Cordkillers 327 - Cut Cords, Dumb Pipes, Can't Lose (w/ Bill Meeks)
A benchmark in streaming numbers, Comcast wants their X1 software on TVs, and Netflix makes a bunch of episodes and films available to watch for free. NOTE: We will be off next week for Labor Day and return with Cordkillers and It's Spoilerin' Time on September 14. With special guest Bill Meeks.
CordKillers: 327 - Cut Cords, Dumb Pipes, Can't Lose
Recorded: August 31 2020
Guest: Bill Meeks
Intro Video Get Organized With The Home Edit
Primary Target
More Than Half Of U.S. Households Now Subscribe To Multiple Streaming Services, Study Finds
- We like to celebrate benchmarks on Cordkillers.
- When Netflix first hit 50 million subscribers
- When Netflix surpassed cable TV with subscribers
- When more than Netflix hit the tens of millions.
- And now..
- More than half of US households now subscriber to multiple streaming services.
- Leichtman Research Group surveyed 1990 households.
- 78% of them have a subscription to Netflix, Amazon Prime or Hulu, up from 69% in 2018 and 52% in 2015.
- If you widen the category to include a dozen of the most popular like Disney+ and BET+ you get 82% of households with at least one and49% with three or more.
- 55% have more than one of those up from 43% in 2018 and 20% in 2015.
- Does this signal the abandonment of cable?
- Well, 58% of the households have pay TV and streaming. 20% only have streaming. 16% only have pay TV.
- Deadline opines "streaming is increasingly viable given the ease of starting and stopping subscriptions and the lower cost compared with a full pay-TV package."
Nielsen: U.S. Has 121 Million Homes With Televisions in 2020-2021 Season
How to Watch
Comcast is looking to enter the smart TV wars
- Protocol reports Comcast is pursuing plans to offer its X1 set-top box operating system to smart TV makers. X1 powers the company's Xfinity cable boxes as well as a Roku-like streaming box called Flex. Cox cable already uses some X1 hardware and software and Charter says it is negotiating a license as well. X1 isn't just for cable service though, it runs third-party apps like Netflix and YouTube as well. To get on Smart TVs, Comcast would have to win out over Roku, Amazon's FireTV OS and Android TV. Some makers like LG and Samsung even have their own Smart TV OS.
What to Watch
Disney Plus revived some ads from the 1970s, and it’s the extremely Gen X content we need
- We'll see how long it lasts, but artist / director Rob Sheridan discovered late last week that "he Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World" on Disney + from 1977 has the original national commercials in it. Old campaigns from Reach toothbrush and Chevy diesel trucks alongside out of business companies like Gaines Burgers are among them.
CBS Adds ‘Star Trek: Discovery’, ‘One Day At A Time’ & ‘Manhunt: Deadly Games’ To Fall Schedule As Net Eyes November Launch For Scripted Originals
- CBS will add season one of Star Trek: Discovery and season 4 of One Day At a Time to its fall scheduled to fill gaps caused by production shutdowns. One Day at a Time used to be on Netflix but was moved to Pop after Netflix canceled it. Star Trek: Discovery season 3 premieres on CBS All Access October 15.
‘Joe Exotic’ Starring Kate McKinnon Gets Cross-Platform Series Order By NBCU’s NBC, Peacock & USA
- NBC Universal has ordered limited series called Joe Exotic based on the podcast that inspired the Netflix docuseries. Kate McKinnon will executive produce and play Carole Baskin. Joe Exotic has not yet been cast. A Separate series about Joe Exotic is in the works elsewhere starring Nicholas Cage as Joe. The McKinnon Joe Exotic will show on NBC, USA and Peacock.
CBS All Access released a teaser for The Stand coming December 17. Alexander Skarsgård plays Randall Flagg and Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail.
Enola Holmes trailer is out. The series with Millie Bobbie Brown as Sherlock Holmes sister and Henry Cavill as Sherlock comes to Netflix September 23
Disney is working on a live action movie based on Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, written by Parks and Rec's Katie Dippold.
A trailer is out for His Dark Materials season 2 coming to HBO in November.
Netflix is making an original live-action Resident Evil TV series, produced by Constantin Film, the same company that made the previous six Resident Evil films starring Milla Jovovich.
Netflix has decided not to order a third season of Altered Carbon.
A reunion of the West Wing cast will shoot a theatrical performance of the season 3 episode called Hartsfield’s Landing at the Orpheum theater in LA for posting on HBO Max before the US election.
Amazon cancels TV adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ sci-fi Culture series
- Amazon has stopped development of a series based on Iain M. Banks Consider Phlebas, the first int he Culture series. Utopia creator Dennis Kelly who was writing it said he thought the estate just decided it wasn't ready.
Eyes On
Brian: Aliens with kids (holds up: realized it's mom-on-mom violence)
Tom: Ted Lasso
Bill: Bill & Ted Face The Music
On the Lookout: Brave New World
Front Lines
Netflix Offers Free Streaming of ‘Bird Box,’ ‘Two Popes,’ Episodes of ‘Stranger Things,’ ‘When They See Us’ and More
- Netflix is making some of its most popular content available without a subscription at Netflix.com/watchfree. It includes the first episodes of several series like Stranger Things and Grace and Frankie, and some full movies like Bird Box. And Murder Mystery. The website works on all desktop platforms and in Android but not on TV boxes or iOS.
No-Cost Streaming for a Year: Watch Netflix, Hulu, and More
- Reviews.org has created a calendar that spaces out all he existing free trials of streaming services on a calendar so that you always have something to watch for free. It also helps you remember when to cancel. The Google Calendar combines 39 streaming services.
DirecTV Sale Talk Boosts Shares of AT&T and Dish
- The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that AT&T has resumed its talks to sell DirecTV. DirecTV has about 17.7 million subscribers in the US. AT&T would reportedly hold on to AT&T TV now which is launched as DirecTV Now.
Apple TV Plus is reportedly getting augmented reality companion content
- Bloomberg's sources say Apple plans to add augmented reality content as a companion to its Apple TV Plus TV shows. Characters or objects form shows would be overlaid on the real world as seen through your phone. As an example a viewer of For All Mankind could see a lunar rover on their coffee table when seen through an iPhone or iPad.
Quibi forgot how to Quibi when it debuted its latest ‘film’
- Quibi hosted a promotional event at the Americana theater in Los Angeles showing its series The Stranger on an outdoor screen while people watched from heir cars. The Stranger tells a thriller story set on a single night in Los Angeles and originally released at the time each segment of the story took place.
As ‘Tenet’ and ‘New Mutants’ Open, Audiences Weigh Risk of Going Back to the Movies
- Movies are back in theaters? I guess? Tenet and New Mutants opened. --Though Tenet won't open in the US until later this week on September 3. -- Also Bill& ted Face the Music opened in some theaters but also on demand online. Tenet ended up making $53 million worldwide mostly in the UK, France, Korea and Germany. That was number two worldwide [[to China's "The Eight Hundred" which made $69 million in China.]]
‘New Mutants,’ ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ Seek to Restart Moviegoing
Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’ Enjoys Surprisingly Strong Debut Overseas
China’s ‘The Eight Hundred’ Has Bigger Weekend Box Office Than ‘Tenet’
Dispatches from the Front
Dear Tom, Brian and Bryce,
I'm curious about something. I've heard that if you pay for Mulan, you continue to have access to it as long as you are a Disney+ subscriber. So here's my question: what if you stop your membership? Can you start it back up again a few months later and then resume access to Mulan? Or do you have to continue to subscribe in order to keep Mulan in your library? Maybe one of you or one of the listeners can experiment and find out, after the film comes out.
Thanks! Your Boss,
- Beelissa
Good adaptations are simply the exception that proves the rule. The two good ones I can think of are The Princess Bride and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both of those are wildly different from their source material (three different media in the case of HHG2G), yet they capture the spirit.
I would be much more optimistic about the live action Avatar if it was Avatar: The Completely Different Story About a Different Avatar.
Netflix is doubling their challenge. They have to make a good Avatar movie, and they also have to retell Airbender better than it was before.
Your satisfied boss,
- Ander
Hi guys,
Greetings from Australia! I think the best use of the shuffle button will come for your favourite shows. I want to watch some Rick and Morty and I've seen them all a few times so I don't really care which one. Boom, shuffle to the rescue.
- James