Cordkillers 264 - Clean Picard (w/ Nicole Lee)
YouTube comes back to Amazon, a Netflix shuffle button, and is Disney+ actually good for Netflix? With special guest Nicole Lee.
Next week on Spoilerin' Time: Game of Thrones has the biggest battle ever! Plus, The Office (UK) (202) and maybe more Barry!
CordKillers: Ep. 264 - Clean Picard
Recorded: April 22 2019
Guest: Nicole Lee
Intro Video
30 for 30: Cobra Kai
Primary Target
Netflix May Actually Benefit From Disney+ and Other Streaming Entrants
- There are more than one billion subscribers to pay TV worldwide. IHS estimates all online subscription video services — Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video — combined represent about half the users of pay TV. Netflix makes up nearly 30 percent of all streaming video subscriptions.
- A report from Convergence research cord-never rose from 26% of households in 2017 to 30% in 2018. Cord-nevers are more likely to subscribe to single-service options like Netflix, Hulu, or Prime Video than Multichannel services like PSVue or YouTube TV.
- Todd Spangler at Variety proposes "new services from Disney, Apple, WarnerMedia and others will be a rising subscription VOD tide lifting Netflix’s boat — with pay TV ending up the real loser."
- Netflix Chief Product Officer Greg Peters - "we don’t really think there is sort of an immediate equivalency or substitution. And so mostly it’s about how do we create more value, how do we put the right content and present it in the right way that’s compelling and differentiating for our members."
Disney Plus vs. Netflix: Study Compares Content Lineup, Quality
-The real result of the expanded number of SVOD options coming out will be to spur more people to cut the cord.
- Netflix execs often use the analogy of a new sports league, like Major League Soccer, not being a threat to the NFL. MoffettNathanson says the consumer value propositions of Disney+ vs. Netflix are very different, so they won’t be directly competitive.
-Content? Chief content officer Ted Sarandos claimed its top 10 most-watched shows are “Netflix original brands.”
- Disney+ will have a lighter TV lineup than Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and CBS All Access, as well as fewer movies than Netflix and Prime Video, Hulu, Starz Play, and HBO.
- Disney’s top content beats both Netflix and Amazon in consumer perceptions of quality, according to Ampere Analysis, trailing only HBO.
Why Cord Cutters Are Favoring Cheaper Online Options Over Cable-Like Bundles
- A survey commissioned by OpenX found that American consumers who use over-the-top video services said they’re willing to pay upwards of $100 per month on average for self-made bundles of subscriptions
Netflix Earnings
-Netflix added a record 9.6 million subscribers in Q1 with 1.74 million in the US and 7.68 million international, up 16% over last year. Netflix projected it would add 5 million subscribers in Q2 which would be down 8% over last year. Netflix revenue was up 22% over last year its 76 cents per share earnings were well ahead of the expected 57 cents.
Netflix makes up nearly 30 percent of global streaming video subscriptions
-There are more than one billion subscribers to pay TV worldwide. IHS estimates all online subscription video services — Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video — combined represent about half the users of pay TV. Netflix makes up nearly 30 percent of all streaming video subscriptions.
How to Watch
Fire TV Gets Official YouTube App, Amazon Video Goes Live on Google Devices
- In a joint statement, Amazon and Google announced that YouTube will be available on Amazon's Fire TV devices and smart TVs in the coming month, after being gone for a year. The main YouTube app will arrive first, followed by YouTube TV and YouTube Kids. Fire tablets and the Echo show were not included in this rollout. In addition, Amazon's Prime Video will start working with Android TV, Chromecast and cast-enabled devices.
What to Watch
“Laugh-In: The Stars Celebrate,” the 50th anniversary tribute to the original series by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, will premiere on Netflix on May 14.
Dark Phoenix Trailer - Out June 7
Netflix Unveils Teaser For Arabic Original ‘Jinn’ - Coming June 13
New Child's Play trailer is the first with the voice of Mark Hamill as Chucky. Child's Play comes to theaters June 21.
Fast & Furious: Hobbs and Shaw trailer out. Hits theaters August 2.
Netflix noted its series based on The Witcher books will arrive in the last three months of the year.
CBS series Picard has cast Alison Pill (from Thew Newsroom on HBO) , Harry Treadaway (Penny Dreadful) and Isa Brione (American Crime Story: Versace) as series regulars.
Pablo Schreiber, who plays the King of Luck on American Gods, will star as Master Chief in the Halo series coming to Showtime. Production starts this autumn.
Aida Mashaka Croal and Michael Green have left FX's "Y The Last Man" series over "creative differences" The series will move ahead with the cast once a new showrunner is found.
Netflix Picks Up Its First Animated Series From Africa, ‘Mama K’s Team 4’
- Netflix picked up “Mama K’s Team 4,” produced by South Africa’s award-winning Triggerfish Animation Studios and British kids’ and family entertainment production company CAKE. The series follows four teenage girls living in a futuristic version of Lusaka, Zambia, who are recruited by a retired secret agent to save the world. It was created by Zambian writer Malenga Mulendema.
Eyes On
Brian: Barry (thru episode 6 now), The Office UK, Game of Thrones ep 2, watching The Matrix with Josie.
Tom: Star Trek: Discovery, Homecoming
Nicole: Captain Marvel, The Bill Murray Stories (documentary)
On the Lookout: I’m Sorry
Front Lines
Kevin Feige Considers Spider-Man: Far From Home, Not Avengers: Endgame, as the End of the MCU's Third Phase
- Newsweek reports Kevin Feige told fans in Shanghai that Spider-Man: Far from Home is the end of the third phase of the MCU. This is similar to how Feige considered the first Ant-Man movie to be the end of the second phase. Spider-Man comes out July 2.
Netflix to Test Top 10 Lists of Most Popular Content
- Netflix announced in the UK it will test showing viewers top 10 lists of most popular content by category. Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos says Netflix plans to share more granular data on viewing with producers and customers.
According to HBO, 17.4 million people watched the Season 8 premiere, passing the 16.9 million people who watched last season's finale.
Netflix is experimenting with a random episode option
- Android Police spotted a test showing up in the Android version of Netflix for some users. A new row called "Play a popular episode" lists shows like New Girl, Our Planet or The Office with a play button and a shuffle icon. The play controls for an episode of such shows offers a 'Random episode" option next to Audio & Subtitles.
Streaming TV service Philo gets a little more expensive
- Philo is eliminating it's $16 a month plan that offered 45 channels. It will now only offer its $20 a month plan which has 58 channels.The price changes take effect May 6 for new subscribers.
Dispatches from the Front
This is an idea I had probably 20 years ago when DVDs were a new thing. Now it’s become a question as to why it’s not happened yet?
DVDs have different language tracks, why don’t they have one of the available tracks be a PG-version? With a click of a button, I can make George Clooney speak French, but if I want to keep the f-bombs from blaring out across the house, it’s headphones or nothing. The first justification I heard was that I would require re-recording the dialogue, but they do it already for television broadcasts (watch any Kevin Smith movie on broadcast television… you’ll see what I mean). Or if they’re feeling extra lazy, you could just clip it out and leave silences. A second reason was space on the discs themselves, but with streaming, that shouldn’t be an issue.
In fact, with streaming, they could go one step further, and edit scenes to make the movie more PG. I think the recut “Deadpool 2” shows that there’s a market for this type of re-editing.
I know most of us would probably rather hear and see movies the way they are intended, but there are plenty of movies I’d like to share with my kids except for a single violent or erotic scene. Titanic for example is almost 3 hours long; cut two minutes and even my 7 year old could watch it. The bigger advantage would be for movies I haven’t seen yet; I hate getting half way through a movie and then out of nowhere, someone’s head explodes on screen.
Why hasn’t this happened already? Which streaming service do you think would be most likely to experiment with something like this?
- Anton
Hey Brian and Tom,
I wrote to you after moving to Canada one year ago to tell you how terrible the cord cutting experience was. Well, things are slowly getting better.
- TSN, which is Canada's equivalent to ESPN, recently launched a streaming service: TSN direct. It's $20/mo or even $5/day if you just want to catch one game.
- Just a few months ago, Amazon Prime Video became available on the Roku.
- Soon Disney will bring Hulu to Canada - although I guess it will be after the Disney acqusition is finalized.
- And, Disney+ will launch in Canada too.
So, in one year we went from just Netflix ... to adding a major sports network, Amazon Prime Video and soon Hulu and Disney+. Things are looking up. Cord-cutting is taking off in the North.
Your Canadian Correspondent,
- Brian
Hello gang!
You've talked a lot recently about missing the cable thing where you always just have TV on and don't have to make a choice. I have an idea for a service that I think could help fix that!
Since we cut the cord, I have wanted a service where you could give it a list of shows and it would create a playlist shuffling them all together (keeping the episodes of each individual show in order). It could play 2-3 episodes from one thing but then jump to your next show. It'd have to be smart enough to know to switch apps, but I'd love something that I could just hit play on to watch 2 episodes of The Office, then some Bob's Burgers, then The Good Place, etc.
I'm sure Brian wouldn't want to set this up and would want it to just automatically add shows it thinks you might like, but maybe that could be a setting too. Anyway keep up the great work.
Your boss,
- Ben
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