Cordkillers 99 - Kings of Streaming

YouTube wants its own House of Cards, NBC's new comedy channel is in beta, and Twitch comes to Android TV.

CordKillers:  99 - Kings of Streaming
Recorded:  December 7, 2015
Guest: Ewen Rankin

Intro Video

Primary Target

Signal Intelligence

Gear Up

  • Twitch Comes to Android TV
    - Android TV gets Twitch
    - That puts Twitch on Shield TV which becomes only box that can broadcast and watch Twitch
    - Twitch also updated its Android mobile app to give everyone the new Whispers 2.0 functionality, aka an "enhanced chat experience."

Front Lines

  • Miss YouTube Video Responses? Vessel Brings Them Back With Launch Of “Threads”
    - Vessel is adding the ability to respond with videos, something YouTube used to have but got rid of because of supposed low usage. It’s called “Threads” and lets anyone, even people not paying for Vessel video use the feature on Vessel’s iOS and Android apps, starting with a few creators and expanding from there. 
  • Vevo Buys Showyou To Take On YouTube In Subscription Content
    - Music video service Vevo is a acquiring ShowYou, a curated subscription-based video streaming platform. Showyou offers a wide selection of video from content providers like NASATV, the AP, Reddit TV, VICE Media, ABCNews,and more.
  • The BBC is testing TV shows that adapt to your tastes and personality
    - The BBC announced its working on something called “Visual Perceptive Media” last week, an experiment that automatically edits video stories to suit the viewers tastes. An app tracks music tastes and asks personality questions, then assembles a version of a video drama for you. Action may change, character perspectives emphasized, scenes may be lengthened, shortened or cut. Color palette and soundtrack may also vary. There’s no public prototype yet. 
  • Streaming Video Now Accounts for 70 Percent of Broadband Usage
    - Sandvine’s latest broadband usage numbers show video taking 70% of bandwidth in North America. Netflix takes 37.05%, YouTube 17.85%, Amazon 3.11%, iTunes 2.79%, BiTTorrent 2.67%, Hulu 2.58% and Facebook 2.53%.
  • The Smartphone Is Eating the Television, Nielsen Admits
    - Nielsen says TV viewing by all age groups has been declining since 2010. In May, among 18-34-year-olds, the use of smartphones, tablets, and streaming boxes increased 25% to 8.5 million people per minute while TV viewing fell 10% to 8.4 million peopler per minute.
  • DirecTV will broadcast live 4K content by “early next year”
    - DirecTV announced it will launch 4K broadcasting service sometime in early 2016. DirecTV has some 4K but it only works with its Genie HD DVR and Select Samsung TVs.

Under Surveillance

Dispatches from the Front

I went to go watch Man in the High Castle this weekend, and I found that it is ONLY available if you sign up for Prime. I prefer to use Google Play for my video content when possible, and this is one of the few shows that I can get on Amazon, but not on Play, and I previously found that the free Prime shipping in my area was worse than UPS or USPS in that they kept delivering packages to my neighbors instead of to me. If I could just pay for a month of Prime, I wouldn't mind quite as much, and I've already used the free 30 trial to find out that I dislike the shipping service used. Or, If I could just buy the season, that would be my preference.

- Brian

 

 

 

"Hello wonderful employees, 
Just got this survey in the mail Saturday. It's not a diary, just a $2 bribe to fill out a survey and possibly be contacted. I'm kind of excited to provide a cord cutting opinion. I can't help but wonder though, what difference it will make as the only prime time show I actually watch live is Big Bang Theory. 
Keep up the wonderful work, and Merry Christmas to you both 🎄. 


- Jay, Bozeman, MT

 

 

We've been a TiVo household for 15 years now, and I have to agree that an Android-powered TiVo is perhaps the best cord-cutting device idea yet to be conceived! We currently have a TiVo HD and a Fire TV attached to each of our two televisions, and switch between them to watch broadcast television and streaming content, respectively. So far none of the new TiVos to come out provide enough additional value for us to justify upgrading, especially since we bought the lifetime service for each TiVo. If TiVo came out with a device that had Android apps built-in AND can implement something like their OnePass technology to search for content on multiple services, they will be killing cords all over the place!

TL;DR: Android + TiVo = SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

- "Stealth" Dave
 

 

 

In Episode 98, the last ""Dispatch from the Front"" that Tom read from Marcus; he was looking for a way to figure out when new episodes premiered.  I use ""followshows"" they offer and iOS and Android app along with a website.  You just create a login and ""follow"" any show from all the networks and Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc.  It works well for me and I like the calendar view to tell me which shows are coming on for the night. You can also mark an episode ""watched""  so if you know you are not going to watch the others episodes for awhile you know what episode to start back on.  It's a free service I have never paid for it, they may mess up on a show every once awhile, but I find them pretty good at getting everything updated. From what Marcus wrote I think this service will help him out.

followshows.com

Follow Show Google Play

Follow Show iTunes

Thanks, 
- James

 

 

 

People keep telling Tom that Vudu isn't on Fire TV even though he keeps saying he can watch his movies there. He thinks he figured out his confusion

 


Links

patreon.com/cordkillers

2015 Winter Movie Draf

 

 

Tom MerrittComment