Cordkillers 360 - When One Dongle Leaves Another One Enters (w/ Barr)
Google's Goliath puts the hurt on Roku's David in this streaming gridlock! Can we believe the hype of Cinimark's overzelous CEO? With special guest Merrill Barr.
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Nobody, Jupiter's Legacy (101), Hannibal (210)
Next week: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Jupiter's Legacy (102), Hannibal (211)
CordKillers: 360 - When One Dongle Leaves Another One
Recorded: May 10 2021
Guest: Merrill Barr
Intro Video
Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet
Primary Target
Cinemark Has Theatrical Deals With Five Major Studios; Some Go Months, Some Years; CEO Says Netflix ‘Army Of The Dead’ Pact “First Of Many” For Chain
Cinemark’s Q1 Sales Fall 80% To $114 Million But CEO Mark Zoradi Says Theater Chain, Industry “On Road To Recovery”
AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron Quotes Wartime Churchill Saying Q1 “End Of The Beginning” Of Exhibition’s Covid Nightmare; Chain Hiring Up To 10,000 In Next Few Weeks
Netflix switches from prestige pics to shredded zombies for its widest theatrical release yet
- US theater companies are sounding legitimately optimistic.
- AMC Entertainment CEO Adam Aron quoted Winston Churchill saying, “‘This is not the end. It not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning.’… “Sir Winston won his titanic fight. I believe that AMC will win our war too.” AMC nearly ran out of cash 5 times during the pandemic.
- Cinemark has weathered the storm with a bit more cash on hand and Cinemark CEO Mark Zoradi was a little less dramatic, saying "We are now actively on the road to recovery.”
- Cinemark said attendance was 7.7 million last quarter with ticket prices averaging $7.25 and concessions revenue per patron at $5.10.
- All theaters are ready for movies to start showing in theaters exclusively again, and to that point, Cinemark announced it has reached agreements with all five major movie studios -- Universal, Warner Bros. Walt Disney, Paramount and Sony-- on new window agreements. Each deal is different. Details were not announced but the revenue splits do not appear to be much different.
- Cinemark Will also show Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead in theaters starting May 14th, one week ahead of its premiere on Netflix. Cinemark says this will be the first of many deals with Netflix with varying window lengths. In fact this will be Netflix's widest release yet in theaters with the 200 Cinemark theaters showing it combined with 400 other locations from Alamo Drafthouse, iPic, Landmark, Harkins, and Cinépolis theaters.
How to Watch
Google goes nuclear against Roku by adding YouTube TV to the main YouTube app
- "As regular Cordkillers listeners know, Google and Roku have been locked in a dispute over the terms under which they will agree to offer YouTube TV in the Roku App Store.
- YouTube TV -- different from YouTube-- is the service that gives you a cable TV like experience. ABC, CBS, Bravo etc.
- The dispute is not about revenue split, it's about promotional preference and control. Things like placement in search results, promotion in the App Store, device requirements (specifically supporting AV1 decoding) and sharing user data. Because of the dispute, YouTube TV has not been available in the Roku app store for more than a week. Existing YouTube TV users can still use the app they have installed but new users can't get it.
- At the end of last week, Google made a move. Users of the YouTube app -- the normal YouTube app- on Roku will now see a ""Go to YouTube TV"" option show up in the next few days. If you subscribe to YouTube TV (which you'd have to sign up for outside the YouTube app) selecting this new option launches the YouTube TV experience inside the regular YouTiube app. This option is supposedly coming to other platforms too, not just Roku.
-Google also told the Verge it is “in discussions with other partners to secure free streaming devices in case YouTube TV members face any access issues on Roku.”
-Roku responded with what has become their boilerplate denunciations of Google as anticompetitive. This dispute is about leverage and control of the user experience. And as Protocol's David Pierce points out. It's also worth noting that Roku is changing into an ad company, which moves in on Google's territory.
- I’m already a subscriber
YouTube’s Fight With Roku Is About Much More Than TV|
Roku Q1 Active Account Growth Slows, Revenue Booms 79%
- In Q1 Roku earned $0.54 per share on revenue of $574.2 million, up 79% on the year. The company had previously projected a loss for the quarter. The company added 2.4 million new active accounts in the quarter, with streaming hours viewed up 8% on the quarter to 18.3 billion.
What to Watch
Loki is coming to Disney Plus 2 days early
See the new Loki trailer that dropped during a Marvel-themed NBA game
- During the marvel-themed NBA game last Monday, Disney showed a new trailer for Loki, coins to Disney Plus. And also last week Disney Plus announced it will premiere Loki on Wednesdays not Fridays, so the premiere date for Loki moves to June 9th.
Venom cooks human food but not humans in first Let There Be Carnage trailer
- A trailer is out for Venom: Let There be Carnage. Woody Harrelson returns as Cletus Kasady, and he gets his own symbiote. It comes exclusively to theaters September 24th.
‘Stranger Things’: New Season 4 Trailer Focuses On Eleven & Teases Dr. Martin Brenner’s Return
- Netflix released a trailer for Season 4 of Stranger Things showing Matthew Modine returning as Dr. Martin Brenner and life inside the Hawkins National Laboratory and Millie Bobbie Brown's 11.
A Quiet Place 2 trailer prepares you for long-delayed scares
- A trailer is out for A Quiet Place Part II which was originally scheduled to premiere March 20, 2020. The trailer shows some flashback scenes to how the whole situation began. It will finally hit theaters-- and only theaters-- May 28.
The animated show League of Legends Arcane is coming to Netflix this autumn, a new teaser was released last week.
‘House Of The Dragon’: HBO Unveils First Official Photos Of ‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel
- HBO released still shots from its forthcoming Game of Thrones series House of the Dragon. The series is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
Netflix released a red band trailer for Love, Death and Robots 2 coming May 14
Twitter strikes deals for shows from Billboard, NBC, WNBA, others
- Twitter announced new video partnerships to make live and on-demand shows with Billboard, Genius, Refinery29, Tastemade, MLB, NBC Olympics and NBCUniversal News, NHL, Riot Games, and the WNBA.
NBC is bringing some Olympic Games coverage to Twitch
- If the Tokyo Olympic Games do take place this July as planned, NBC will operate an Olympics channel on twitch with highlights, interviews and Olympic-themed gaming competitions.
The Wall Street Journal's sources say NBC is considering selling its regional sports channels, or possibly putting them on Peacock.
A trailer is out for a revival of the TNT series Leverage. Leverage: Redemption's first 8 episodes are coming to IMDB TV July 9th.
Eyes On
Merrill: Mortal Kombat
Brian: The Mitchells vs. The Machines
Tom: Nobody
On the Lookout:Summer/Fall 2021 TV Premiere Calendar
Front Lines
Playlists and podcasts? Netflix is exploring developing ‘N-Plus’
- Netflix has as survey out asking users about features for a possible "N-Plus" project, which Netflix calls a "future online space where you can learn more about the Netflix shows you love and anything related to them." The survey asks about potential content for N-Plus, including podcasts, sharing custom playlists, how-tos, music lists from Netflix shows, in memoriam pages, user reviews of Netflix shows, and influence on content development. Netflix told Protocol that the survey was part of a regular effort to poll the audience on things it's exploring but has nothing to announce.
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos To HFPA: “We’re Stopping Any Activities With Your Organization Until More Meaningful Changes Are Made”; Golden Globes Group Responds
Amazon Studios Joins In Shunning Of HFPA Until It Revamps Diversity And Inclusion
HFPA Now Scorched By WarnerMedia Top Execs Over Anemic Reform; HBO & Others “Will Continue To Refrain From Direct Engagement”
Golden Globes 2022 Canceled On NBC As HFPA Struggles To Reform To Hollywood’s Stipulations
The Golden Balls
- Streaming services and several actors and hundreds of other organizations have put pressure on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association which puts on the Golden Globes awards and got the broadcast canceled for next year. Last week, the HFPA announced new policies to improve diversity in its membership but Netflix wrote a public letter saying it would stop any activities with the HFPA until more meaningful changes are made. Netflix wants a code of ethics and clear award rules. Following that letter, Amazon Studios and Warner pulled out and then Monday NBC canceled its broadcast of the Golden Globes for 2022. NBC hopes the HFPA can make enough changes that the Golden Globes can return to air in 2023. NBC news editor Andrew V. Pestano posted on Twitter "instead of golden globes 2022 can we do a 1-hour @rickygervais special roasting the hollywood elite" Ricky Gervais quote tweeted it with the phrase "The Golden Balls.”
ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish On Paramount+ A-Movie-A-Week Plan And How SpongeBob Drove Engagement
Paramount Plus Leads Quarterly Gain Of 6M Streaming Subscribers As ViacomCBS Beats Wall Street Estimates
- ViacomCBS said it added 6 million global streaming subscribers to reach 36 million, more than halfway to the 2024 goal of 65-75 million. Most of those are on Paramount Plus with the rest split up among Showtime, BET+ and others. Sports drove the increase including the Super Bowl. NCAA men's basketball tournament, and UEFA champions league though Oprah's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry also boosted numbers. Showtime got a callout for having its best month of signups ever. CEO Bob Bakish said that Paramount Plus will hit a pace of a new movie a week by combing theatrical release coming out of window like A Quiet Place 2, with sub-brand exclusives from channels like Nickelodeon and originals like the forthcoming Mark Wahlberg sci-fi movie Infinite headed to Paramount Plus in June. The ad-supported version of Paramount Plus launches in June for $5 a month.
Twitch, NFL & IMDb TV Push Amazon’s Monthly Ad-Supported Streaming To 120M Viewers, From 20M In January 2020
- During its NewFronts presentation to advertisers, Amazon announced it reaches more than 120 million monthly viewers of ad-supported streaming content. That includes Twitch, IMDBTV and live events like Thursday Night Football. IMDBTV viewership has risen 138 percent not he year.
Can I binge
- Gizmodo and CNET reported on a new site called CanIbinge.com that not only tells you where to watch shows but how long it would take to binge all of them. The site has a simple prompt where you enter a show name and a time period and it will tell you how many episodes to watch per day to finish in that time period. Information is drawn from IMDB.
YouTube TV launches PlayStation 5 app
TiVo’s first Android TV dongle also appears to be its last
Walmart’s in-house Android TV device might only cost $30
- And finally a couple of hardware notes. The PlayStation 5 now has a YouTube TV app. And TiVo announced it will no longer sell consumer devices like the TiVo Stream 4K dongle, but instead focus on becoming an embedded OS for TVs in completion with Roku and FireTV. But when one dongle leaves, another may enter. 9to5 Google spotted a listing on the Walmart website for an Onn-branded Android TV 4k streaming device with what looks like the new Google TV-style remote, listed for $29.98. Though it's not yet available to order.
Dispatches from the Front
Hello, Cord Killers Crew! Just wanted to share a news item about the "streaming wars".
So, Cinemas had a tough time with the pandemic and it looks like since everybody prefers to watch a movie at home, nobody would dare to build new spaces to project films, right?
Well, MUBI just released images of their first physical movie theatre. They have been working for years by curating and offering special selection of niche movies on their streaming service. They don't have the most recent films, but they are well known in the film festival circuits by their curation, and now they are spending some money in building their first physical movie theatre here, in Mexico City.
You can look at the project and some notes here.
So, Netflix might be buying cinemas but now, less known streaming services are actually building them. Hopefully they'll offer a similar experience to the one you can find at the Alamo DraftHouse.
Keep up the great work! ¡Saludos, amigos!
- Dan