Starz joins the party and YouTube tries to become the next HBO. Also why Roku is NOT winning the set-top box race.
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 42 – Twin Peaks Ep. 1, Transparent Ep. 4, The Shield (Ep. 308), Fargo (Ep. 8 & 9)
Why Brian hates everyone in Twin Peaks, Is Transparent the best show of the year, The Shield puts Tom back on the Money Train and Fargo Finale talk!
00:47 – Twin Peaks
07:22 – The Shield
12:47 – Transparent
17:28 – Fargo
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 42 – Twin Peaks Ep. 2, Transparent Ep. 5,6 The Shield (Ep. 310),
Why Brian hates everyone in Twin Peaks, Is Transparent the best show of the year, The Shield puts Tom back on the Money Train and Fargo Finale talk!
00:47 – Twin Peaks
07:22 – The Shield
12:47 – Transparent
17:28 – Fargo
Cordkillers Special: WINTER MOVIE DRAFT 2014
Gather around your podcasting viewer of choice and watch as our league of movie draft legends compete for dominance in the 2014 Winter Movie Draft. Starring Tom Merritt, Brian Brushwood, John Teasdale, Justin Robert Young, Brett Rounsaville, and Scott Johnson.
Be sure to play along at home by visiting http://draft.diamondclub.tv/form
Cordkillers Ep. 42 – Gore Porn
Amazon’s crazy cheap Firestick, Netflix made Coach Taylor do something bad, Roku wants some money.
CordKillers: Ep. 42 – Gore Porn
Recorded: October 27, 2014
Guest: Scott Johnson
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Amazon Fire TV stick
- Amazon takes on Chromecast with Fire TV Stick
- The mixed-up math of Amazon’s Fire TV Stick discounts
- Fire TV Stick coming Nov. 19th available for preorder. Ships Nov. 19
– Coming to UK and Australia soon
– For first two days of preorder $19 for Prime members
– Free month of Prime for non-mebers
– Dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage
– Netflix, Hulu Plus, Plex, YouTube, TWitch, Spotify, Vevo A&E etc.
-(Chromecast is $35/ Roku stick $50)
Signal Intelligence
- Netflix has two more TV shows for 2015: ‘Bloodline’ and ‘F is for Family’
- Two new Netflix originals
– Todd A. Kessler, Glenn Kessler and Daniel Zelman, who were the creators of Damages.
– Coach Taylor says “We’re not bad people, but we did a bad thing.”
– 13-episode original, with the plot focusing around “a family of adult siblings whose secrets and scars are revealed when their black sheep brother returns home.”
– March 2015 - F is for Family
– Animated by Bill Burr, EP with Vince Vaughn set in the 1970s
– Voices from Laura Dern and Justin Long
– Burr will premiere his new stand-up special I’m Sorry You Feel That Way on Netflix December 5th, 2015
Gear Up
- U.S. TV startup Roku to confidentially file for IPO: WSJ
- Roku Seeking Secretive IPO: Report
- Roku planning to file for an IPO in the US – selected bankers
– Companies with less than $1 billion annual gross revenues can keep confidential
– Last month, the company announced the Roku Powered program, an initiative aimed at helping Roku strike up direct partnerships with pay-TV providers. (BBC, Dish etc)
– The Information reported Roku pulled in $190 million in revenue in 2013.
– Says it is near profitability
-Could Roku be the box to unify two worlds?
Front Lines
- Comcast lost 81,000 video customers in Q3, its best result in 7 years.
- -A year ago Comcast lost 127,000 video customers. The company ALSO added 315,000 broadband subscribers bringing it close to parity with 22.38 million video subs and 21.59 million broadband subs. The company increased overall customers by 82,000.
- Nielsen, and Adobe are launching a measurement system across Internet-connected devices.
- This includes desktops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and over-the-top boxes. The system will launch in 2015 with ESPN, Turner Broadcasting, Sony’s Crackle, Viacom and Univision already signed up. It’s called Nielsen’s Digital Content Ratings, Powered by Adobe and uses Adobe Analytics and Adobe’s ‘Primetime’ TV delivery platform.
Under Surveillance
- Brian: Legend of Korra season 3, Twin Peaks to ep 3, Transparent, Fargo ep 10
- Tom: Fargo (Ep. 10), Haven, Agents of SHIELD, Star Wars Rebels, Arrow, The Flash, Transparent, The Shield (309), Continuum
- Scott: The Sopranos, Arrow
Dispatches from the Front
What do you mean by “all the spectrum” if you look at the swath of spectrum actually being used for OTA (uhf and vhf) there is very little actually being used when compared to other technologies like Lte, wimax and wifi.
I am looking at it from a wireless engineer / networking side as such that trying to reuse what is there for another purpose.
There is more spectrum that is licensed and used for the private sector than any other form. Direct TV, dish, xm radio, airline cell carriers just to name a few own more spectrum combined than those that are used for public OTA TV services.
So in a way yes I’m saying that for quality of service and sheer reach of consumption OTA is as good as it gets. Now sure we can transition to mpeg4 OTA and get better use of it but to say that we could replace the spectrum in favor of an on demand solution for everyone just could not happen with the limited bandwidth that uhf and vhf have combined.
Thanks for the reply,
Josh
If we end up paying a-la-carte for our programming, then our money will be going directly to the channels we care about instead of being divided across the hundreds of channels that we don’t care about. I wonder if that will make better programming or less commercials. Thoughts?
David
Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
Dog House Systems Cordkiller box
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 41 – Twin Peaks Ep. 1, Transparent Ep. 4, The Shield (Ep. 308), Fargo (Ep. 8 & 9)
Twin Peaks softly lulls Brian, Transparent may be the most real show this year, The Shield shows cracks in the strike team, Fargo takes big turn.
01:27 – Twin Peaks (Ep 1)
12:30 – Transparent (Ep 4)
20:12 – The Shield (Ep 308)
24:10 – Fargo (Ep 8 & 9)
Cordkillers Ep. 41 – You would steal a policeman’s helmet
HBO will do some kind of Internet service next year. People say Yay! CBS will do one now. People say boo. Google unveils Nexus player. People sort of notice!
CordKillers: Ep. 41 – You would steal a policeman’s helmet
Recorded: October 20, 2014
Guest: Kristi Kates
Intro Video
Primary Target
- TV’s Move to the Web Can Strengthen Its Cable Business
- HBO Says It’s Going to Start Selling on the Web Next Year
- -HBO CEO Richard Plepler said at Time Warner investor presentation
-“in 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. We will work with our current partners. And, we will explore models with new partners. All in, there are 80 million homes that do not have HBO and we will use all means at our disposal to go after them.”
-Martin Peers of “The Information” reports $15/ mo.
– Diffusion group survey 6% moderately or highly likely to sign up - HBO’s Online Pricing Trap
- CBS launches its own TV subscription platform for $6 a month
- -CBS launched $6 mo. streaming service.
– 6500 classic episodes
– 15 shows day after air
– Live TV in 14 markets with more to come
– No NFL - Never say never: why TV networks are suddenly ready to unbundle
- Lions Gate to offer streaming movie service in 2015
- -LionsGate: The service, Tribeca Short List, will offer movies such as the dystopian teen hit “The Hunger Games” beginning next year, according to the studio.
Signal Intelligence
- Netflix’s growth slows down just as HBO joins the streaming fight
- Netflix’s U.S. growth slows, shares plunge
- -Netflix earnings
– US growth slowed to 980K customers, down from 1.29 million a year ago (had predicted 1.33 million)
– Netflix’s international subscribers grew 72 percent to 15.84 million from a year earlier.
– Net income rose to $59.3 million, or 96 cents per share, from $31.8 million, or 52 cents per share, in the year-ago period.
Gear Up
- Here comes the Nexus Player: Google and Asus release first Android TV device
- Pre-order page
- Nexus Player
– Available for preorder US and Canda
-$99 (Game pad sold sep. for $40)
– Bluetooth remote, voice search
– 28 apps (Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, Plex, Pluto.tv, YouTube)
– Compatible with GoogleCast
Front Lines
- Aereo Asks FCC to Change Definition of Video Distributor
- – Aereo Chief Executive Officer Chet Kanojia met with FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler and other officials on Oct. 8 to advocate for online programming to be added to the definition of an MPVD.
– This would be a big victory for any company attempting to create an online multichannel TV service
9 Remeber Discovery refused to let Sky Angel carry its channel online. It could not flat out refuse in this scenario)
– if a programmer has a stake in a distribution service, then it is required to sell its programming to MPVDs. - Good News, TV Guys: ComScore Found Your Missing TV Watchers
- – Comscore survey says the younger a viewer is the less likely they watch on a TV
– Millennials say they spend a third of their TV-watching time watching TV on computers, tablets and phones
– 24 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds say they’re not subscribing to pay TV. — 13 percent say they’ve cut the cord, 11 percent never had a cord. - Amazon’s Instant Video app now shows your homemade movies
- –Upgraded Amazon Instant Video apps for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and certain TVs from LG and Samsung can show photos and videos stored in Amazon Cloud Drive for users in Germany the US and UK.
Under Surveillance
- Netflix’s next original series is a collaboration with Canada’s Rogers
- –Netflix is co-producing a series with Shomi, a VOD service from Canadian TV channel City and telco Rogers. Between is a six-episode series that follows the story of a strange disease in a small town that has abolished everyone under 21 years old. Created by Michael McGowan, director of Still Mine and One Week.
- Last week Netflix announced every episode of Friends is coming to Netflix January 1.
- MST3K’s Joel And Dr. Forrester Reunite On Paul Feig’s New Webseries
- – Joel Hodgson and Trace Beaulieu will reunite on Freaks and Geeks’ creator Paul Feig’s new webseries on Yahoo. Other Space is “a journey in unknown space set in the early 22nd century, when the human race has mapped most of the known universe, failed to find alien life, and frankly gotten a little tired of the whole thing.”
- WB Announces A Ton Of New DC Movies, Including Who’s Playing The Flash
- –WB Announced the lineup of DC Movies: Suicide Squad will be the next DC movie released after Batman V. Superman in 2016. In 2017 you get a standalone Wonder Woman along with a Justice League movie directed by Zack Snyder. In 2018 a Flash movie starring Ezra Miller and Aquaman starring Jason Momoa. In 2019 is Shazam (Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam) and Justice League 2. Then in 2020 a Cyborg movie and a new Green Lantern.
- Brian: Legend of Korra, rewatching Avatar: The Last Airbender, playing Far Cry 3, Fargo, Transparent, Twin Peaks
- Tom: The Shield (308) Transparent, Doctor Who
- Kristi: Agents of SHIELD, Firefly fan film “The Verse,” Warehouse 13, bit of Doctor Who
Dispatches from the Front
Tom and Brian,
Quick note: Quit watching The Walking Dead mid-season 2. Tried last season, quit. Brother tells me to watch current season’s premier. Holy crap! I think I’m in.
Fred in Pooler, GA
Do you have an explanation for why movies take so long to be available to rent? It is so frustrating to see DVDs to buy but not to rent. I want to rent Catching Fire, which was released in 2013 and it is only available to buy. Grrrrrr!
Pam
Hi,
Thanks for your show, we cut the cord about 3 years ago and finding new shows has probably been the hardest part to get used to! Your show has helped me in this regard quite a few times. I wanted to pass along a show I stumbled upon in Netflix that I am in love with! It’s called An Idiot Abroad, I’d love to hear your thoughts on it because know one in my immediate circle seems to love it as much as I do, I want to see if I’m weird, if Brian likes it then I’m legit!
Take care,
Melanie
You guys have to give Manhattan (on WGN America, Hulu, iTunes) a try. Wife and I love this show. Fascinating drama about the time period and the science with the A bomb. Purchased the season on iTunes and look forward to it every Monday. Just got renewed for a second season.
Jon
Links
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 40 – Twin Peaks Primer, Edge of Tomorrow, Fargo (Ep. 7), Transparent Ep. 3
Damn Fine TV show, Why Edge of Tomorrow may be the best movie of 2014, Fargo gets gone, Transparent still amazing.
01:19 – Twin Peaks
07:05 – Edge of Tomorrow
18:37 – Fargo
25:37 – Transparent
Cordkillers Ep. 40 – I love you for the conditions we are in
Nielsen is inaccurate but HOW inaccurate? Also whether Amazon should join Ultraviolet.
CordKillers: Ep. 40 – I love you for the conditions we are in
Recorded: October 13, 2014
Guest: Derrick Chen
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Last Friday, Nielsen announced (quietly) that it has been overestimating live-plus-same-day deliveries since at least March.
- -Data since the beginning of the broadcast season will be reissued; the first batch of C3 ratings, which Nielsen said are error-free, came out over the weekend.
“This data represents between 0.1 percent and 0.25 percent of all viewing minutes that we credit nationally,” a spokesperson said. “In the vast majority of cases, the impact is small; in a handful of cases, the impact is more significant.”
Signal Intelligence
- Amazon in Talks to Join UltraViolet Digital Video Locker
- -WSJ sources say Amazon held talks about a partnership with Ultraviolet.
– Currently works with Vudu, Target Ticket, Flixster and CinemaNow.
Gear Up
Front Lines
- Using gaps between radio bands, the UK is testing ‘whitespace’ broadcasting.
- -Ofcom has teamed up with ZSL London Zoo for a two month trial to live stream footage of animals to YouTube. Asian Otters, Meerkats or Giant Galapagos Tortoises.
- Apparently Jim Henson company is working on a sequel to Labyrinth. This reminds me of a babe.
- Ubuntu machines now support Netflix streaming in Chrome 37. This is extra good for DIYers using Ubuntu to build their own Home Theater PCs
- Amy Poehler’s channel “Smart Girls at the Party” is joining Geek and Sundry and Nerdist.
- -Smart Girls at the Party was created in 2008 by Poehler and her friends Meredith Walker and Amy Miles. With more than 550,000 Facebook fans and more than 5 million views on its YouTube channel
- Netflix’s interconnection agreements are working.
- -Verizon FiOS actually topped all other major ISPs in Netflix performance in September with an average stream rate of 3.17Mbps, Google Fiber is still No. 1 among all ISPs regardless of size with a 3.54Mbps average in September. AT&T U-verse also improved after receiving interconnection payments from Netflix.
- YouTube is opening a production ‘Space’ for video creators in New York next month.
- Netflix users need Platinum plan to stream 4K. $12 vs. $9/mo.
- – That plan also allows 4 simultaneous streams
– 4K TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, and Vizio, and requires a minimum of 25 Mbps download speed.
– All of Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, a nature documentary, and The Smurfs 2
– The Blacklist will come in 4K.
– Customers who have watched 4K on current plan will be grandfathered in
Under Surveillance
- The TV movie “Star Wars Rebels: Spark of Rebellion” will make its prime-time network debut on ABC on October 26 at 7pm.
- -Fans will be treated to a special cameo from Darth Vader himself, voiced by James Earl Jones. Dave Filoni told StarWars.com. “We’ve added a scene which gives audiences insight into the Inquisitor and includes a cameo by Darth Vader.
- Sony Pictures Television is currently producing a PlayStation Plus-exclusive original series, called Powers,
- -Based on a comic of the same name, and it follows detectives who keep an eye on people with superpowers.
– “What if the world was full of superheroes who aren’t actually heroic at all? What if all that power was just one more excuse for mischief, mayhem, murder, and endorsement deals?” - Brian: Fargo, Transparent
- Tom: Twin Peaks (Ep. 1) Transparent (Ep. 3) Edge of Tomorrow
- Derrick: Arrow, Gotham
On our Radar
- Young Ones
- -YOUNG ONES is set in a near future when water has become the most precious and dwindling resource on the planet, one that dictates everything from the macro of political policy to the detailed micro of interpersonal family and romantic relationships
Dispatches from the Front
Just listened and wanted to point out that in the conversation about Kevin Smith Brian called Tusk a bomb /flop /don’t remember. However since he’s obviously a Smith podcast listener he probably knows but didn’t think about it, but Kevin has really moved away from the traditional money making methods in favor of more musician styled.
I don’t know for sure about the financing of the movie, but if it’s anything like the Super Groovy Cartoon Movie it’s probably mostly self financed. I know he’s planning on touring it to theaters with live performances, so ticket sales will hopefully make up the “traditional rocket sales” loss.
For example Super Groovy cost $69,000 to make, and was never really released to theaters. But with the tour it was paid for in the first few shows, and while I don’t know exactly what it brought in from what he’s said in podcasts I believe it’s something on the order of five million. Think of the pure profit from that with none of the marketing overhead.
It’s work, yes, but almost his own version of crowd funding… Think of it as interactive Patreon. Possibly something like that could be a vehicle for other well known creators to pay for projects they want to do but can’t get a green light.
-Derek in Chattanooga
PS. Brian is completely right, Myst was the streaming pile that Seventh Guest stepped over on its way to level ‘Awesome’
Hey Brian and Tom,
I’m the science teacher in Taylor whose email yall read on the last episode about Netflix offering channels that streamed the same content to everyone at the same time. I was working my Saturday part time job with Austin Moonwalks (Brian: hit me up if you want a deal for one of the girl’s birthdays!) when I heard it and about flipped out. Thanks guys, it was awesome to hear yall talk about it. I don’t expect you to revisit it on the show, but just to clarify: I think I overstated how much I cared about the “communal” experience of watching what everyone else was watching. I didn’t mean for that to be the main focus. That was more of a side-effect. For me, its more about the giving-up of control that I need. For example:
My favorite TV show growing up was Star Trek The Next Generation. I watched it at 9pm every night on FOX 42. (Do you remember before it was KEYE, Brian?). I didn’t get to decide what episode I watched. I watched whatever came on: good or bad, whether I liked it or not. Because THAT was the one that was on, and there was nothing I could do about it. Now, I have every episode of the series at my disposal, but I can’t pick one out to watch. It’s impossible! I even devised a randomizing system to pick one out for me, but even that didn’t quite work because I could still stop and change it if there was a part I didn’t like.
It’s not just TV shows. Do you guys remember before DVRs, just going through the channels and happening on a movie that you liked? Maybe you even had it on DVD or VHS, but hadn’t watched it in years. You could have pulled it out anytime and watched it, but you hadn’t and probably wouldn’t for years to come. But there was something about it being ON TV that made you stop changing channels and watch the whole thing.
That’s the feeling I’m talking about. Watching and ENJOYING something by chance, because that’s what was on, and there was nothing you could do about it.
If Netflix had a Sci-Fi “channel”, it could play movies, TV shows, or even documentaries (all of which came from what Netflix already has), and you could just put it on and watch what was there (knowing that other people were watching it too). Maybe I’d come across a TV show I never would have watched or a good movie I hadn’t seen in a long time and never would have picked-out even if it were suggested. If I don’t like what’s one the Sci-Fi station, I can click on the comedy station and see what’s there.
I guess some might call this “vegging out,” but that’s exactly what I need to do sometimes.
Anyway, sorry to write so much. Just wanted to make sure you understood what I meant, whether you agree or not.
-Andy (better known by 11 year olds as Mr. Morris)
Hey Brian and Tom,
I was listening to this week’s show and I had an idea. When you discuss the number of “bosses” you have and how to support the show on Patreon, I think you should call the segment “The TPS Report” (Total Patreon Supporters). You could do it with or without a fancy bumper since Tom usually leads in with a factoid from the relevant year but what will he do when you pass 2014 bosses after all? 🙂 Maybe a running gag about new cover sheets would be in order? Just a thought and I am also one of your bosses!
Thanks,
Tony Sheler
Albany, OR
Brian said a few times in the last episode that the chromecast is ‘open’. I’ve looked into developing for the chromecast and I want to say it definitely is not. If you want to make your app chromecastable you need to have your application approved and your application signing key signed by google. And there’s no way around this. It’s not like Android where you can check the ‘unknown sources’ box and do whatever you want. It is totally controlled.
This may be why the firefox stick could be better. If it’s truly open you may see things available there that you will never see on chromecast. Particularly I’m thinking porn and piracy apps like popcorn time, or even legally grey apps like grooveshark (an app which google has just banned from chromecast see http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/09/09/grooveshark-longer-supports-chromecast-following-riaa-claim-infringes-artists-copyright ). That freedom and real openness might be just enough to give the firefox dongle an edge.
Clint Armstrong
Links
It’s Spoilerin’ Time: Episode 39 – The Shield (307), Fargo (Ep. 6), Transparent Ep. 2
The safe gets cracked, Tom does a Malvo, Tambor kicks ass.
01:19 – The Shield
08:44 – Fargo
22:30 – Transparent