Cordkillers 373 - Buttons, Zippers, Belts, and Suspenders (w/ Iyaz Akhtar)
A new Eternals trailer, Olympics are a let-down, and The White Lotus kills it...in ratings. All that and more on Cordkillers! With special guest Iyaz Akhtar ( https://www.youtube.com/CNET ).
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Ted Lasso (205), What If...? (102), Star Trek: Lower Decks (202)
Next week: Ted Lasso (206), What If...? (103), Star Trek: Lower Decks (203)
CordKillers: 373 - Buttons, Zippers, Belts, and Suspenders
Recorded: August 23 2021
Guest: Iyaz Akhtar
Intro Video
The Morning Show season 2
Primary Target
Tokyo Olympics Lifted Broadcast Ratings In July, But Streaming Continues To Rise In Nielsen’s Latest Gauge
- Nielsen's "The Gauge" breaks down how people viewed TV by type of delivery, broadcast, cable, streaming and "other". Other presumably mostly made up of Blu-rays.
- The Tokyo Olympics were considered a broadcast ratings disappointment but The Gauge shows the Olympics reversed the steady downward trend for broadcast.
- Broadcast viewership rose one percent to make up 24% of viewing in July.
- Cable still rules the roost with 36% of viewing with streaming second at 28%, though streaming has been gaining a point every month. The Olympics helped streaming as well with clips on YouTube and such.
- Another finding of the gauge is that ad-supported video on demand, like Tubi, Pluto and such is now 1/3 of all streaming.
- Everyone assumes cable and broadcast will eventually go away, but when? How do you think this will play out?
How to Watch
Netflix is finally adding support for spatial audio on iPhone and iPad
- Netflix announced its rolling out support for Apple's spatial audio feature on iPhone and iPad. When wearing compatible headphones-- like Apple's AirPods Pro-- spatial audio positions elements of the soundtrack around you. Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus and HBO Max support it as well.
- Brian you've talked about watching a large majority of your TV NOT on a TV, but I don't think we ever asked you about sound? How important is that?
What to Watch
The Eternals has a full trailer laying out a little bit more of the premise of the movie. It comes to theaters November 5th.
Apple TV Plus released a trailer for the forthcoming series, The Foundation based on the Isaac Asimov novels. It arrives September 24th.
'Star Wars: Visions' anime trailer is packed with gorgeous visuals
- NBCU Content head Susan Rovner , speaking at a conference in Edinburgh, said Peacock will make more true crime series and global co-productions while NBC will develop limited series more often. Peacock is co-developing The Undeclared War with the UK's Channel 4, and Wolf Like Me with Australia's Stan. Deadline asked Rovner if Peacock would make an Office reboot and after first saying no comment she added, “whenever Greg Daniels wants to do one, we’re standing by”. Daniels has said previously that "It's not impossible" but he is working on two other shows right now, The Upload and Space Force.
Field of Dreams swings a TV reboot from The Good Place creator
- Peacock has green lighted a series based on Field of Dreams to be run by Michael Schur. You know him. The guy who created The US Office, Parks and Rec and The Good Place.
Netflix’s live-action ‘Cowboy Bebop’ series arrives on November 19th
- Netflix's live action adaptation of Cowboy BeBop will make its 10-episode season available November 19th. There's not trailer yet but they did post stills from the show. Composer Yoko Kanno returns, while original director Shinichirō Watanabe consulted on the Netflix show.
Netflix Releases Dates for Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence’s ‘Don’t Look Up,’ Jane Campion’s ‘The Power of the Dog’ and More
HBO's The White Lotus collected 1.9 million viewers for its series finale last Sunday. A second series has been approved by HBO.
‘Star Trek’ Creator Gene Roddenberry Feature Biopic in the Works
- Roddenberry Entertainment is working on an official biopic of Gene Roddenberry's life. It will cover his life before and after the premiere of Star Trek up to and including his death.
‘The Morning Show’ Season 2 Trailer Features COVID, Racism in the Media and a ‘Friends’ Reference
HBO announced a return month for Succession. Sometime in October. A more precise date will hopefully follow.
Peacock did not approve Punky Brewster for a second season.
Netflix has ordered a third season of Never Have I Ever.
Netflix released the first photos of Elizabeth Debicki as Princess Diana in season 5 of The Crown as well as pictures of Dominic West as Prince Charles.
Showtime's series on the rise of Uber, called Super Pumped, has cast Hank Azaria in the role of Tim Cook.
Fast and Furious 10 has been scheduled to debut in theaters April 7th 2023.
Eyes On
Iyaz: Hacks
Brian: The Game, Clue
Tom: The White Lotus
On the Lookout: Clarkson’s Farm
Front Lines
Comcast, ViacomCBS to Launch European Streaming Service SkyShowtime
- Comcast and ViacomCBS are teaming up on a streaming service in Europe that will sadly not be called Paracock or Peamount. No, Comcast owns Sky which is a much more recognizable brand in Europe so the service will be called SkyShowtime. It will collect movies and TV shows from Showtime, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Paramount Plus originals, Sky Studios, Universal Pictures and Peacock.
IMDb TV lands on Xfinity Flex and X1 set-top boxes
- Amazon's ad-supported free service, IMDB TV is now available on Comcast's Xfinity Flex and Xfinity X1 set-top boxes. This is the first pay TV box IMDB TV has landed on.
‘Free Guy’ Banks $112M Global; ‘Paw Patrol’ Collars $35M; ‘F9’ & ‘Quiet Place 2’ Near Milestones – International Box Office
- Free Guy was the first Disney movie in awhile to be available only in theaters and it brought in $112 million worldwide in its first two weeks, $58.9 million of that domestic. The movie Reminiscence, starring Hugh Jackman opened simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max and brought in $2 million. Variety attributed the small receipts in part to the difficulty in getting older audiences to come see a movie, but also noted the movie didn't get positive buzz before release either.
Hugh Jackman’s ‘Reminiscence’ Crumbles With $2 Million Debut, Highlighting the Struggle of Movies Aimed at Older Audiences
T-Mobile is giving customers a free year of Apple TV Plus
- T-Mobile will give some new and existing customers a year of Apple TV Plus for free starting August 25th. If you have an existing free trial of Apple TV Plus, the T-mobile deal will stack on top of it, not replace it.
AT&T TV will officially become DirecTV Stream next week
- Quick catch up on the whole AT&T TV thing. Earlier this year AT&T simplified everything to be either DirecTV if it's satellite, AT&T U-verse if it's cable or AT&T TV if it's any kind of streaming. Then AT&T spun out all its TV delivery into a new company that it co-owns with an equity company. That company is called DirecTV. Caught up? Good. As a result of all of that it's now renaming AT&T TV (and U-verse) to DirecTV Stream. And the news here is that it happens August 26th. Nothing else is changing about the service except it's name. Yet.
NBCUniversal Amps Up Pressure On Nielsen, Calling For “Measurement Independence”; Nielsen Responds That It “Remains Confident” In Its Numbers
- NBC Universal wrote an open letter calling for "measurement independence". The company called for alternative means of tracking viewers across linear TV and digital platforms. It said it is in the process of building its own “interoperable measurement solutions” from a “broad network of trusted partners.”
Dispatches from the Front
Hi Tom, Bryce, and Brian!
TV (both linear and advanced TV (CTV and OTT)) is still a popular format because it is that lean back experience that allows for full video and full sound, usually on a large screen. Audio (terrestrial radio, streaming audio, and podcasts) is similar, minus the video. But that constant repetition and disruption in sound and sight is exactly what some advertisers want and have found effective. Think of how everyone can hum the Farmer's Insurance and Liberty Mutual Insurance jingle or how Microsoft Teams and Slack ads always start off with their notification sounds and end with their logos. This is all done for specific goals that are being measured for effectiveness, whether it's brand awareness, recall, competitive share of voice, etc.
The funny thing is, several networks in linear have been trying to reduce ad load in the schedules, so that each ad that airs becomes more effective. Yet, at least for me, I actually swear YouTube and other ad supported video streaming and social platforms have been cramming more and more ads. Since digital doesn't run on quite the same schedule, it's far easier for them to add as many ads as they want or think their viewers are willing to bear.
Ultimately, what I'm trying to say is, yes, advertising has and continues to evolve. New platforms and formats constantly come in, though not all of them end up sticking. The older, more traditional stuff shouldn't be discounted either. The challenge (or at least for me, in my 9-to-5) is to find the right balance between them to hit my client's goals.
All the best,
- Derrick
Hi Team – I just wanted to get your thoughts on the decline or rather the change in public perception of “fine” movies. Does everyone expect only movies being rated 8-10 on the scale and everything else is bad. This is kind of the trend I see in recommendations in most places and it could be purely anecdotal. But I feel that movies that were “Fine” made most of 80s and 90s nostalgia like True Lies, Die Hard, Independence Day or Air Force One. None of these are Artistic masterpieces but darn good fun. There are movies like those being made these days but always seem to slip through the radar like Blood Red Sky, Infinite, 13 Hours etc. which fall in the same category of good fun and don’t bring your brain movies. I personally love watching these kind of movie after a hectic work week and don’t need to focus too much on the movie and just enjoy.
Again this may just be my personal prejudice but would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks,
- Josh
My family (me, two teenage boys) went to the theatre to see Free Guy. It's the first movie in a long time my kids have been interested in seeing and I wanted to get out of the house. We went early to avoid the crowds on Saturday morning and were three of 8 people in the theatre, so we were able to spread out pretty well.
Imagine my surprise when the concession stand refused to take my order. They wanted you to navigate to their web page using precognition (I pretended not to have a smartphone with me because I wanted to see what they would do). I didn't push it too hard, but they chose to lose a sale rather than let me give them money for their overpriced popcorn.
I thought concessions were the lifeblood of the theatres? I guess it's not anymore.
Keep up the great work guys.
- Chad
Links
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