Cordkillers 171 - Cherry Pope Zero (w/ Fraser Cain)
Facebook and Musical.ly still commissioning content, ESPN combines all its numbers into one, and Viacom tries the anti-sports angle. With special guest Fraser Cain.
CordKillers: Ep. 171 - Cherry Pope Zero
Recorded: May 22 2017
Guest: Fraser Cain
Intro Video
Primary Target
- Facebook is delaying the launch of its original videos until the end of summer
- We’ve talked before about Facebook’s plans for original shows, first expected in April then mid-June and now ReCode reports they’ve been put off to July or August. How are we feelling about social networks becoming video channels? - Musical.ly Talking With Viacom, NBC for Original Shows
- Bloomberg says Musical.ly is talking to Viacom and NBC about making original shows that encourage community participation. The video would focus beyond music on things like comedy and sports. - Facebook adds weekly MLB games to its streaming slate
- Facebook announced a deal with Major League Baseball to stream a game every Friday for 20 weeks with no blackout restrictions. The first stream being the Colorado Rockies and Cincinnati Reds. Twitter also offers occasional Friday night baseball streams, but those games are subject to regional blackout. - Facebook will stream live 'Counter-Strike' eSports events
- ESL will bring 5,500 hours of esports content to Facebook, with about 1,500 of that exclusive to the platform. That content includes the elite Rank S Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches as well as ESL One and Intel Extreme Masters events. An original 30-minute Facebook Live series that will look back at CS:GO match highlights.
How to Watch
- ESPN Cable Decline Has it Searching for Cable Subscribers
- ESPN will offer a single viewership number combining traditional cable and satellite with live streams and “out of home” viewers like bars and restaurants. (in partnership with Nielsen)
- ESPN estimated this would have boosted its Q1 numbers 12%
- Estimated to have lost 12 mm subs since 2011 - Viacom’s Bob Bakish: Entertainment-Only Pay TV Option Coming This Year
- Variety says Viacom CEO Bob Bakish told J.P. Morgan Global Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Boston that Viacom is in advanced t
- alks with one pay TV company to be part of a sports-free entertainment pack for $10-$20 a month. Last month Bloomberg reported AMC and Discovery were also potentially part of the bundle.
What to Watch
- Korean director Bong Joon Ho (Snowpiercer) adapted 70s French comic, Okja. Comes out June 28.
- Variety says Netflix has paid $20 million for the rights to Bubbles, a stop-motion animated film about Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee.
- The First Trailer for Star Trek: Discovery Is Here to Boldly Go to Beautiful New Worlds
- CBS debuted a trailer for Star Trek: Discovery set before the original series. The trailer features quite a bit of Captain Philippa Georgiou, played by Michelle Yeoh. She is the Captain of the Shenzou. Sonequa Martin-Green plays the main character, Commander Michael Burnham who will end up on the Discovery. The show is now promised to arrive in the fall. - New Dark Crystal Netflix series could be exactly what we all need
- Netflix has ordered 10 episodes of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a prequel to the movie. The series will feature three Gelflings who “discover the horrifying secret behind the Skeksis’ power” and set off a rebellion. - The Witcher is being made into a TV show by Netflix
- Netflix is developing and producing an English-language TV show based on The Witcher. Author Andrzej Sapkowski will serve as a creative consultant.
What We're Watching
- Brian: Justified, Better Call Saul, Fargo, Get me Roger Stone, Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive, MST3K, and... last week's Leftovers!
- Tom: Justified, Better Call Saul, Fargo, Alien: Covenant, Mulholland Drive, American Gods, Twin Peaks
- Fraser: American Gods, Master of None, Mozart in the Jungle.
- On the Lookout: Genius
Front Lines
- Vevo Makes New Play for Your TV Screen with Apple TV App
- Vevo launched a new app for its music videos exclusively on Apple TV. The new design tries to make it easier to navigate and offer personal recommendations. - Streaming TV service Pluto TV adds an on-demand video library
- Pluto TV not only has a nightly show hosted by Sarah Lane, but ALSO has added library of on-demand movies and TV shows. There are lots of good movies like Silence of the Lambs, The Birdcage, Mad Max and more. However, they also now have Alf. Which also was part of ComicCON HQ’s library… which also used to employ Sarah Lane… - Dish customers can channel-surf with Amazon Alexa
- Dish is the first TV service to make its hardware compatible with Amazon Voice Services. Customers can enable the Dish TV skill and pair it with their Dish Hopper DVR. Users can then speak commands like “change the channel to Bravo” or “rewind 30 seconds.” - Will HBO’s The New Pope give us as many memes as The Young Pope did?
- Paolo Sorrentino, of the Young Pope, is working on a new series for HBO called The New Pope. No idea who will be in it or how it will relate to the Young Pope. It goes into production late 2018. - Epix news cast feature in its app now supports Fire TV and also there’s an Epix App for Fire TV now too.
- YouTube TV now works on Apple TV over AirPlay
- YouTube TV just added Airplay support to its app. That means if you’re a YouTube TV subscriber you can now use an Apple TV to stream your viewing to a TV. Previously you could only do it through Chromecast.
Dispatches from the Front
New boss here. After listening to the show and realizing that I could switch to playstation vue and still watch sports I decided to make the leap. After an hour on the phone and an hour in the comcast office I am now saving $95 a month and still watching everything I was before. Thanks for everything you do!
- Robby
Brian's cable fig leaf is showing!
Hulu subscribers who add-on Showtime can authenticate with their Hulu credentials on Showtime's Anytime App and see LIVE Showtime. Twin Peaks is not only 21st century entertainment, it is being viewed in 21st century ways.
- Steve from Too Much Scrolling
Hey Cordkillers team!
That PBS Kids streaming stick sounds incredible. I just messaged it to my wife, and her immediate response is "that would be fantastic in the car". Our van has in in-car entertainment system with an hdmi port. The preloaded content means we wouldn't have to stream it, and use phone data on a long drive.
We'll get one and test it as soon as cashflow allows!
- Mitch.
Hey guys,
I've been a long time listener and love the show. I finally signed up to support the show via Patreon.
I am probably the furthest thing from a cord cutter. I have accounts with DirecTV at home, Xfinity X1 at a rental property where I also have my 'man cave' , and Dish Network at our Lake House. Yeah....I've got a problem. Your show does a great job keeping me informed of what's going on and I get a LOT of value from it.
I'm glad I've signed on with Patreon and hope to remain a supporter for a long time.
Need to listen to Spoilerin' Time 170 to hear what Brian thinks of American Gods.....I dropped HBO at the Lake House to sign on with Starz to watch this. I'm not sure what to think.
I am loving The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu. Thanks for that heads up.
Keep up the good work!
Your newest boss,
- Cole
Hello Cordkillers,
Long time listener and OG boss Aaron Martinez here. Thank you for all of your years of dedication to the cause! I've lived without cable in the past, but for most of my adult life I've lived with people who have insisted on having tv service. Recently, my wife had been watching more and more Netflix and getting more and more frustrated with managing our DirecTV DVR. She finally came around and actually started pressuring me to call and cancel our service! Like the listener who wrote in last week, I was dreading making the call and dealing with the high pressure retention tactics, but I'm happy to report I was able to cancel in less than 10 minutes, including hold time! My strategy was actually very similar to what Brian suggested on your recent episode.
I called on the last day of my billing cycle to avoid any future payments. This happened to be a Friday in the middle of the month.
I called on my lunch break so I could use my office land line instead of my cell phone. This happened to be 12:30 PM Central.
I followed the steps from GetHuman to try and get to a live agent quickly:
https://gethuman.com/phone-number/DirecTV
My hold time was less than 1 minute. I'm not sure if I just happened to call at the right time or it was a magic combination of steps from GetHuman that got me through quickly.
I informed the first agent that I needed to cancel my service because I switched to our local cable provider when they offered me a great deal. This was a little white lie, but I wanted to have a firm reason for cancelling and used the past tense to clarify that the decision was already made. I was able to remain vague enough to avoid my bluff being called.
I was quickly transferred to a retention agent where I repeated the above statement. I was pressed for details but my response each time was some variation of a polite answer followed by "I've already switched and just need to cancel my service today."
For example:
Q: Which provider are you switching to?
A: Cox, but I don't think that's relevant because I already switched and just need to cancel my service today.
Q: Ok. It's nothing personal, I just want to make sure we have a chance to offer you a better deal. What kind of prices did Cox offer you?
A: Actually my wife set that up so I'm not really sure but I really just need to cancel my service today.
Q: Ok. I'm prepared to offer you X, Y, and Z for a really great deal.
A: Thank you, that's a great offer, but I've already switched and just need to cancel my service today.
Another little life hack I use is in these situations is to try and keep a smile on my face throughout the conversation. Even though they can't see me, it helps me remain polite and avoid my naturally tendency toward sarcastic snark. After just a few rounds of repitition, the agent realized she didn't have a chance, her tone changed from upbeat to begrudging, and she very quickly cancelled the service and gave me the details of how to return my equipment. So now I'm finally an offical cordkiller and DirecTV actually owes me a few dollars in account credit! Obviously, hold times may vary, but I hope others can use this technique to cancel painlessly.
Thanks,
- Aaron
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