    – TiVo surveyed US and Canada found
    – 17% do not subscribe to pay TV, 1/5 of them just in the past year
    – Many said they didn’t feel they needed it between OTA TV and streaming services.
    – TiVO determined 18 channels would be the optimum size for most subscribers (as long as it was the right channels)
    – Leichtman Research survey of US adults
    – 54% have Netflix, 53% have a DVR
    – 2011 it was 28% Netflix, 44% DVR
    – How many people feel there’s “plenty to watch” and don’t need to have access to everything?

How to Watch

  • British TV streaming service BritBox launches in U.S.
    – BritBox $6.99 a month
    – Classic TV and currently airing in UK
    – BBC Worldwide and ITV (AMC)
    – Web, Apple TV, iPhone, iPad and Android (Roku and Chromecast coming soon)
    -Premieres
    – Cold Feet, New Blood, Silent Witness. (1 day or more after airing in UK)
    – Classics
    – Blackadder, The Office, Are You Being Served, AbFab, Upstairs Downstairs, Fawlty Towers

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Sling TV expands access to its Cloud DVR, as streaming TV competition heats up
    – Sling TV brought its cloud DVR feature to Fire TV and began charging $5 a month for 50 hours of storage. Not all channels can be recorded. Roku beta testers will not be charged and get 100 hours. New testers have to have an Amazon device to get into the “First Look” beta program, but once in the users can also access the DVR on Android as well as Roku.
  • DirecTV Now is giving early subscribers a free year of HBO
    – DirecTV Now is giving its early adopters HBO access free for a year. If you signed up to DirecTV Now before March 6th you should have access to HBO now.
  • Nintendo says Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon video ‘will come in time’ to the Switch
    – Nintendo America head Reggie Fils-Aime told the Washington Post that Nintendo is talking to a number of companies about bringing services to the Nintendo Switch, “companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon — things that will come in time.” But Fils-Aime stressed that how you play and what games you can play will continue to be Nintendo’s focus.
  • Hulu adds A&E, History and Viceland to its live TV lineup
    – Hulu announced Friday that A&E networks will be available as part of its live TV service when it launches later this year. That includes A&E, History, Lifetime and Viceland. However, Bloomberg reports Viacom may be backing out of a deal with Hulu. CBS, Fox, Disney and Time Warner channels are expected to be available at launch.
  • Facebook will stream live MLS soccer matches this season
    – Facebook signed a deal with Univision to stream 22 Major League Soccer matches in 2017. There will also be 40 Matchday Live analysis shows exclusively on Facebook. The first match available on Facebook will be Chicago Fire at Atlanta United FC at 4PM ET on March 18th. Facebook has a deal with Liga MX and is reportedly in talks with Major League Baseball.

Dispatches from the Front

Hey Tom, Brian and Bryce,

I am forwarding this link to an article that extols the virtues of the new ATSC 3.0 digital over the air broadcast standard. From what I see it could be very beneficial for cordkillers. The broadcast signal is going to be stronger and have adaptable frequencies that can travel farther from the source and penetrate deeper into the home for much better reception. You will also be able to get a receiver box for the signal that can be hooked up to your home network so you can distribute it throughout the house from one source. The new standard will also allow broadcasters to deliver their signal to targeted areas for specific purposes. Portable devices such as smartphones and or tablets will also be able to receive the signal.

– Cliff

 

 

Hello Cordkillers

Just wanted to drop a note saying we signed up for YouTube Red explicitly for no commercials and YouTube Red originals. We always use the YouTube Music app and I have a teenager so we had to get access to the Dan and Phil Live Tour content that is exclusively on Red. To be honest, I’m so used to YouTube not having commercials now I forget people get ads and get very angry when I see one because I forgot to login.

Thanks for the great show!

– Dominic

 

 

 

 Brian,

I am one of those people that loves my YouTube Red subscription. How can you not love not seeing ads?

Some background: Our primary source of content for our Living Room TV is YouTube. Last summer, I was getting really annoyed with YouTube showing me ads for R-rated horror movies on the TV. While they were actually relevant to my interests, my 6 year old daughter was watching with me most of the time! And I really didn’t want a separate account for the TV. Right about then, YouTube offered me Red for the entire summer for $3, so I jumped on it, and just kept it after the three months were up. Can’t imagine going back to ad infested YouTube.

Amusingly my experience is opposite of Tom’s: I HATE GOOLE PLAY MUSIC! I used the Google Play Music App with my own (legit purchased) music before getting Red, and really liked it. Now the voice search is useless: There’s no way to tell it to play *my* music, and instead it’s bound and determined to stream! Meaning when I ask for a song by The Returners while driving home from work, suddenly I’m listening to Frank Sinatra! Even though the song I want is on my phone! Even if you tell it use downloaded songs only, it turns that feature off the moment you voice search.

Honestly if I could get Red without Google Play Music, I’d take that in a heartbeat.

– Chris

 

 

 

 

Long time listener, Ben, here. I’m a software engineer by profession and recently have heard more and more of my co-workers are using Android/Kodi boxes to access day-of movies and to stream any shows they want for free. We all know doing this is illegal (I’m not a lawyer of course) but I was wondering if you guys could lay down some facts for these wayward coworkers for me?

Their argument for doing this seems to hinge on 2 insane points:
1. It doesn’t say it’s illegal to do this like it does at the beginning of DVDs/Blurays.
2. Streaming isn’t the same as downloading, and is therefore legal.

I know I’ve read recent articles about some re-sellers of “fully loaded” Kodi boxes in the UK getting into trouble with the law, but I’d really appreciate it if you could scare straight the folks that think it’s Ok to steal.

Keep up the great work on the show, and thanks.
Your boss,
– Ben 

 

 

 

 

“I was inspired by a recent emailer’s Chicken Challenge result with his DIRECTV account. I have the HD Genie DVR with two additional miniGenies and pay $150 a month.

I anticipated having no DIRECTV for the weekend but the chance of saving a good chunk of change outweighed the possibility of missing the next The Walking Dead, if I had to wait for customer retention to call back in a day or two.

I got a regular service rep and I explained that, based on my viewing habits, I could buy the shows I wanted to watch and it would be much cheaper than my $150 a month bill, so please cancel my account. Between you and me, I hadn’t looked at a single price comparison.

The rep offered to reduce my bill to $106 a month but I said that was still too high and to please cancel the account. He quickly came back to me with a price of $86 a month for the next year and could throw in a special they were running where I’d get HBO, Showtime, and Cinemax for 6 months with no need to cancel when the time was up. (I declined the free sportsball package as no one in our house watches sports.) I felt that was quite fair for the package and equipment and “”reluctantly”” accepted his offer, saving me about $65 a month.

Onward, Chicken Challengers!
Keep the great work!

– Chris

 

Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 159 – Tiers for Fears (w/ Allison Sheridan)

Cordkillers / February 28th, 2017

Why no one watches TV, Sling TV gets cheap, and how Allison got her TiVo MoJo back.

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CordKillers: Ep. 159 – Tiers for Fears
Recorded: February 27 2017
Guest: Allison Sheridan

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Millenial men cutting the cord in droves
    – Videology, a company that sells addressable advertising found 1/3 of millenial males expect to pay for cable in the coming year
    – More than 1/2 said they already had cut the cord.
    – Recent studies of all age groups projected 12% cord cutting (GfK) and 6 % (emarketer)
    -But here’s the kicker. When asked how they watch TV shows
    – 27% said on TV as they air
    – >27% said laptop or desktop
    – 26% Boxes like Roku
    – 20.5% mobile devic es (tablet/smartphone)
    – 13% DVR
    – But
    – 21% said they do not watch TV. At all. (Sports excluded)
  • Where people watch Hulu
    – Less surprising is Hulu’s study of where people watch Hulu.
    – 500 heavy users of Hulu surveyed
    – What’s the craziest place you watch Hulu?
    – 1. the bathroom
    – 2. meeting
    – 3. At a red light
    – 4. weddings
    – 5. funerals
  • YouTube says people watch a billion hours of video every day
  • Netflix CEO shows friendly face to telcos at top mobile fair
    – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings gave the keynote at Mobile World Congress, a gathering of mobile device makers. He mentioned unlimited data plans and efforts by Netflix to optimize video.

How to Watch

  • New Sling TV Channel bundles
    – Sling TV just added an option for $10 to add the Kids, Comedy, News and Lifestyle bundles, which are $5 each so normally a $20 add-on price for all four.
    – Sling trying to compare to DTV Now
    Sling starts at $20 for 30 networks and now has a plan for 80 channels at $35.
    – DTV Now plans start at $35 for 70 networks.
  • Sling TV Is Really Helping Dish Network Add Subscribers
    – Dish had better-than-expected profit AND added 28,000 subscribers when Dish and Sling TV numbers were combined in Q4.
    – Last year Dish lost 12,000 subscribers
    – Analysts had expected Dish to lose 87,000 subscribers
    – Analysts think most of the growth came from Sling TV because the revenue missed estimates.
  • Allison: Just replaced 3 (aged) TiVos & a Frontier cable box with a TiVo Bolt+ and 3 TiVo Minis. Saved $55/month on my bill
    – Don’t have Ethernet in the house, discovere that having FiOS meant I had MoCA!
    – Amazing how much faster the new boxes are (who knew?0
    – Only downside is I have a 3 router setup to isolate iOT devices, and the TiVos (being on MoCA) are on the top level above my “real” routers
    – For example, can’t use the TiVo app on iOS to control them because they aren’t on WiFi at all
    – Investment was $990 but the lifetime TiVo had died, so I’d have bought the Bolt+ either way ($500 of the $950)
    – Worst case break even is 17 months (or 8 months if you don’t count the Bolt+
    – Full story with coax diagram and math: https://www.podfeet.com/blog/2017/01/tivo-moca/

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

Dispatches from the Front

Hi Tom and Brian,

Just had some thoughts on the Caavo. I think the idea of Apple buying the company and applying it’s tech to the AppleTV is interesting, but to me the better fit would be Logitech. Imagine a Harmony remote that would control everything with voice and do it seamlessly. The advertising writes itself, “The new Harmony One, the remote you’ll never lose.” I’m sure someone else has thought of this but it seems like a good fit.

Keep up the good work guys on the podcast, loving it.

Thanks,

– Thomas from Missouri

 

 

Hi Tom and Brian,

I’ve amassed a large collection of DVDs and Blu-rays over the years and about two years ago decided all of my discs were collecting dust, as I was far more likely to watch a title I already owned on Netflix simply because it was accessible.

I decided to ‘roll my own’ solution and digitize my extensive 800+ movie collection using MakeMKV and Handbrake- and now have them on a Synology NAS.

Problem Solved- after many hours of encoding, I have access to all the titles I spent so much to acquire, streaming locally to my FireTV running Kodi.

Now- I’m hoping you or the CordKillers audience may be able to help. With new movies coming 3-4 week early to streaming prior to the DVD release, is there any service you know of that I can pay to order the disc but gain early steaming rights to the title?

I understand the studios are looking to encourage streaming titles, but this leaves me with limited access to the movie I have just paid $20 to ‘buy’ streaming rights to.

I’ve been enjoying your show since the Frame Rate days and also enjoy your joint and independent ventures, and wanted to thank you for the independent content you both create on a daily basis.

Keep up the great work!
–Jon 

 

 

Hey guys. I just finished up listening to Cordkillers 158 (On… DEMAND!). Loved the discussion about the Caavo and the consolidation of all the devices and services. As I was enjoying Brian’s rant about wanting to be ignorant and being able to ask for a can of dog food and dog food appearing, it occurred to me that perhaps the Google Home device (w/help from Google Assistant) is actually moving (albeit slowly) in the direction of what I think he is asking for. Even though the Home device is still relatively new, it already supports me saying “Hey Google. Play Stranger Things on the family room TV” and it will find Stranger Things on Netflix and cast it to the chromecast named Family Room TV. On the contrast if I say “Hey Google. Play DTNS on family room TV.” It goes out and finds the latest episode of DTNS on YouTube and starts casting it to the Family Room TV. In neither scenario did I have to specify the service where to play the content from, it just played it. It also does a pretty good job supporting natural language speaking, allowing different derivatives of the same sentence so, “Ok Google, Cast DTNS to the family room tv” would have the same effect. Me watching another fine episode of DTNS on the TV in the family room.

Of course where this currently falls short however is that it’s only working for a VERY small number of services that I know of, those being Netflix and YouTube. But I’m hopeful the list of services will increase quickly. This would make sense, as the Google Home App on my phone already has “universal search” capabilities that support searching across a much wider list of services, including but not limited to Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies, HBO GO, Watch ESPN, Vudu, and I’m sure many others (Note: I believe the service’s app has to be installed on the device which is probably how they are searching the data of those services). Of course who knows if Amazon Video would ever be supported. I also find it confusing and rather annoying that I can cast music from Google Play Music to my chromecast’s via Google Home by talking to it, but I can’t play a movie from Google Play Movies & TV this way. I’m sure over the next year or two a lot these issues will get worked out, at least I hope they do.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my experience with the Google Home device with you guys in case you weren’t aware.

Thanks,
– Levi

 

 

How do you pick where to buy shows? I want to cut the cord and I want to just buy shows i want to watch (this looks like it would be cheaper). But I’m having a lot of problems picking where to spend my money. My wife and I have iphones, but I don’t want to use iTunes because I don’t want to lose access to my shows if i get a new phone. Amazon, Google and Vudu look like good alternatives, but again I would hate to get locked down. Currently I use a TiVo and an Nvidia Shield TV to watch all my shows. I really wish these providers would all participate in UltraViolet or act like Disney and let me buy it once and watch on everything.

– Andrew

Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers

It’s Spoilerin’ Time 158

Cordkillers / February 22nd, 2017

Winter Movie Draft, Logan impressions, Split, The Young Pope (106-110), Justified (506)

01:09 – Winter Movie Draft
01:49 – Logan (spoiler-free impressions)
04:03 – Triage (The Expanse 203)
06:11 – The Young Pope (106-110)
20:56 –  Split
29:51 – Justified (506)

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Cordkillers 157 – Their Crimes Are The Literal Crimes They’ve Committed

Cordkillers / February 14th, 2017

Apple gets serious about Apple TV, HBO Now gets a lot of subscribers, and Guardians of the Galaxy will be the perfect movie.

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CordKillers: Ep. 157 – Their Crimes Are The Literal Crimes They’ve Committed
Recorded: February 13 2017
Guest: None

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Apple Hires Amazon’s Fire TV Head to Run Apple TV Business
    – Apple hired Timothy D. Twerdahl, former head of Amazon’s Fire TV division, as vice president in charge of Apple TV product marketing. Twerdahl previously worked at Netflix and Roku. Pete Distad will move from that role into focusing on Apple’s negotiations with media companies. Distad left Hulu in 2013 to join Apple.

How to Watch

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Vizio settles for $2.2 million in FTC suit over snooping on consumers’ viewing habits
    – Vizio agreed to settle a lawsuit with the US Federal Trade Commission and the state of New Jersey for $2.2 million. Starting in 2014, Vizio began tracking what shows were watched alongside IP addresses, MAC addresses, and nearby wi-fi networks, then a third party matched that data with sex, age, income level and more and sold for advertising use. Vizio agreed to delete all collected data, stop tracking, and get express permission before collecting and sharing any new information.
  • MTV’s Mina Lefevre Exits to Join Facebook as Head of Originals Development
    – Facebook has hired Mina Lefevre to be head of development of video content for Facebook. The former executive vice preisdent of development and head of scripted programming at MTV, Lefevre over saw shows like Teen Wolf and the Shannara Chronicles. Facebook recently indicated it wishes to develop original short-form programming. She joins co-founder of College Humor Ricky VanVeen who is now Facebook’s head of global creative strategy.
  • Viacom Puts Its Might Behind Six Brands to Turn Itself Around
    – Viacom says it will prioritize BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr along with its Paramount movie studio now. Other brands will be reorganized to support those six. For instance, Spike will be renamed, the Paramount Network. And Nickelodeon and Paramount will co-brand 4 films. This is the first major move by new Chief Executive Officer Bob Bakish who took over as permanent CEO in December.
  • E.U. Agrees to Cross-Border Access to Streaming Services
    – The European Union agreed Tuesday on rules allowing subscribers of online services to access those services while traveling outside their home country within the EU. The rules apply to video streaming services, online TV services, music streaming services and online video game marketplaces.
  • Netflix Plans New Toys, Merchandise Based on Hit TV Shows
    – Netflix has posted a job listing seeking someone to oversee licensing shows for books, comics and toys and creating partnerships with retailers. Bloomberg also said Netflix is also starting to ask for a cut of merchandise made for shows released by Netflix but produced by outside studios. Netflix experimented with Stranger Things merchandise being sold in Hot Topic stores.
  • Nielsen steps closer to cross-platform measurement
    – The Media Rating Council has given accreditation to Nielsen’s Digital in TV Ratings tool which is part of its Total Audience Measurement initiative. The tool allows digital viewership to be combined with traditional TV ratings.

Dispatches from the Front

I have TWC now called Spectrum in NYC & I tried to stop my cable but because I have internet & tv bundled the price would go up if I stop cable. Crazy!

– Fin

 

 

One of your many bosses emailing here to ask if you’ve seen or heard of this streaming tv guide site for the top 3 streaming TV services out there. The site is www.streamingtvguides.com and it gives you what is currently on in your traditional grid format we grew up on.

It has Sling TV, PlayStation Vue and DirecTV NOW and all of their respective package options. So simply choose your package from the drop down you subscribe to and you’ll see what’s on right now! Find the logo of the channel or channels you’re interested in in the grid and quickly scan what’s on. You can even click on each program and get more information if needed. The reason I found this is simply due to the fact I didn’t have my TV on and didn’t want to turn it on, load the Sling app and wait for everything to populate just to see what was on, I just wanted to know if it was worth turning on. I know, pretty lazy, but now that I know this site is out there, it’ll be quicker and more convenient in the future.

I’ve only used Sling TV myself and still am currently subscribed to it, but I found this quite useful to quickly glance through all the channels I have available. I can’t speak to the other two services as I haven’t used them, but it can take a few minutes just to “surf” through all the channels in the Sling app as it takes a couple seconds to load the channel information and art for the current show on each channel.

Anyway, just my two cents and hopefully it helps a fellow cordkiller out there. Been listening since the FrameRate days and haven’t missed an episode. Keep up the good work!!

– Brian

 

On the last show Brian talked about syfy streaming issues with the expanse restarting and other crazy stuff. I ran into this awhile back. when running an ad blocker it will let you get to the first commercial break but then freaks out and restarts. Just in case no one has mentioned it already, just disable ad blocker (mine was ublock origin) and it will play fine.

– Mike

 

 

Hi Tom, thought you would be interested in how they cast the actress for Bobbie Draper. They were worried about finding an actress who was a 6 ft Polynesian that was physically muscular. Just as a side note, being 6’5″ and 270 she is pretty much my perfect match.
 

 

 

 

Weighing in on the idea that $4 is too expensive for Seeso…

I have to agree that this IS too expensive as compared to what you get from Hulu or Netflix. If you’re trying to put content out there, those are the price comparisons that people are going to make. Hulu @ $8 includes nearly all current NBC, ABC, FOX, and secondary channel content plus some back catalogs, some originals, and a growing catalog of good movies. Netflix at $8 or $10 for HD gives you a huge back catalog of shows, a huge library of originals, and a good collection of movies.

So how can you justify $4/month for one genre of content from NBC? Or $6 for just CBS? Comparatively, their offerings are too limited to warrant that price.

Plus this model does not scale. Filmstruck wants its $7-$11, Crunchyroll wants $7. Are all the content licensees going to try to extract their $4 – 12 from you for their content? Forget it. If that’s the new world, I’m not buying. I’ll stick with Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon, and I’ll supplement that with ad hoc purchases and rentals.

– Richard

 

 

 

You were talking about which services were considered “too expensive,” and the survey said that CBS All Access was too expensive, but Hulu was not.

From my perspective, with Hulu, I get access to multiple networks (NBC, Fox, Comedy Central, etc.); but with CBS, I only get CBS. It does not seem worth it to me for the two or three shows that I want (especially when I want commcial-free), when I can use the other service to access many, many shows.

– John

 

Links

2016 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers