Cordkillers 106 – Cordkillers React

Time Warner Cable numbers rise, The FCC tries to save cable companies from themselves and The Fine Bros. piss off the Internet. With special guest Iyaz Akhtar.

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CordKillers: 106 – Cordkillers React
Recorded: February 1 2016
Guest: Iyaz Akhtar

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

  • The FCC is going to war over set-top boxes
  • Actual proposal
    – FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has proposes requiring multichannel video programming distributors, like cable TV companies, to allow subscribers to use any set top box to access service in the following ways
    – What programming is available (channel listing, on-demand offerings)
    – Entitlements – can you record the programming, transfer it to mobile etc.
    – Content delivery
    – Companies could use any published transparent format to do so. 

Front Lines

  • Time Warner Loves Hulu, But Also Wants To Ruin It
    – The Wall Street Journal reports that Time Warner (NOT the cable part but the part that owns HBO and Turner) is in talks to buy a stake in Hulu. At the same time Time Warner would like Hulu to stop showing current season episodes of TV shows. 
  • Apple could pull a Netflix, start creating original TV shows
    – Sources told TheStreet.com that Apple’s Eddy Cue, chief entertainment architect, and Robert Kondrk, VP of iTunes content, has been talking with TV producers about creating original programs to offer exclusively in the iTunes store. 
  • Time spent online ‘overtakes TV’ among youngsters
    – Childwise has been tracking children’s media usage in the UK since the mid-1990s. For the first time their latest survey said children 5-16 in the UK spent an average of 3 hours a day online and 2.1 hours a day watching television. Netflix was the most popular TV service of any kind followed by ITV1 and BBC1. 
  • Sundance champ ‘Birth of a Nation’ chose Fox over Netflix
    – Birth of a Nation from Nate Parker won the Sundance film festival Grand Jury and Audience prizes for drama. Netflix sidles up and offered $20 million according to Hollywood Reporter. But Turner took a lower bid of $17.5 million from Fox Searchlight in order to insure a wider theatrical release, as well as showings in high schools and colleges. 
  • Sky’s Now TV Smart Box looks a lot like a Roku 4
    – Sky and Roku have introduced the Now TV Smart Box which combines pay TV content and 60 free-to-air channels along with streaming services. It looks very similar to the Ultra HD Roku 4. The box will be available to Sky subscribers later this year. 

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

Hi fellow Cordkiller dudes! A longtime fan, (aka MaxxAmmo) with a possible story or lead. Seems Amazon has taken Star Wars Rebels S2 Ep11 and called it Season 3 Ep 1!! Can you say “”Money grab?”” As a cordkiller and someone who has bought the Season Pass, I was outraged! Many season pass holders were furious and left harsh comments on the episode 11 page demanding Amazon fix this obvious problem. The comments have since mysteriously disappeared overnite. As an Amazon Prime member and long time loyal Amazon customer I called and expressed my outrage, the only resolution offered was a full refund of my Season 2 pass and the price of Episode 11 in HD credited to my account. I was told this is being investigated by Amazon and no clear answer why (S2 Ep. 11) is called Season 3 Ep. 1 was offered at this time. Link to Amazon’s Star Wars Rebels Season 3 page here.

Kevin

 

 

Netflix/Hulu blocking VPN

Another use case of why you’d need to use a VPN legally is our phones. 

With the presence of Free Wifi everywhere, including my employer, I don’t want anyone watching my phone’s web traffic just because I don’t want to chew through cellular data so I run an always on VPN on my phone. 

Because of this when these conditions are present
– I’m at home
– the VPN is still on
– I’m in the US
– I’m connecting to a US VPN endpoint 

The end result is Hulu and Netflix are blocked. 🙁 

Dave

 

 

Hello Tom and Brian,

On last week’s episode you guys were talking about how Netflix had no real reason to release viewership numbers, that made me wonder how the show creators and production houses felt about this. Wouldn’t it hurt their ability to negotiate with other networks or services when shopping around other shows they make? Seems like that could backfire in the long run.  Anyways love the show, keep up the awesome work. 

Your boss,
Juan

 

 

Links

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draft