Cordkillers 280 - CBS Eyes Viacom (w/ Andrew Mayne)
Disney+ might be cracking down on password sharing already, CBS and Viacom merge, and He-Man is coming back. All this and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Andrew Mayne.
CordKillers: 280 - CBS Eyes Viacom
Recorded: August 19 2019
Guest: Andrew Mayne
Intro Video
Netflix series "The Politician"
Primary Target
CBS, Viacom Reach Long-Awaited Merger Agreement to Reunite
CBS’ Joe Ianniello Loses Showtime to Viacom’s Bob Bakish In Merger Chess Moves
CBS-Viacom Deal Reunites TV Studio and Paramount Legacy
CBS and Viacom are merging to become ViacomCBS
-On Tuesday, CBS announced it would be merging with Viacom under the name ViacomCBS Inc. The merger is expected to close by the end of this year. This follows other recent major entertainment mergers and acquisitions like Disney and Fox, Comcast and Universal, and AT&T and Time Warner
- New company called ViacomCBS inc
- Deal valued viacom at market cap of 11.7 billion (market reflected speculations)
- Viacom CEO Bob Bakish will lead as president-CEO
- CBS president/acting CEO Joe Ianniello becomes Chairman-CEO of CBS (eye brand stuff)
- Shari Redstone becomes chairman of ViacomCBS
- Should be done by years end. Combined entity touts $500M in savings and $28B in revenue.
- 750 TV series in production, 140,000 episodes, 3,600 film titles
How to Watch
Disney fights streaming account sharing with help from cable industry
-Big question: is now the right time to start this initiative? is this an indication that the market grab has matured? Or an indicator of disney+'s confidence coming in? or maybe how they're planning to pay for that lower, aggressive rate?
Charter will integrate Hulu and Disney+ into its set-top boxes
Disney and Charter Communications Set Mammoth TV Carriage Deal
What to Watch
Netflix is bringing back He-Man and the Masters of the Universe with Kevin Smith
- Kevin Smith is showrunning a new animated revival of He-Man in "Masters of the Universe: Revelation," which will deal with unresolved elements of the classic 1980s cartoon. In a statement, Netflix said it will tell "the epic tale of what may be He-Man and Skeletor's final battle."
Ewan McGregor May Return As Obi-Wan Kenobi In Disney+ Series
- Deadline is reporting Ewan McGregor is in talks to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again in a new Disney+ series. This to-be-announced series is supposedly a shift in plans from a feature film to a big series. We may hear more about this at the Disney D23 Expo later this month.
HBO Max Orders Pilots From Melissa Rosenberg, Lena Dunham & John Wells
- HBO Max, the upcoming streaming service/aggregate, has ordered a slate of pilots including "The Rules of Magic" from Jessica Jones' Melissa Rosenberg about siblings who discover they are descended from witches and are cursed to be kept from love; "Generation," created by 17-year-old Zelda Barnz and produced by Lena Dunham, is a dramedy following high school students who explore modern sexuality; and a YA drama "Red Bird Lane" from Sara Gran and John Wells.
Dave Chappelle's fifth Netflix comedy special, "Sticks and Stones," will debut August 26th.
Peaky Blinders season 5 is coming to Netflix October 4 in the US and all other non-UK markets where they have rights. Season 5 will debut in the UK August 25th on BBC One.
Reese Witherspoon’s Sci-Fi Project ‘Pyros’ Lands at Netflix
- Reese Witherspoons new sci-fi series "Pyros," has been picked up by Netflix. The show is adapted from Thomas Pierce's "Tardy Man" about a group of people with indestructible fire suits attached to their spines who saves objects from fires, but only for the wealthy who have insurance plans. Witherspoon will produce and star in the series.
‘Raising Dion’: Netflix Sets Premiere Date & Unveils First Images Of Sci-Fi Family Drama
- "Raising Dion," a new series about a single mother raising a kid with superpowers will be coming to Netflix October 4th. It stars Jason Ritter, Michael B. Jordan, and Alisha Wainwright.
Aubrey Plaza has been attached to "Hope," the new film from "The Breaker Uppers" directors Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami.
‘Wheel of Time’ Series at Amazon Rounds Out Main Cast
- Amazon's "Wheel of Time" series filled out its cast. Josha Stradowski will play Ran al'Thor, Marcus Rutherford will play Perrin Aybara, and Zoe Robins will be Nynaeve. "Wheel of Time" is a fantasy novel series where only some women can use magical powers.
‘To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before’ Sequel Gets Netflix Release Date, With Third Movie Confirmed
- Netflix confirmed its sequel to "To All The Boys I Loved Before" will debut February 12 as "To All the Boys: PS I Still Love you." A third film has also been confirmed "To All The Boys: Always and Forever, Lara Jean."
Netflix Orders ‘Sex/Life’ Dramedy Series From Stacy Rukeyser
- Netflix has ordered an eight-episode series, "Sex/Life," a sexy, female-centered dramedy about a love triangle between a woman, her husband, and her past? Series comes from Stacy Rukeyser, who showran Lifetime's UnReal, so it should be pretty dramatic.
‘Eurovision’: Dan Stevens Joins Will Ferrell, Rachel McAdams and Pierce Brosnan In Netflix Comedy
- Netflix is producing a new parody comedy called "Eurovision," written by Will Ferrell and starring Ferrell and Rachel McAdams as struggling musicians. Pierce Brosnan will also star as "the most handsome man in Iceland" and Legion's Dan Stevens will play a Russian contestant.
Eyes On
Brian: The Amazing Johnathan Documentary
Bryce: Real Housewives
Andrew: The Boys
On the Lookout: Shetland
Front Lines
Jimmy Kimmel, Walking Dead part of $600,000 penalties for false emergency alerts
- Last Thursday, the FCC announced settlements with a number of programs including Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Walking Dead that contained the emergency alert system tone. The companies involved will pay over $600,000 combined for falsifying the alerts and committed to "a strict compliance plan to ensure such actions do not recur."
Media software Plex launches a new desktop app for Mac and Windows
- Plex has launched a new desktop app for Windows and MacOS. Just titled "Plex," this will eventually look to replace the existing Plex Media Player app, its Windows Store app, and even the traditional home theater PC setup. Plex will continue to support their Plex Media Player app until this January.
Streaming Hasn’t Squashed Moviegoing, PostTrak’s Motion Picture Industry Survey Says
- PostTrak, a service that polls moviegoers, released a new set of data finding that streaming isn't destroying moviegoing. Their research found that 35% of moviegoers considered themselves "frequent streamers." It also found 18-24 year olds accounted for 25% of the moviegoing market, an age range considered in jeopardy of being wooed to streaming.
Disney Plus: First Global Markets Get Launch Dates, Pricing
- Disney will roll out its upcoming Disney+ service internationally on the same day as its US launch, November 12th, in Canada and the Netherlands. The next week, it'll launch in Australia and New Zealand. Disney also announced agreements to make a Disney+ app available on Apple, Google, Microsoft, Roku, and Sony platforms
AT&T TV Launches In 10 Test Markets Ahead Of OTT Bundle’s National Rollout
- Two weeks ago we covered the announcement of AT&T TV, a new over-the-top service with cloud DVR from AT&T. Now, AT&T TV has launched in 10 markets in California, Kansas, Missouri, Florida, and Texas with a nationwide rollout expected by the end of the year. AT&T TV requires a contract and two-year plans range from $60-80/month. DirectTV Now has also finished its rebrand into AT&T TV Now.
Roku expands its free, live TV selection with 5 more channels, including fubo’s Sports Network
- Roku is launching five new live TV channels for free to owners of a Roku device: ACC Digital Network (college football conference), USA Today, Now This news, Comedy Dynamics, and fuboTV's new fubo Sports Network, which has its own slate of original content.
- Roku is also human-curating 7,000 free, ad-supported kids content on it's new Kids and Family section of The Roku Channel in the US.
The Roku Channel is adding a kids and family section with free TV shows and movies
Dispatches from the Front
Hi Brian, Tom, & Bryce,
This is anecdotal but, I'm moving to a new house a couple streets away, in our town the only real option is Xfinity. When I went online I was actually pleasantly surprised to find that Xfinity finally offers a real Internet Only package. In the past the cheapest package was Internet + 10 channels of cable which I'd buy and then never even use the tv tuner. Now I'll have only an internet connection and with the same speed internet will save $50/month on my connection.
Another surprising thing was that I was able to do all of this through the Xfinity website without having to call in and talk to someone. Is it possible that even Xfinity is improving to keep people from leaving their services?
Thanks for the great show.
- Mike
hello -
chiming in to help answer the question bri bri posed on whether [Farscape, now on Amazon Prime] was film or video - it was def video production.this was 98/99 production timeframe and though HD cameras were new and expensive as hell (this was 8-9 years before red camera gutted the camera market, so it would have been a sony, ikegami, or panasonic camera most likely in the $200k range - $100k for the body, $100k for the lens). Farscape was a fairly cheap production and the directors relied heavily on improv for the actors to create scenes - that means lots of takes and lots of leaving the camera running and you just cant do that with film.
that said - upscaling technologies have gotten pretty amazing lately - there are GPU based solutions out there that can do a 1080p to 4k upscale in realtime at very reasonable rates - much cheaper than remastering from a film archive that would need regrading of the color, etc as part of the process.
hope this helps!
- Andy
Hi Tom, Brian and guest,
On episode 279 Tom, you discussed the Roku loss situation and mentioned that the interface is 'useable' and that was the best thing you could say, Brian agreed. I'm a bit lost, I use a TCL TV with Roku built in and have a Roku stick in another room and I've always found the interface fine, I'm curious, what would you change with the interface if you could.
Thanks for the great show, it's always on the top of my listen to queue.
Regards,
- Ryan
Tom talked about watching Cheers made me think, what if a streaming service let you pick an area of tv you want to watch. Like how Spotify does music. You could select the 80’s and watch random shows for that time.
- Eric
Hello cord killers,
So this is a question that's been bugging me for a bit. Isn't HBOMAX just the combo of HBO and Cinemax? I thought Warner was phasing out Cinemax so just adding their content to HBO seems the easiest. When it was first announced I thought it was their way of offering both packages as one.
Thanks
- Nicky
Dear Tom,
I thought I would look in to Locast after your mentions of it on cordkillers. Without thinking I typed Locast.com in the web browser and surprise! It’s a cam girl site. I guess Locast is trying so hard to be a non profit organization that they have Locast.org.
Just a heads up from your boss,
- John
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