Cordkillers 102 – What the Cool Kids Do

Will Netflix die? Game of Thrones wins most pirated again. Roku comes to HDR and 4K TVs.

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CordKillers: 102 – What the Cool Kids Do
Recorded:  January 4, 2016
Guest: Fraser Cain

Intro Video

Primary Target

  • Reed Hastings – CES 2016
    – Reed Hastings will again deliver a keynote at CES Wednesday at 8:30 AM
    – Used to be Bill Gates opened followed by Intel, Cisco, etc…
    – Now Intel’s Krzanich will open followed by VW, GM and Netflix (and then Samsung and YouTube)
  • Netflix is on F***ing Fire
    – 3 of top 5 top rated series on Rotten Tomatoes are Netflix
    – Making a Murderer, Jessia Jones, Master of None
    – Amazon has two (Man in High Castle, Transparent)
  • Netflix Will Feel the Squeeze from Hollywood in 2016
    – Julia Greenberg at Wired points out companies starting to use Netflix’s strategy
    – Hulu acquiring shows Netflix not interested in anymore (replays)
    – CBS All Access, Disney’s Services in China and UK

Signal Intelligence

  • Game of Thrones is the most pirated TV show of 2015
    – Game of Thrones the most pirated show of 2015 according to Torrent freak. 4 years running! 14.4 million downlaods
    – Walking Dead and Big Bang Theory 6.9 and 4.4 million respectively
    – Also among the top 10 most downloaded shows this year are Arrow, The Flash, Mr. Robot, Vikings, Supergirl, The Blacklist and Suits.
    – 480p copies still most popular

Gear Up

  • Roku is betting big on 4K UHD and HDR TVs this year
    – TCL will come with Roku’s OS on 4K TV this spring
    – 4K channel to help find 4K content
    – Roku putting out reference design for HDR, workign with Dolby
    – Competing with Samsung (Tizen) and LG (WebOS) and of course Android TV

Front Lines

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front
Hey Tom & Brian,

Netflix just released a special episode of Marco Polo – Wait! don’t delete this message so fast!

This is probably the best episode of Marco Polo, yet. It’s all about Hundred Eyes and Kublai Khan and how they met. Marco Polo doesn’t appear at all.

Yeah, I thought you’d like that.

Love the show!

Tom

 

 

Happy New Year Tom and Brian,

Like you guys, I was pleasantly surprised when the MPAA launched WhereToWatch.com last year. The site looked good and was fairly comprehensive and easy to use. 

Imagine my surprise then, when two weeks ago, I went back to the site to search for some holiday movies and Netflix was no longer showing up in the search results. I double-checked and sure enough, Netflix has been completely removed from the site.

I know there are several alternatives, but I was curious if you guys had heard anything about this or if you had any thoughts or insights.

Thanks,
Adam

 

 

Howdy,

Well, finally cutting the cord, for the 3rd and hopefully final time. This time I think it might actually take. I’ve had a similar issue as Tom with the spouse not quite being ready. We’ve had a Chromecast for a while, but she doesn’t really like having to rely on her phone to work the tv. But now we’ve got an Apple TV, and she is loving it, especially the new remote. I unhooked the cable box for a week before we had our U-Verse TV service disconnected, and we never missed it. We can get all of our shows on Netflix, Hulu, and the network tv apps. Plus we already have a small library of movies in iTunes. Even my 8 year old loves it cause she can watch her YouTube stuff on it.

So my suggestion if you have a reluctant spouse or family member: the new Apple TV!

Andy in Taylor, Tx

 

 

 

Hi Brian and Tom,

I’m collecting as much current and updated information as I can to include in a revised/updated version of “Cord Cutters Guide to Motorsports” that I’ve posted the past couple of years to the CordKillers Reddit.

Not even sure how many in the CordKillers family know about it, but before I post the update, I’m looking for any feedback you or viewers may have.

Open to feedback on how I may possibly improve the formatting, organization, and any information I’m missing that people would like to see added. A table of contents at the top is being considered.. The good news, many more options are becoming available, the bad news, it’s getting unruly to keep it all organized in the current format!

Anyone wishing to give feedback can just drop me a note on the Reddit at “perfectface4radio”

I hope to have the 2016 version posted before the end of the week, and will continue to update it as updated information becomes available throughout 2016.

Take care.
Jeff (perfect face for radio)

 

 

 

Brian and Tom,

It occurred to me as I was listening to a recent episode of Cordkillers on Doggcatcher how perfect podcast consumption is compared with TV shows. I don’t watch a ton of movies, and they don’t really apply to this concept, but do you ever think that watching series will ever approach the convenience and simplicity of consuming podcasts? Think about it – you subscribe to the shows you want and unwatched episodes appear in a single, consolidated chronological feed. As you watch the shows, they disappear from the list. You could binge on any show or watch a mix in order of release date. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard to create a way to pay to subscribe to an RSS-like mechanism to add a show to the feed. It may not be a pain point for some people, but I’m usually around 5 episodes behind on all of the series I watch, and tracking which episodes I’ve seen and bouncing around the different services is arduous, even with apps like SideReel.

I’d – gasp – start paying for a package again if I could create an interface that took the searching and thinking out of the equation and simply gave me the shows I wanted without the headache of having to remember where I left off or fighting through a ton of distracting excess content (see the HBO GO Roku interface).

Think we’ll ever get there? Is it too pie in the sky? I know you can do it today with torrents, but do you think in 10 years there will be a way for consumers to compensate creators in such a way that we will be able to do it legally?

Thanks for awesoming weekly,

Aaron

 

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draft