Cordkillers 308 - Quinfluencers (w/ Jason Howell)
Quibi launches to *relatively* soft numbers. Plus, Peacock is partially-launched and Netflix's Steve Carell space comedy comes in May. With special guest Jason Howell.
CordKillers: 308 - Quinfluencer
Recorded: May 20 2020
Guest: Jason Howell
Intro Video
Dangerous Lies
Primary Target
What Disney Plus’ Subscriber Milestone Could Mean for HBO Max, Apple TV Plus
- Following launching in India and 8 European countires over the last three weeks, Disney announced Disney+ now has over 50 million subscribers, adding over 21 million subscribers in the last two months. Of those, 8 million come from the existing Hotstar service, rebranded as Disney+ Hotstar in India.
Meg Whitman says Quibi reached 1.7 million downloads in first week
Quibi fast-tracks plans to bring its bite-sized shows to TVs
Roku Says Q1 Streaming Boosted by Quarantine, Drops 2020 Guidance Amid COVID-19 Uncertainty
- Roku estimates it ended March with about 3.9 million more active accounts than the previous quarter and expects streaming time will end up 49% year over year. Roku was expecting a reduction in Q1 streaming time as it introduced an "are you still watching" feature.
Analytics firm SimilarWeb estimates YouTube TV viewership rose 40% between February 1 and April 8, going from 580,000 to 830,000.
- 8 Million of those were subscribers to Hotstar in India, which was converted to Disney+Hotstar, making all existing subscribers instantly Dinsey+ subscribers.
- Disney forecast 40 million by end of September. So even if you don't count Hotstar, 42 million puts them ahead of schedule.
- Disney's goal was to hit 60-90 million subscribers by 2024 in order to become profitable.
- Well, Quibi launched with 1.7 million in week one. But also free for now, and a mobile-only short video service so hard to compare. (PS it's fast-tracking plans to let you cast Quibi shows to a TV)
- Analytics firm SimilarWeb estimates YouTube TV viewership rose 40% between February 1 and April 8, going from 580,000 to 830,000.
- HBO Max will be next up. It's pricey at $15 a month but may benefit from folks already paying $15 a month for HBO Now converting over.
- Roku estimates it ended March with about 3.9 million more active accounts than the previous quarter and expects streaming time will end up 49% year over year. Roku was expecting a reduction in Q1 streaming time as it introduced an "are you still watching" feature.
- Netflix has 167 million subs worldwide
How to Watch
NBC's Peacock is live: Prices, full US launch date, shows and movies to expect
- NBC's Peacock launched for customers of Comcast's Xfinity Flex service, with a rollout coming to Xfinity X1 users this week. The service is set to arrive for non-Comcast customers July 15, though it is apparently evaluating whether it can move that up. Peacock has three tiers. A limited one with ads that's free won't launch until July 15. A full content ad-supported tier is free for Comcast customers and will be $5 a month for others. And an ad-free tier will be $10 a month or $5 a month for Comcast customers. Peacock also released a trailer for an original series based on the novel Brave New World coming July 15.
NBC marks Peacock “soft launch” with striking teaser for Brave New World
Walmart is selling its on-demand video service Vudu to Fandango
- Fandango has agreed to buy Vudu from Walmart. Vudu will continue to power Walmarts digital and TV movie store and Vudu customers will have uninterrupted access to the Vudu library and use their Walmart login and wallet. Fandango already has its own Fandango Now digital movie and TV store which it acquired when it bought M-Go. Fandango is majority-owned by NBC Universal. The acquisition is expected to close in a few month.
Oh and side note, Fox has completed its acquisition of ad-supported streamer Tubi.
What to Watch
‘One World’ Concert Review: Rolling Stones & Beyoncé Hit High Notes At Multi-Network Show For COVID-19 Frontline Workers
- Late Night hosts and celebrities hosted a live stream Saturday called One World: Together at Home. Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert hosted and the Rolling Stones, Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney, Elton John, John Legend and Kacey Musgraves were among those who performed. Lady Gaga performed and was instrumental in the oprganization. The stream ran on Apple, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, Twitter and YouTube, as well as ABC, NBC and CBS and BBC One.
‘Saturday Night Live’ Scores Strong Ratings In Return With At Home Edition
- Saturday Night Live aired a full show of pre-recorded bits from the cast's houses. A lot of people watched it with a strong 4.6 Live+Same Day rating. The most recent SNL was hosted by Daniel Craig March 7 with a 4.1.It was the second most viewed SNL to the one in December hosted by Eddie Murphy.
VENN wants to re-create the magic of G4TV but with YouTube and Twitch stars
- VENN, aka the Video Game and Entertainment News Network is launching a television channel focused on esports, gaming culture and video game news. The channel is meant to be carried on cable but will also stream some content on YouTube and Twitch. The company says it has seven distribution partners lined up and is moving up its launch date from autumn to July. VENN co-CEOs are Ben Kusin, a former Vivendi executive and the son of a GameStop co-founder, and Ariel Horn, formerly Riot Games’ head of production and an NBC Sports executive.
Behold Dune: An Exclusive look at Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac and more.
- Vanity Fair released a series of stills from Denis Villeneuve's upcoming Dune movie. It's our first look at Timothy Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Oscar Isaac as Duke Leto Atreides, Zendaya as Chani and Sharon Duncan-Brewster as ecologist Liet Kynes. Alejandro Jodorowsky and David Lynch have both attempted to make Dune. Villeneuve's attempt arrives December 18.
Martin Scorsese's next movie might come to Apple TV+ after Paramount walked
- Martin Scorsese is looking for a new partner for his next movie "Killers of the Flower Moon" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Paramount has backed off due to rising costs. Netflix and Apple are rumored to be in discussions to pick it up.
Disney's Artemis Fowl movie, based on the series by author Eoin Colfer, will be released to Disney + June 12 instead of heading to theaters.
‘The Batman,’ ‘Sopranos’ Movie Get New Release Dates
- Warner Brothers moved a few movie release dates. The Batman starring Robert Pattinson moves from June 25, 2021 to Oct 1 2021. And the Sopranos prequel "The Many Saints of Newark" goes from Sept. 25 this year to March 12, 2021.
Disney is remaking its classic 1973 Robin Hood film as a CGI Disney Plus exclusive
- Disney will make an updated CGI version of its 1973 movie Robin Hood to go straight to Disney Plus. Blindspotting director Carlos López Estrada will direct and Lady and the Tramp remake writer Kari Garnlund will write the script.
Netflix will launch the Jerry Seinfeld comedy special 23 hours to kill on May 5. It was shot during Seinfeld's residency at the Beacon theatre in New York.
Coming May 4, An eight-part behind the scenes documentary series of the Mandalorian will arrive on Disney+.
Netflix comedy Space Force, starring Steve Carell will premiere May 29.
HBO Max to get Justice League Dark and The Shining TV series
HBO (not Max) released a trailer for a reboot/origin story of Perry mason coming to HBO June 21. It stars Matthew Rhys, Tatiana Maslany and John Lithgow.
Eyes On
Brian: Tales from the Loop
Tom: Kim's Convenience
Jason: Trolls World Tour, The Morning Show, Ballers, Euphoria
On the Lookout: Devs
Front Lines
Media software maker Plex launches new subscriber-only apps for music and server management
- Plex released two new projects for Plex power users who pay for Plex pass. Plexamp is a music player named after Winamp which works across Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android. There's also a Plex Dash app for administering your server from Android or iOS. You can edit your artwork, scan for new media, fix incorrect matches, check on server resource usage, tweak library settings and view server logs live.
Charter is the first cable company outside AT&T to agree to offer AT&T's HBO Max. Spectrum subscribers who get HBO will be able to log into HBO Max at no extra charge. HBO Max is set to launch in May.
Netflix will allow parents to remove movies and shows, filter by rating in new update
- Netflix has added parental control options, including the ability to remove a title from showing up on a profile as well as filter out movies by rating. You can also review a child's viewing history and disable autoplay. Users can also add PINs to profiles to keep others from using it.
Movies Anywhere's lending feature is now available for more users
- Movies Anywhere made its ScreenPass lending feature available to anyone who requests an invite. The feature lets you lend a movie in your Movies Anywhere library for 14 days. More than 6,000 Movies in the Movies Anywhere catalog qualify, about 80% of what they have. Apparently it only works for movies you bought in the last 6 months. You can lend out three times a month and your friends have to finish watching within 72 hours of starting the movie.
‘Trolls World Tour’: Universal Reports Record Digital Weekend; 10x Higher Than ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ Opening Day
- Trolls World Tour, which released on digital rather than in theaters, set a record for digital revenue with Universal reporting it did 10 times its previous best which had been Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. That would put it around the same number as Avengers: Endgame's first day digital sales of about $30 million. There's no official reporting for digital sales.
Sling TV ‘Happy Hour’ Offers Free Primetime Viewing of 50-Plus Live Channels
- Sling TV launched "Happy Hour Across America" Tuesday offering free TV every evening from 5 PM to midnight local time. Users have to be new customers and enter an email address at sling.com/deals/happy-hour but no credit card, then they get access to 50+ channels on the Sling TV Blue service. Amazon has added loads of free content, including some of the free stuff from Sling, to a new curated section called At Home, on its Fire TV and Fire Tablet devices int he US.
Amazon #AtHome brings free content to Fire TV and Fire Tablet devices
Dispatches from the Front
Hi,
For the new way of splitting up the spoilerin' time stuff in the feed, how do you intend to handle the movie draft when it's active? Will it be a separate item from the first show discussed? I'm not saying it needs to be. I was looking for an "Intro" segment, and it took a second for me to realize it was just at the beginning of the first show discussed. "Intro" or something could be added to the title I suppose, but I'm not super sure it's needed.
Aside from that ambivalent feedback about the non spoiler stuff, I like having it split up. That makes it easier to drop the stuff I'm not watching or save just the ones I haven't caught up on yet.
Thanks,
- Marcus
While not life changing I really like them separate. I almost never watch all the shows and occasionally am behind, this is so much more convenient, thanks!
- Jeffrey
Love love love the new format with the shows as their own episode. Thanks for putting in the work!
- Rob
Hi Tom, Brian, and Bryce,
Long time listener here, saying: great job on the Spoilerin' Time podcast breakout! Positive feedback: I like that you didn't add redundant intros/outros to each episode. Something to look out for: the theme music cut a bit abruptly between episodes. Though it's hard to tell how much of that is Pocketcast's transition and how much is from the edit.
Thanks, and keep up the great work!
- Colin