Hulu may contemplate an ad-free tier, Judge gives Internet TV hope, Slingbox giveth and taketh away.
CordKillers: Ep. 80 – Sit or Get Off the Pot, Hulu
Recorded: July 20, 2015
Guest: Andrew Mayne , Eklund
Intro Video
Primary Target
- U.S. judge says Internet streaming service should be treated like cable
– US District Judge George Wu in LA ruled FilmOn X entitled to compulsory license for streaming broadcast TV network
– (Compulsory license allows small cost carriage of must carry sytations. Stations who opt for retrans consent no longer must be carried but have to negotiate in “good faith” for retrans costs)
– An immediate appeal to 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals was allowed
– Injunction against FilmON left standing
– Feb. 22, 2011 – District Judge Naomi Buchwald granted an injunction, shutting down most of the broadcast stations carried by Ivi
– Same right Aereo was denied in Manhattan Federal Court October 2014
– FCC launched comment period Dec. 18, 2014 on reclassifying OITT as MPVD - Password Sharing: Are Netflix, HBO Missing $500 Million by Not Cracking Down?
– A report from research firm Parks Associates estimates services like HBO Go will lose up to $500 million worldwide to people who share login information. 6% of US broadband households use a service paid for by someone outside the house. Services like HBO and Netflix responded to the survey with a collective “yeah we know.”
Signal Intelligence
- Hulu Explores Adding Ad-Free Option to Its Service
-WSJ sources say Hulu considering an ad-free tier for $12-$14 a month
Gear Up
- Buying a Slingbox finally gets you free TV streaming apps
– Slingbox $200 Slingbox M2 ‘bundle’ gives you the apps for free
– Cost is $50 more than unbundled. Apps are usually around $15 or more
– “Seamlessly integrated ads”
– And yes there’s already a class action suit for the ads being introduced to the desktop app in March - Slingbox class action
Front Lines
- HBO NOW Arrives Today On Amazon’s Appstore And Google Play, And Soon, Android And Fire TV Devices
– Netflix said in its earnings call it has no plans to raise prices but will encourage customers to upgrade to more expensive plans with better quality streams. CEO Reed Hastings, while wearing a BoJack Horseman sweater, also expressed support for the Charter Time Warner Cable merger since Charter doesn’t charge Netflix for interconnections. - Google’s YouTube Signs Up Everyone But TV for New Paid Service
– YouTube says it has signed up partners accounting for 90% of its viewing to take part in a paid service that would remove ads, but sources say none of those partners include major broadcast and cable networks. - Sling TV’s new ads show children bullying adults into paying for cable and signing contracts.
- Local TV takes news to Web in fight for cord cutters
– This autumn 112 US TV stations will begin streaming live newscasts through an app called NewsOn. Verizon is also in talks with 300 stations that want to send programming directly to consumers.
Under Surveillance
- Narcos series premieres on August 28th on Netflix
- Amazon’s First Original Film Is Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq,” Expected In Theaters This Year
– Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq” film will be first Amazon original gang violence in inner-city Chicago.
– Expectation is that the film is due to open in December in order to qualify for participation this year’s Oscars race.
– Movies would reach Amazon Prime Instant Video in just 4 to 8 weeks after they hit the big screen.
– (Nick Cannon, Wesley Snipes, Jennifer Hudson, Angela Bassett, John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson) - Brian: Sense8, True Detective, Ant Man, BoJack Horseman
- Tom: Clone Wars, Mr. Robot (3-4), Wayward Pines (9), True Detective (Ep. 205) The Shield (608), Ant Man
- Andrew: Ray Donovan, True Detective, Ballers
- Bryce: BoJack Horseman
Dispatches from the Front
Hey Tom and Brian. I am still a few weeks behind so I don’t know if you have mentioned this or not yet.
The people of sideclick have re launched their product. They are only $13,000 away form their $80,000 goal, and they have 27 days left at the time of writing this.
Thanks,
– Savo in silly Schenectady NY.
Guys,
Please understand that live TV is essential to a sports fan! I know you two are not. With, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf and football, the major broadcasters like NBC, ABC, CBS & ESPN, make billions, not to mention billions more for teams and players. Then add in endorsements,etc. You are happily ignoring a huge segment of your own potential market.
Please get someone on your podcast who is tech savvy and is a sports lover.
– Don
Hey guys, it’s your boss here. Last week you asked for an “anti-Plex opinion” … I am not that “anti-Plex opinion”, but I’m going to share my insights, anyway. 🙂
In my opinion, Plex is really good at one thing: managing libraries of locally-stored, non-DRM’d content. …
What Plex does not do is Live TV or PVR functionality, or any streaming service or web site. Yes, there are “Plex Channels” that will give you content from the web, but in my experience they are very glitchy and rarely work, probably because they’re almost all scraping web content, making them very prone to breaking. When they do work, figuring out what content is actually available on the channel is worse than figuring out what’s available on Free Hulu, and the experience will make Brian’s Grandmother a very sad panda!
TL;DR – If you have a large library of local media, Plex is awesome. For everything else, Plex is pain.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for making my favorite podcast every week! Keep up the good work!
– Stealth Dave
Links