Cordkillers 107 – WYWWYWOADDYW

Cordkillers / February 9th, 2016

The Super Bowl breaks records online and streams for free. The best Blu-Ray player might be the best streaming device for 4K.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers:  107 – WYWWYWOADDYW
Recorded: February 8 2016
Guest: None

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

  • Super Bowl breaks streaming record
  • CBS annoucnes numbers
    – CBS says a record audience streamed the Super Bowl
    – Streamers watched 315 million minutes of game coverage.
    – An average of 1.4 million people streamed the game per minute.
    – NBC had 800K avg viewers per minute and 1.3 million current users last year
    – Some Apple TV users had problems with the stream (Tom didn’t)

Gear Up

  • First Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray player goes on sale
    – Samsung UBD-K8500 was on sale in a store in Santa Monica and will now ship Feb. 10th acc. to Best Buy
    – Ultra HD 4K
    – Was not supposed to ship until March
    – The Martian and Kingsmen still preorder only
    – Can do Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon , M-Go and YuppTV

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

“CBS’ Super Bowl telecast averaged 111.9 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s fast nationals, and peaked at 115.5 million between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. The total is off from last year’s record 114.4 million on NBC. That featured the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in a game that went down to the wire. CBS called the 2016 telecast, during which the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers in a relatively humdrum game, the third-most watched program in TV history. The live stream drew 3.96 million unique viewers across a variety of screens.“

Super Bowl Averages 111.9 Million Viewers

Doing some quick math means that 3.5% of viewers watched via the internet.

– Jay

 

Hi Cord Killers

I downloaded this app from Yahoo called Yahoo Video Guide.

Is possible you guys featured it on the who already but if not here it is.

The app detects which streaming services you have installed on your device (Netflix, Amazon Video, HBO Now..etc)
Then is shows you what new movies and shows are available, also breaks down by categories and in which services are available. I’d like for this to be included within the Apple TV or other boxes.

Thanks
– Alex from NYC

 

Hi Guys,
I have a suggestion.  Since Man In The High Castle seems to have taken a bit of a backseat I would suggest this.  Just watch the last episode and you will be fine.  Much of what has happened up to where you are has been a set up for the last episode.  I don’t think you will be disappointed and will understand why I keep harping on it after you have watched it.  

– Stan

 

 

Hey guys,
 
Undateable on NBC has been live all this season and is great to see current events and the actors personal lives intrude on the show, plus the screw ups are usually really fun and the cast is great, check it out.
 
Also, Grease Live was great, the scope of the moving sets, both indoor and outdoor plus the cast was amazing to watch even in the rain.
 
– Mike from Bastrop TX

 

 

Hey guys, just to check in why I pay for cable.  I watch probably 40 shows a week more or less and only some are on Hulu timely and don’t come to Netflix or Amazon Prime until the season is over making talking with co-workers impossible on current shows.
 
Buying them individually would be way more than paying for cable at this point in time and I am too far from Austin to use an antenna without planting a pole and using a huge aerial. 
 
Thanks for your time,
– Michael

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draft

Cordkillers 106 – Cordkillers React

Cordkillers / February 2nd, 2016

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.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: 106 – Cordkillers React
Recorded: February 1 2016
Guest: Iyaz Akhtar

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

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

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

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draft

 

It’s Spoilerin’ Time 105

Cordkillers / January 27th, 2016

Mad Dogs (102-103), The Expanse (101-107), The Magicians (101), Justified (102)

00:36 – Winter Movie Draft

02:18 – Mad Dogs (102-103) with Romany Malco!

24:09 – The Expanse (101-107)

33:39 – The Magicians (101)

42:35 – Justified (102)

46:32 – Triage

Download audio

Download video

Cordkillers 103 – A Lot of Paperwork

Cordkillers / January 12th, 2016

Netflix adds 130 countries and lets you share your password, Sling cleans up its interface, and a new OTA DVR for cordcutters. With special guest Riley Blanton.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: 103 – A Lot of Paperwork
Recorded: January 11 2016
Guest: Riley Blanton

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

  • New Sling TV interface rolling out this quarter
  • Sling TV CEO on the competition and internet TV’s future
    – New section called “My TV” surfacing favorites (based on viewing habits and user selection)Continue Watching, Recommendations
    – What’s Hot – beaking news, season finales – coming in a later release
    – Sports section will make it easier to find favorite teams, with sign up to sports pack in app
    – Adding ESPN3
    – RCA will offer 10-day free trials with antenna
    – Rolling out to all devices by end of March

Gear Up

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

Dear Tom and Brian,

I’m writing to comment on your discussion on Episode 102 about whether Netflix should concentrate solely on original content and de-emphasize the back catalog content. And you were also discussing how more and more streaming services are coming out with their own original content, and networks who already produce original content are making paid apps (like CBS).

And I think there’s a tipping point.

Here’s a scenario:

We want to watch the 11/22/63, and we plan to pay for Hulu+ to get that — But we already pay for Amazon Prime, Netflix, HBO and we still have cable. And one of my kids is a big anime fan so we have a membership to Crunchyroll, too. (And I support several podcasts via Patreon). I’ve reached my limit of what I will pay for.

So my idea is to binge watch 11/22/63: pay for one month of Hulu+ and then put the membership on hold. I figured we’d do something similar when the new Star Trek episodes come to the CBS all-access plan.

So, my question is, where’s the tipping point? How many memberships will people pay for before they decide to do some kind of a round robin like I described above?

If they only have original content, I can see myself doing this kind of thing. But services like Netflix, with their large back catalog, would be the ones I’d be least likely to put on hold. If they let their back catalog dwindle, I may find I can go a month or two without it.

Wondering what you think about this.

Love the show!
– Beelissa

 

 

You questioned if “the kids” are still downloading torrents, or if streaming is kind now. I work at a university, and we’ve recently implemented stricter controls on Peer-to-Peer / filesharing activity on our network. Based on the number of students who got caught by that this fall (and based on subsequent conversations with some of them, as they basically get kicked off our network when we see torrent activity), I feel like I have some idea anyway. Downloads certainly seem to be down some from the heyday for those things, but we certainly saw that the activity is still common enough. Interestingly enough, when we returned from Christmas break, we saw an upswing again as everyone went back to using the filesharing programs while at home and forgot to uninstall when they got back to campus! 

 

–Anonymous

 

 

HBO Now was not available on my platform of choice (Android) until after Game o Thrones was over.

I did not torrent the show even though I have both torrented and borrowed HBO Go credentials in the past. I did enjoy binge watching it with my wife during our free trial. I left my subscription active for one more month after the free trial to show my appreciation for the service.

I think next year will be different. HBO Now is a great experience and I can’t wait to watch Game of Thrones on my Android TV devices next year.

–Tony

 

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draft