Cordkillers 189 – Space Babies (w/ Nicole Lee)

Cordkillers / October 3rd, 2017

Who has the best streaming service and Roku’s new lineup of boxes and dongles. With special guest Nicole Lee.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: Ep. 189 – Space Babies
Recorded: October 2 2017
Guest: Nicole Lee.

Intro Video

  • None

Primary Target

  • DirecTV Now, Sling TV, Hulu TV: Best Internet TV Channel Deal
    – TiVo studied survey data of the most desirable TV channels among US and Canada viewers with the current offerings from major Internet-only services.
    – The survey showed the 4 broadcast networks led the way followed by Discovery then History then FX.
    – The survey determined 27 channels that most consumers wanted.
    – TiVo’s analysis showed the best coverage per dollar spent
    – DirecTV Now’s “Just Right” bundle $50/mo. covered 85%
    – DirecTV Now “Live a little” bundle $35/mo. – 82%
    – Sling TV combined $40/mo. 67%
    – Hulu TV $40 63%
    – PSVUe $39 59%
    – Sling blue 56% Orange 44%
    – YouTube TV $35 37%
  • TiVo’s Q2 2017 Video Trends Report

How to Watch

  • Roku rolls out Roku OS 8, refreshes TV hardware with 4K and faster processors
    – Roku just announced updates to five of its streaming devices. Roku’s $50 streaming stick gets a 50% faster processor and support for voice control. The $70 Roku Streaming Stick Plus has 4K and better wifi range with the wireless module built into the cable. The $30 Roku Express and $40 Roku Express Plus get faster processors and the Express Plus keeps its composite ports. The Roku Ultra isn’t being changed but the price did drop from $130 to $100. Roku OS 8 is also out for all supported boxes. It can integrate OTA programming and adds single sign-on.

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

Dispatches from the Front

I was listening to you talk about the new Trek when I had the following thoughts: I enjoy Cordkillers. I enjoy it enough that I give money through Patreon for content I could get for free. I also enjoy Star Trek. I view CBS All Access as a racket though. I won’t be giving money to their success and will instead wait for Trek on some other platform. On the one hand I pay for free content and on the other hand I want paid content for free. I can’t explain it. Go figure. Anyhow, you guys are worth the dough. Keep up the good work.

– Roy

 

 

 

I couldn’t believe what I heard today. After listening to my favorite podcast my app automatically starting playing my 3rd favorite. While putting in a hard day’s work looking busy and trying not to get caught playing on my phone. It happened. I thought somehow Trump invaded my air waves but It didn’t sound like the person was holding his hand in the air when he talked. How could you hate the big bang theory. It’s my favorite show of all time. So I decided I will donate $1 an episode but you must confess your love for the show.

– Kevin

 

 

 

Dear Tom and Brian,

I have long felt 2 things are true about CBS:
They are the home of many of my favorite shows
They are very stingy about rebroadcast rights for their shows, to the point of being greedy. Examples:
I was a fan of The Mentalist but I had to watch it live because it wasn’t available On Demand on our cable system like most other shows.
Their new show, Seal Team, is not listed in my cable company’s On Demand library; I guess if you don’t catch it live you have to watch it on CBS All Access.
As Tom has said, they often only allow a few episodes of a season to be available On Demand at any given time.
Contrast that with these examples from NBC:
· The entire first season of This is Us is available On Demand.
· All 8 seasons of Will and Grace appear to be available on my cable system’s On Demand library.
· You’d think they actually want to give people the opportunity to get caught up on these shows if they missed them when they first aired!

I feel like CBS believes they have such great and popular content that people will put up with their shenanigans and pay whatever they ask in order to watch it. I guess it remains to be seen whether this is true.

I do intend to sign up for CBS All Access. I tried it before and didn’t have very good luck with it. I intend to quit the subscription as soon as the Star Trek show is over.

Did you know they’re going to have a break starting November 5, restarting sometime in January? I bet they’ll get a lot of people cancelling in between . . .

Your Boss,
– Beelissa

 

 

 

I am considering CBS all access. I watched Star Trek Discovery and liked it enough to start the consideration. I am going away for a large part of December and can foresee some DVR shortages creeping up and CBS All Access could help, that is if I can watch the past five episodes or more of some of there current shows. I did some searching to see if I could find a chart of what shows have Full access and which have partial access, like your Supergirl example. Do you know of any such chart or site with information like that.

Thanks for any help,

– Mike

Links

2017 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 187 – Embarrassment of Riches (w/ Scott Johnson)

Cordkillers / September 19th, 2017

Hulu wins the Emmys, JJ Abrams is back on Star Wars, and what we think of the Apple TV 4K. With special guest Scott Johnson.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: 187 – Embarrassment of Riches
Recorded:  September 18 2017
Guest: Scott Johnson

Intro Video

Primary Target

How to Watch

  • New Apple TV 4K announced, launches September 22nd for $179
    – Apple introduced the Apple TV 4K with support for HDR10 and DolbyVision. The new Apple TV runs on an A10X processor with a new tvOS. And Major studios, exclusing Disney, will make 4K movies available in iTunes for the same price as HD and Apple will upgrade previous purchases. The TV app is coming to seven new countries starting with Canada and Australia. Apple is also adding live news and sports to the TV app. The new Apple TV is available with 32GB for $179 and 64 GB for $199 for pre-order September 15 shipping September 22.

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Emmy winners 2017: the complete list
    – Netflix: Jon Lithgow (Crown) Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe (Master of None) Charlie Brooker writing (Black Mirror) San Junipero Television Movie (Black Mirror)
    Hulu: Bruce Miller writing (Handmaid’s Tale) Ann Dowd (Handmaid’s Tale) Reed Moranao directing (Handmaid’s Tale) Best Actress Elizabeth Moss (Handmaid’s Tale) Best series Handmaid’s Tale
  • WSJ: Discovery, AMC and Viacom try a sports-free streaming bundle
    – The Wall Street Journal reports that Discovery Communications, Viacom Inc., A+E Networks, AMC Networks, and Scripps Networks Interactive are teaming up to launch a sports-free streaming service. The expectation is it will cost $20 a month. College-oriented streaming service Philo will provide the technology for the platform.
  • Time’s streaming service gets rebranded as ‘PeopleTV,’ passes 100M views in year one
    – Time has rebranded the People/Entertainment Weekly Network free ad-supported streaming service PeopleTV. The network streamed from the Emmys red carpet and provided the stream on Twitter. Time says the service has received 100 million views since launching in September of last year.
  • YouTube TV is expanding to eight more cities
    – YouTube TV expanded to Albuquerque, Austin, Birmingham, Greenville, Norfolk, Portland, Raleigh, and Sacramento. YouTube TV now offers almost 50 networks and costs $35 a month.
  • Hulu reportedly plans to spend around $2.5 billion on programming this year
    – Variety reports that Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins told an audience in New York City that Hulu plans to spend $2.5 billion on content this year. That’s less than Netflix’s $6 billion and Amazon’s predicted $4.5 billion but more than Apple’s $1 billion. If you’re keeping track. Hulu has about 12 million subscribers next to Amazon’s 80 million and Netflix’s 100 million.
  • Sling TV is now giving away digital antennas to those who prepay for its service
    – Sling announced two new bundles. If you prepay for two months of service you get a free Winegard indoor antenna. Prepay for three months and pay an additional $70 and you get the antenna plus an adapter and Sling’s AirTV Player which integrates over-the-air channels into Sling TV. Sling will verify you live in an area that can get OTA channels.

Dispatches from the Front

Hi there, Brian, Tom and Bryce!

In May I recorded a show about film franchises and late sequels. …one of our guests who works doing PR for some film distribution companies mentioned that he already knows who is going to own the franchise for the upcoming sequels after Sony leaves.

This falls under the “people familiar with the matter” category. Long story short: the rights go to 20th Century Fox. They already have the distribution rights for home video (BD, DVD) since 2002 so that’s the main reason they are up front of everybody else in the race for The Bond, besides any extra deals that they have been negociating.

However (and this is very interesting) since both Amazon and Apple are apparently on the race for the rights of the franchise, I wonder if the original plans have changed with a better offering. Video Streaming and Digital Sales have a stronger arm with any of those companies. Way stronger than Fox. This makes me think that perhaps they could acquire the rights if they make the right proposal to Barbara Broccoli, but since they already have a stablished bond (pun intended) with Fox, I doubt it.

You can see the video with the interview here and the comment from Jaime is at the 1:42:00 timecode. It’s all in Spanish and unfortunatelly there are no subtitles available. That’s the video for our Patreons so if you want to link it, please use the Patreon Post instead.

– Dan

 

 

Howdy Brian, Tom, Bryce, and Roberto:
Enjoyed the discussion in Cordkillers #186 about the Multi-cultural approach of Netflix.

I am a big fan of Japanese Anime as I watch Crunchyroll and Funimation and more. Been a fan of Anime since the 70s. Unfortunately, Anime still suffers from prejudice which is not deserved because many people still associate Anime with sexy fanservice and violence. Many Anime contain parody and often reference other anime even with cross-overs with characters in other anime animation. So the new title “Neo Yokio” seems to be a typical style for Anime. Parody is very common in Japanese Anime.

…

I am very happy that Netflix is expanding it’s Anime offerings and even producing original Anime titles. It may not appeal to some people, but there are many Anime fans out there like me.

Love Cordkillers! Keep up the Great Work!

– Michael

 

 

 

Tom and Brian,
I think you’re underestimating the number of people who use Kodie on a Fire TV Stick. This topic comes up all the time on our neighborhood Facebook page and based on the number of people who brag about owning one I would say about 10% of my neighbors have one (so about 50 to 100 households).
I don’t think they realize it’s pirating or at least they have convinced themselves it’s not becuase they agure that since they bought it from a vendor it must be legal (with that agruement all the pot I bought and smoked in high school must have been legal too).
They talk about how nice it was to watch the fight or big game for free but I don’t think they realize it’s piracy since they are using an app and stream, like Popcorn Time, and not going to some shady site to download something.

You rock!

– Charles

 

 

Hey Tom and Brian,

I really do have a friend who has the Fire Stick with all the “free” stuff, and he’s actually made fun of me for being a cord cutter without one. He bought the Stick from Amazon and sent it to a guy who loaded Kody and all the extensions onto it. Bottom line, it’s crap. Live streams were incredibly low quality (like RealPlayer in 2002 low quality) and they kept buffering even over our other friend’s gigabit Comcast, and movies were mostly guerrilla-cam or Blu-Ray rips with GIANT Korean subtitles. I stated my “it’s crap” opinion to him, and his response was “Who cares? It’s free!” – which comes from a guy who makes six figures. Personally, I would rather spend my money on better quality legal versions of content, whether it’s a subscribing to a service or renting/buying a digital copy of a show or movie. Anyway, love the show.

– Joel

 

 

 

I know it’s not exactly related to the conversation, but I’ve found a fairly comfortable setup for over-the-air TV in my house.

-I have a cheap HTPC hooked up to my TV
-I have this USB TV dual-tuner ($70): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015IL0FIW/
-I use this antenna which picks up pretty every station in Seattle ($26): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FUB4ZG8/
-I use NextPVR for all my scheduling and TV viewing (Free): http://www.nextpvr.com/
-I subscribe to Schedules Direct for the TV listings that NextPVR uses ($25/year): http://www.schedulesdirect.org/

It wasn’t the most user friendly thing to set up initially, but after that initial setup it’s been working really well ever since.

– Jordan
 

Links

2017 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers
 

Cordkillers 186 – I Like The Way I Said it Better (w/ Roberto Villegas)

Cordkillers / September 12th, 2017

Should Apple make James Bond, Plex gets easy with Kodi, and Netflix takes on an anime parody? Is it parody? With special guest Roberto Villegas.

The draft is next week! Here’s the movie list.

Download audio

Download video

CordKillers: Ep. 186 – I Like The Way I Said it Better
Recorded: September 11 2017
Guest: Roberto Villegas

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Apple, Amazon Join Race for James Bond Film Rights
    – Sony’s deal to make James Bond movies ended in 2015 and bids for the rights are being negotiated now. Hollywood Reporter has sources who say Apple and Amazon are in the running with Warner Brothers and Sony to buy the rights to make the movies for MGM. Former Sony executives Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht are leading the push for Apple.

How to Watch

What to Watch

What We’re Watching

Front Lines

  • Amazon’s new flagship Fire TV looks like a square Echo Dot
    – AFTVNews says it has sources who say Amazon will release two new Fire TV models later this year. One will be a square FireTV stick and the other a regular box that has Amazon Voice Service far-field microphones and speaker built in. Both will support 4K. and HDR.
  • Disney’s streaming service will exclusively get Marvel and Star Wars movies
    – Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney will make its Star Wars and Marvel movies exclusive to a new streaming service launching with Disney and Pixar content in late 2019.
  • Disney Movies Anywhere drops Microsoft as a partner
    – Disney Movies Anywhere sent out an email saying it no longer works with Microsoft’s Movies and TV Store. That applies to future purchases. Existing linked movies will remain available.
  • Roku files for $100M IPO
    – Roku filed paperwork for an IPO. The filing shows 15.1 million active accounts streaming 3.5 billion hours last quarter, up 60% on the year. Revenue per unit is up 35% on the year to $11.22 for a total annual revenue of $398 million. Advertising and platform subscriptions make up 81% of company profits, up 104% over the last six months, while profits from hardware fell 28% in the same span and represents 19% overall. Roku also launched its own channel for Roku users that streams free movies licnesed directly from studios by Roku and supported with advertising.
  • AT&T’s DirecTV Now is testing a cloud DVR with 100 hours of storage
    – TechCrunch confirmed a Cord Cutters News leak that DirecTV Now’s forthcoming DVR plan will have up to 100 hours of storage managed from a “My Library” feature. No word on the price.
  • Netflix and Hulu already won 21 Emmys ahead of the main event
    – The Creative Arts Emmy Awards were given out this weekend These are the ones they give away a week before the main awards broadcast, which is this coming Sunday September 17. Stranger Things took home 5 awards include sound and picture editing as well as main title. Netflix documentary 13th from Ava Duvernay got four awards. Handmaid’s Tale got three including production design and cinematography. Overall Netflix got 16 Hulu five and Amazon two.

Dispatches from the Front

Hey guys. Since becoming a cordcutter, I’ve been more attentive on how people get their media. This is only anecdotal, but one thing I’ve noticed over the past year is how widespread the knowledge and use of “Amazon fire sticks with access to everything free” has become. People come to my house and I show them how to watch stuff on my apple tvs and remind them that I don’t have cable. People from 14 year old cousins to 50 year old uncles will say “oh do you have the fire stick where it has everything free”? I tell them I don’t and then they tell me I should get one. I will admit I’ve done my fair share of pirating back in the day. However, I now consider myself a born again cordkiller that is mostly legit because there are actually easy legal options to access content these days which is what I thought everyone wanted. To me, it seems getting it free may still be a larger component to the equation for some people. I’ve never used a “special” fire stick , but if it’s as easy as ordering it and plugging it in to your tv , I don’t know how big media can compete with that if there truly is a growing population that doesn’t see any issues with it.

Your favorite boss

– Jerry

 

 

 

Hello Tom and Brian,
Do you know of a box or app that will allow me to use single sign and create playlists of the shows I watch in all of my steaming services (Hulu, Netflix, Amazon).
Thanks
– Chuck

 

 

 

Hello fellow cord cutters,
The best website I found for comparing and choosing a streaming service is suppose.tv. You can set your location and choose local channels and cable channels to filter by and determine which service they are available on. You can even compare costs and filter by streaming device. This is the tool you are looking for.

– Zach

Links

2017 Winter Movie Draft

patreon.com/cordkillers

It’s Spoilerin’ Time 185

Cordkillers / August 30th, 2017

Rick and Morty (306), Game of Thrones (707), Firefly (Our Mrs. Reynolds), Summer Movie Draft. 

01:03 – Summer Movie Draft
03:57 – Triage (Your emails to cordkillers@gmail.com)
05:49 – Rick and Morty (306)
11:44 – Game of Thrones (707)
25:56 – Firefly (Our Mrs. Reynolds)

Download audio

Download video