MoviePass flexes its muscles, Apple buys potential, and War Games is back in a new way. With special guest Daniel O’Brien.
The Summer Movie Draft is coming up! We’re looking at drafting on March 20th on Night Attack. More info soon!
Download audio
Download video
CordKillers: Ep. 210 – Brian’s Fence Fort
Recorded: March 5 2018
Guest: Daniel O’Brien
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Apple scores another TV thriller, this time produced by M. Night Shyamalan
– M. Night Shyamalan will executive produce a new psychological thriller series for Apple to be written by Tony Basgallop of 24 fame.
– Apple lineup so far:
– TV series from Damien Chazelle (La La Land director)
– Amazing Stories Anthology series from Steven Spielberg
– Space Drama from Ronald D. Moore (BSG)
– Drama about a network morning show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon
– Futuristic Drama from Francis Lawrence (Director of last 3 Hunger Games movies)
– Apple just hired Angelica Guerra, Sony Pictures Television’s production leader for Latin American and US Hispanic content
– Apple already has former Sony presidents Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg and former Sony vice presidents Max Aronson, Kim Rozenfeld and Ali Woodruff
How to Watch
- MoviePass won’t let its customers buy tickets to Red Sparrow in some markets
– Some MoviePass users could not use the service to buy tickets to Red Sparrow
– Statement to SlashFilm: “We occasionally remove some films from our ticketing inventory in some markets for a limited time, similar to how we organically promote films in certain markets to better understand member behavior.”
– Maybe trying to demonstrate not only the benefit of pluggin movies like I, Tonya or Death Wish but how it can negatively impact ticket sales as well.
– Mitch Lowe, CEO of MoviePass was speaking to the Entertainment Finance Forum about how MoviePass monetizes data
– “We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards.”
– The ToS say location is only used when selecting a theater and “only be used as a means to develop, improve, and personalize the service.”
What to Watch
What We’re Watching
Front Lines
Dispatches from the Front
Hello Cordkillers
After the recent news of movie pass not allowing certain movies in certain areas to be used with there service I cancelled it. No matter how much I disliked people using there service without seeing movies I found this far worse.
Now with happier news for the first time since I canceled Directv I didn’t have to sit in the kitchen to watch the Oscars. I used YouTube tv. I really enjoyed the interface.
– Kevin
Dear Tom & Brian,
First, I want to say that I support Brian’s right to be completely, totally, 100% WRONG about Black Panther. (That movie was awesome!)
The question of whether or not people actually save money by cutting the cord or just gain freedom & flexibility seems to come up rather frequently. I recently crunched the numbers and I thought I’d share.
Before cutting the cord, I had Dish Network for both internet & “cable.” It started out as a pretty good deal, but after they’d jacked the rates up several times, well, let me put it this way: I decided to cancel my Dish when they started running commercials about how DirecTV customers average $77/month, and I was paying $115/month!
My internet bill went from $60/month to $35/month for the exact same service
I added Sling @ $25/month
I added PBS Passport @ $7/month because I wanted to support them, even though I could get PBS OTA
So, I’m paying $25/month less for internet, and the two services I added to replace cable/satellite total $32/month. I’m saving $108/month! And, I can easily pause or cancel services whenever I want. I’ve actually cancelled Sling for now (between seasons of the shows I really want to watch), and I plan to switch to Philo as it offers all of the channels I want ($16/month).
Yes, I did buy a Roku, and I already had Netflix & Amazon Prime subscriptions, which I didn’t count in my totals, but they add up to a lot less than $108/month.
Thanks, guys! I couldn’t have done it without you!
Sincerely,
– Uli Dig
P.S. I used some of the money I saved to support some of my favorite podcasts. I’m the boss of you now!
Hey Guys…
Thanks for all the entertainment.
Just dropping a note on how I budget some of my TV Viewing
I use the Gift Cards for Hulu, Netflix, iTunes and prepay an year ahead.
That way I can budget for all my streaming viewing and never have to
Worry about how much I am spending on my Cord Cutting fees.
Hopefully this might help others to budget as well.
One of your many bosses
– Blair
Hi. I thought this worth sharing that I am now a paying customer of YouTube TV.I relied on the DVR feature to record the 90th Oscar’s apparently not many bothered to watch.Picture quality was good and I was happy YouTube was smart enough to extend the recording time without any input from me that allowed me to see the whole event.I thought for sure it would stop at the 3hr mark and I’d have to Google the best picture winner.But it worked great.
I was happy to see Shape of Water win best picture.And I’m glad I drove over 45 miles one way to see it in a theater before the Oscar’s to know it is a great film.
Have a great episode tonight.
– David
The Expanse is now in UHD on Amazon Prime Video. Might be better to wait than watch on syfy.
– Jommel
Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
Amazon announces lower-cost Prime memberships for Medicaid recipients, Microsoft will repackage Windows 10 S into a mode on Windows 10, US foreign investment panel calls for investigation into Broadcom’s bid for Qualcomm. 
Popular dating app Bumble says No to firearms in profile pictures, the EU is worried about clocks losing time, and the author of a controversial MIT paper estimating the low wages of ride hailing drivers fires back at critics.
Washington State passes net neutrality protections, Bumble to remove firearms from profile photos, Google and DoD working together on AI drone footage analysis. 
Twitch rolls out new conduct and behavior rules for streamers. Is this a step in the right direction to cleaning up the streaming platform or a heavy handed response to a complex issue? Plus an AI burger flipper starts work grilling patties for the public and a Facebook survey contains a suggestive question regarding illegal behavior.
Amazon fights with Nest, Broadcomm fights with Qualcomm and a robot gets a job flipping burgers.
In this episode, we discuss:
Light Phone, last year’s crowdfunded phone, is getting a sequel including a bunch of new features. Plus Toyota sets up a new venture to develop automated-driving software, and Angry Birds developer Rovio is shutting its London studio after disappointing Q4 earnings.
Instagram may launch voice and video calling, Microsoft launches free app for the blind and visual impaired, Equifax says 2017 breach will cost the company $275M this year.