Cordkillers 352 - HBO Max: They'll Pay, Oh They'll Pay!
Netflix is testing cracking down on passwords, HBO Max will be free in June, and Zack Snyder's Justice League. All this and more on Cordkillers!
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Raised By Wolves (105-106), Marvel Studios: Assembled (101 - Making of WandaVision), Hannibal (202)
Next week: Falcon and the Winter Soldier (101), Raised by Wolves (107-108), Hannibal (203)
CordKillers: 352 - HBO Max: They'll Pay, Oh They'll Pay!
Recorded: March 15 2021
Guest: None
Intro Video
This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist
Primary Target
Netflix Begins Test to Crack Down on Password Sharing Outside Your Household
- Netflix is testing out ways to detect password sharing. Some users of Netflix on TVs report seeing a message when they access their account that says "If you don't live with the owner of this account, you need your own account to keep watching."
- They can then choose to verify they are the owner by receiving a code by email or text message at an address or number associated with the account.
- Netflix told The Streamable “This test is designed to help ensure that people using Netflix accounts are authorized to do so.”
- Netflix's terms of service does not allow accounts to be shared beyond your household.
- The company has not seemed that worried about password sharing in the past.
- Netflix limits the number of simultaneous streams to one, two or four devices depending on your plan.
- And In 2016 Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said "Password sharing is something you have to learn to live with, because there's so much legitimate password sharing."
How to Watch
HBO Max will debut its cheaper, ad-supported tier in June
WarnerMedia Chief Jason Kilar Addresses HBO Max AVOD Plans And Progress So Far: “It’s Working”
HBO Max Will Hit 120M To 150M Subscribers By 2025, With AVOD Tier Launching In June, AT&T Says
- HBO Max will launch an ad-supported version of its service in June. Pricing details were not announced. Ads will not play on HBO originals like Game of Thrones or The Sopranos and the ad-supported version of HBO Max will not have access to day and date release of movies like Dune. --- And HBO Max is reaching a slightly different audience than HBO Now did - About 43% of HBO Max viewers under 35, compared with 15% on linear and daily view time on Max of 2.8 hours, compared with 1.5 hours.
- Other things Jason Kilar said at AT&T's investor day
- $80 million ad commitments for the ad-supported launch in June
- By 2025 HBO Max Will Hit 120M To 150M Subscribers--half outside US
- No sports this year
What to Watch
Roku Follows Quibi Deal By Slating Premiere Of Action Drama ‘Cypher’
- Roku licensed much of Quibi's library to add to the free ad-supported Roku channel laster this year but it's first original is not from Quibi and debuts this Friday March 19. Cypher is about an FBI cryptanalyst who discovers a coded document belonging to bad people and...action ensues? All seven episodes will be released at once. The show is produced by Aroma Studios & United Bros.
The Roku Channel's first free exclusive show will debut next week
Free streaming platform Tubi reportedly getting into original programming
- The ad-supported free streaming service Tubi will start making original movies and explore episodic shows as well. Fox Corp. CEO Steve Tomsic said Tubi's originals would be "cheap and cheerful" not big-budget.
‘The Falcon And The Winter Soldier’: Marvel Boss Kevin Feige On Possible Season 2 “Ideas”; Anthony Mackie Teases ‘Black Widow’ Spinoff
- Falcon and the Winter Soldier premieres on Disney Plus Friday March 19. Kevin Feige was asked whether a second season is in the works and had a couple of comments. Feige said “We approached it like the movies: We better make this great, because we won’t be able to do another one.” But he also added “If we’re able to do another one, there’s certainly ideas,” but the plan is to go from series into movies and then back to series as the stories dictate.
The reviews are out for Zack Snyder's Justice league which clocks in at four hours two minutes.
- About half the material is new versus the 2017 version that Joss Whedon finished. Out of the gate it has a rotten tomatoes rating above 74 percent. It arrives on HBO Max March
The 6th season of Outlander debuts this year and Starz has approved a seventh season as well.
Season 2 of Netflix's Russian Doll will star Annie Murphy, who played Alexis on Schitt's Creek.
Netflix has commissioned three films from Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan. The movies will debut exclusively on Netflix.
Hulu drama Wu-Tang: An American Saga has cast Uyoata Udi (from Watchmen and This is Us) as Inspectah Deck.
Fox will get the Untitled Huey Lewis Project which is an anthology series weaving love stories from the present with a 1986 teenage rom-com set to the tune of Huey Lewis's music.
Apple TV+ renewed 'Central Park' for a third season, the second season will debut June 25
A spinoff from Amazon Prime Video's "The Boys" set at a college for superhero in the US has cast Lizzie Broadway as its first series lead, Emma.
Dev Patel's first director credit, "Monkey Man" will debut worldwide on Netflix in 2022. One critic described it as "John Wick in Mumbai."
Netflix is making a Spanish-language spinoff movie based on Bird Box.
‘The Flight Attendant’ Season 2 will arrive on HBO Max in spring 2022
Eyes On
Brian: Dave
Tom: Servant
On the Lookout: Hell's Kitchen and Kitchen Nightmares
Front Lines
Streaming dominates Oscar nominations in a stay-at-home year
- The nominations for this year's Academy awards are out and like the Golden Globes, it's dominated by streaming companies since most everybody stayed at home most of last year. Netflix received 31 total nominations to lead all studios and the third-most all-time (or second-most by some counts). Its movie Mank led all movies with 10, including best picture, best actor, best director, and best supporting actress. Netflix also got nominations for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Hillbilly Elegy, and The Trial of the Chicago 7. Amazon Prime Video got 12 nominations for Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm and Hulu for The United States vs. Billie Holliday. Apple TV + got nominations for Wolfwalkers and Greyhound and Disney+ for Soul, Mulan and Burrow as well as Onward which briefly appeared in Theaters. HBO Max got a nomination for Judas and the Black Messiah which also appeared in theaters. The award winners will be announced April 25th.
Microsoft’s Xbox TV era ends in May with the removal of OneGuide TV listings
- Microsoft will remove its OneGuide TV listings feature from the Xbox One in May. Xbox One users will still be able to use the HDMI passthrough feature on the console to watch connected devices, as well as a TV tuner.
Disney Plus surpasses 100 million subscribers
- During a shareholders meeting last week, Disney Plus announced it has passed 100 million subscribers worldwide. The service launched 16 months ago when the target was to reach 90 million subscribers by 2024. The 2024 goal has been revised to 300 to 350 million subscribers.
Vudu is finally coming to Amazon’s Fire TV devices
- The Vudu app is now available on Fire TV devices. The app supports Dolby Vision content and users can rent content and access their existing Vudu library in the app.
Rogers’ $16 Billion Bid for Shaw Jolts Canada Wireless Sector
- Canada has been divided between two main cable companies for decades now. That's about to change. Rogers Communications announced plans to buy Shaw Communications to create one company. The companies are also telcos so this is about more than just cable TV but it's a significant change in the Canadian landscape.
YouTube Streaming On TV Screens Jumped 20% During 2020, Company Reveals
- YouTube reports the number of people watching YouTube and YouTube TV on a television rose to 120 million in December. That's up 20 percent from last March. YouTube will have Nielsen measurements available for advertisers for the first time this year.
Dispatches from the Front
Streaming and closed caption chaos.
Well, Chaos is a little strong, but I like the alliteration.
During the recent cold weather here in the midwest, temperatures were sub-zero for a couple weeks. We were using a space heater to keep things a bit more comfortable in the TV room. The heater was relatively loud and it was difficult to hear the TV at normal volume levels.
Turning up the volume just made it annoyingly loud. So, I left it at the normal volume setting and turned on the closed captions.
I use a Tivo for over the air tuning and recording, with a Roku for YouTube TV and several other streaming apps.
Turning on the captions on the TV itself did nothing.
Turning on the captions on the Tivo only worked for the Tivo.
Turning on the caption on the Roku worked for some of the streaming apps.
Those streaming apps that did not work with the Roku setting each had their own different method of turning on the captions.
This is not really a big problem, but it is annoying.
I don't know if there is a technical issue that would prohibit all of the sources from passing the caption info to the TV, but I'm guessing that may be the case.
However, If one app can respect the Roku caption setting it seems they all should.
Again, not a big problem, but certainly annoying. Probably streaming growing pains.
Thanks,
- GS