Cordkillers 284 - Peacock! Attack!

We have thoughts about the new NBC streaming service--namely, the name! Plus: TiVo adds ads to DVR recordings, Disney+ begins taking public pre-signups, and GLOW gets a final season. All this and more on Cordkillers!

This week on Spoilerin' Time: Preacher (409), The Righteous Gemstones (106), Extras (206)

Next week: Extras (Christmas Special), The Righteous Gemstones (107), Preacher (410), The Good Place (401)

The Winter Movie Draft happened tonight! Listen to the live draft in the Cordkillers feeds now and play along at home with our auction prices at http://draft.diamondclub.tv/form . Entry time is limited, so join up ASAP!

Aftertalk returns next week, only at http://Patreon.com/Cordkillers!

CordKillers: 284 - Peacock! Attack!
Recorded: September 23 2019
Guest: None

Intro Video
Trailer for El Camino, a Breaking Bad follow-up film

Primary Target
NBCU Streamer Gets Name, Sets Slate Of Reboots, ‘Dr. Death’, Ed Helms & Amber Ruffin Series, ‘Parks & Rec’
- NBC announced its streaming service will launch in April 2020 under the name Peacock with about 15,000 hours of movies and back catalog TV shows. There will be some connection with NBC's Olympics coverage along with episodes of The Office, and in the autumn Parks and Rec. Peacock will launch originals in the autumn.including a Battlestar Galactica series run by Sam Esmail, a comedy series from Ed Helms and Mike Schur called Ruetehrford Falls and limited series Dr. Death, starring Jamie Dornan, Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater among others.


How to Watch
Tivo Plans to Launch Android TV Dongle, Tivo+ Curation App
- TiVo CEO Dave Shull told CNN that TiVo plans to release a $50 Android TV streaming stick early next year. It would use TiVo's software to recommend things to watch. It does not appear to include a TV tuner. TiVo also plans to unveilTiVo+ which would aggregate content from multiple publishers similar to the Roku Channel. Not mentioned int he interview was a report from Zatznotfunny.com that some TiVo users have found preroll ads playing before their DVR recordings. Users can fast forward past the ads. A TiVo spokesperson told LightReading.com, "DVR advertising is going to be a permanent part of the service. We expect to be fully rolled out to all eligible retail devices within 90 days.”

TiVo confirms its customers will soon see ads before DVR recordings
TiVo gave its unannounced Edge DVR to a customer
- A TiVo user complainant o TiVo tech support about issues with an existing box got a TiVo Edge in the mail as a replacement. The TiVo Edge has not been announced yet by TiVo but there have been leaks. The TiVo customer received a six-tuner Edge with 2 TB of storage.

What to Watch
‘Fargo’: Timothy Olyphant Joins Season 4 Of FX Anthology Series
HBO Max Lands ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Streaming Rights, TBS Extends Cable Window In Mega WarnerMedia Deal
HBO Max will bring back the animated series The Boondocks for two more seasons of 12 episodes each. The original 55 episodes will also be on the streaming service when it launches next year.
GLOW will return to Netflix for a fourth and final season. Season 3 arrived on Netflix in August.
Rotten Tomatoes Debuts Video Series Aimed At Filtering TV And Streaming Fare
- Rotten Tomatoes premiered an original video series Wednesday called Couch Tomatoes on its website, YouTube channel, Facebook Watch and IGTV. Couch Tomatoes will help viewers decide what to watch from TV and streaming series. Director of Video Production at Rotten Tomatoes, Eileen Rivera is married to host of Cordkillers, Tom Merritt.

Eyes On
Brian:
Infinity Train, Ad Astra
Tom: The Emmys in a car, Righteous Gemstones on a plane, Extras in a hotel room.
On the Lookout: Undone

Front Lines
HBO Tops Netflix With Most Total Emmy Wins, But Amazon Finishes Strong
- HBO won the most Emmys with 34 beating out Netflix's 27. Prime Video won 15, mostly for Fleabag. National Geographic won the fourth most Emmys with 8. Hulu won 4.

Disney Starts Taking U.S. Pre-Orders For Disney+ Ahead Of November Debut
- Disney began letting customers sign up for Disney+ which does not launch until November 12. Users who sign up early pay the same as everyone else at $6.99 a month or $69 for the year.

Facebook Announces $149 Portal TV Device, 2 New Portal Smart Displays
- Facebook announced the Portal TV Wednesday. It connects to your TV using HDMI and includes a camera for making video calls to other Portal TV users as well as over WhatsApp. AI can focus on individuals in video to keep them in view. It also has apps for Facebook, Messenger, Prime Video, Starz, Pluto TV, Pandora, iHeartradio, CNN, ABC News and Spotify, among others. The Portal TV costs $149 available November 5.

Roku unveils a new streaming player lineup, plus Roku OS 9.2 launch
- Roku updated its Express and Ultra streaming boxes. The Roku Express can now be entirely powered by A TV's USB port and stuck to the back of the TV with an adhesive strip. It streams in HD, and is 10% smaller than the outgoing model. It costs $29.99
- The Roku Ultra has been upgraded with a faster quad-core processor and more RAM, resulting in 17% faster channel launches and 30% faster app launches. The Ultra remote also includes two programmable shortcut buttons. It costs $99.99.
- Roku also announced Roku OS 9.2 will start rolling out to streaming devices with TVs to follow.The new OS ads Roku Zones which aggregates content by genre. It also now has sleep timers, new search options, and the ability to control multiple Rokus with Google Assistant or Amazon Voice Services.

Reed Hastings on the Streamer Wars: ‘It’s a Whole New World Starting in November’
- Speaking at the Royal television Society conference in Cambridge, England, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said, "...it’s a whole new world starting in November...between Apple launching and Disney launching,...It’ll be tough competition. Direct-to-consumer [customers] will have a lot of choice.” He said Netflix will stick to its strategy and not get into live sports or different theater release models. He also said production costs would be rising but Netflix was not looking to acquire production companies.

Comcast Gives Internet-Only Customers Free Access To XFinity Flex, Peacock
- Comcast will now offer its Xfinity Flex settop box to existing internet-only customers for free. Previously Comcast offered the box for $5 a month. Xfinity Flex comes with most of the usual streaming apps like Netflix, HBO, Prime Video, EPN3, YouTube and more. Hulu will soon join the list. And Comcast customers will also get free access to NBC's Peacock streaming service.


Dispatches from the Front
Long time Bossman here. Wondering if you’re planning on returning to Legion? Third best show In the history of television, behind The Wire and Preacher. Might be even higher, we will see if they stick the landing when it ends. Please, please get back to Legion.

- Matt

Hey CordKillers!

I was just wondering if Kodi boxes/jail broken Fire TV sticks etc. count as HTTP media streaming traffic as discussed in the last episode. While I don’t agree with using them, I know dozens of people who dropped cable and use them as their sole means of TV content. These kinds of boxes have to be a larger portion of Internet traffic these days.

Just a thought,

- Joshua

Hi Tom, Brian, and Brice:

Tom, you got me thinking (as usual) when you mentioned watching TV is like reading books - you simply can't consume them all.

And while I agree with that on the surface that we can't possibly watch all the content being produced these days, I feel that we're missing a key point:

I think the difference is that I have the ability to read any book I can think of, with some exceptions. If my local library doesn't have a new book, then I can order it from any number of places. There are very few new books that are denied to me.

With produced content, we're seeing the opposite - it is being walled off left and right so that the only way to get it is to subscribe to a producer/publisher/distributor's all you can eat buffet. Star Trek Discovery is a great example of this. I already subscribe to Netflix, Amazon, BBC, and Hulu. I pick up shows that don't show up on these four streaming sites by purchasing them a la carte from Amazon (usually). But for Star Trek Discovery I had only one option to watch that show - subscribe to yet another streaming service.

I believe this is where subscription fatigue comes in. For people like me, I don't want to watch _everything_, I simply want to watch what I want to watch. But the currently fragmented market does not give me this option and instead to watch what I _want_ to watch, I am forced to subscribe to 15 different services.

We're closer than we've ever been, but I feel the fragmenting of the market with all these streaming services is just setting us back ten years in the fight for true cord independence.

I've also sent this to DTNS as this is a direct response to something Tom said on the 9/17 show, but I think the message fits better here.

Thanks for all you all do. My cord cutting adventure would be so much more lonely without you guys to help me on my way.

Sincerely,
- Chad



I can't tell you how delighted I am with the newest, most fantastic, most acclaimed, best character ever: Man-Eagle! You guys had me rolling on the floor. I think your collaborative Man-Eagle narrative
deserves a fiction hall of fame spot right between Hunter S. Thompson's radioactive guano spouting bats, and the man on the flaming pie who told the Beatles that their name was the Beatles.

- Steven



Links

2019 Winter Movie Draft
patreon.com/cordkillers

Bryce CastilloComment