Cordkillers 433 - Indiana Jones and the Uncanny Valley

Apple may be holding up the deal for NFL Sunday Ticket, but they may also want new rights the NFL is unfamiliar with. Plus, Netflix is hiring for a...triple-A shooter game? FTX's foibles are greenlit for an Amazon mini-series. All that and more on Cordkillers!

This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: The White Lotus (205), Rick and Morty (608), Twenty-Five Twenty-One (104)

Next week: The White Lotus (206), Rick and Morty (609), Twenty-Five Twenty-One (105)

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CordKillers: 433 - Indiana Jones and the Uncanny Valley
Recorded: November 28 2022
Guest: None 

Intro Video
Take Your Pills: Xanax

Primary Target
NFL’s clock ticking for new Sunday Ticket partner. Why is it taking so long?
Everyone thinks Apple’s negotiations with the NFL are dragging on
- The Athletic's sources say Apple is still the front runner to get the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, but the negotiations are taking longer than expected.
- NFL Sunday Ticket lets viewers pay to see all the NFL games happening, except the ones in their home market. Those are exclusive to their local CBS or Fox channels DirecTV has had the product for decades but the contract is up after this season and Apple, Amazon, ESPN and YouTube are all reportedly making bids.
- Apple has been reported as the front runner, but it supposedly wants rights not included in the DirecTV package. And that's taking awhile to resolve. That probably includes things like VR and AR since it's a family good bet that Apple will come out with some kind of mixed reality headset early next year. But NFL Sunday Ticket doesn't include international streaming rights right now. Apple probably wants those rights and may also be trying to get rights to stream those exclusive local games, like it did with its deal with Major League Soccer.
- Another complicating matter is that the NFL is selling its stake in NFL Media which operates the NFL website, and the cable networks, NFL Network and RedZone. Redzone switches between games as teams get close to scoring. Last December, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told the Sports Business Journal that the NFL was months away from selling that stake. The NFL may not want Sunday Ticket and the NFL Media stake in the same hands. But Apple does. Front Office Sports reported in March that Apple wants both Sunday Ticket and that stake in NFL media. "

How to Watch
Streaming Platforms Can Turn Slow-Burn Shows Into Red-Hot Hits
- Variety's Chris Morris wrote an article called "Streaming Platforms Can Turn Slow-Burn Shows Into Red-Hot Hits." Sleeper hits are shows like Abbott Elementary and The Bear as opposed to House of the Dragon or Lord of the Rings the rings of power.
- Roku released some data that showed a few interesting things.
- Obvious hits, shows with lots of buzz, often part of an existing franchise were searched for most often western states like Washington, Nevada and California.
- Sleeper hits were more likely to be searched for in Massachusetts, Oregon and Illinois. And major cities like New York and Los Angeles followed their lead a couple weeks later.
- The research shows that even if a show is not a hit out of the gate, streaming services make it easy to catch up, meaning promotions for midseason or finales are just as likely to help a show go big as pre-launch marketing.

What to Watch
'Avatar: The Way of Water' Drops Another Spectacular Trailer
- Avatar: The Way of the Water has another trailer mostly with more beautiful views of Sam Worthington's character. Not much is known about the story but it seems to take place in the sea instead of the air. It comes to theaters December 16.

Harrison Ford Will Be De-Aged to Fight Nazis in ‘Indy 5’
- The opening scenes of the next Indiana Jones film will be set in 1944, 8 years after the events of Raiders of the Lost Ark, and feature a de-aged Harrison Ford combined with older footage of the actor. Ford said “This is the first time I’ve seen [the technology] where I believe it. It’s a little spooky. I don’t think I even want to know how it works, but it works.” After that opening sequence the remainder of the movie takes place in 1969 with Ford playing his current age. It's coming to theaters June 30th.

Amazon’s already greenlit an FTX miniseries
- FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange that went from Super Bowl ads and sponsorships of baseball umpire uniforms and basketball stadiums, to declaring bankruptcy. If you want to know why you can subscribe to Tom's tech newsletter or listen to DTNS.
- OR you can wait for Amazon's 8-episode fictionalized account from the Russo Brothers. Their AGBO production company is producing and the brothers may direct. Variety says Invasion showrunner Dave Weil will executive produce.

Eyes On:
Brian: GotG Holiday Special
Tom: 1899
On the Lookout: Run For The Money

Front Lines
Netflix is making a triple-A PC game at its new LA studio
- Netflix has posted job listings for a Game Director, Technical Director, Art Director, and other positions to work on “a brand-new unpublished AAA game.” The job postings describe a third-person shooter built on Unreal Engine and working for former Blizzard Overwatch Ep Chacko Sonny.

Box Office: Netflix’s ‘Glass Onion’ Slays in Limited Release With Estimated $15 Million
Two Films Hit Theaters, but Netflix Remains Committed to Streaming
- This past week was the one week you could go see Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery in theaters, before it is only available by piracy, until it shows up on Netflix Dec. 23. Netflix did not report box office numbers, so you won't see it listed on charts, but Variety says estimates put it at $12-15 million, which would be enough to place it third on the weekend. 

Disney Hit With Antitrust Suit Claiming Hulu & ESPN Deals “Inflate Prices” Of Live Streaming TV
- Subscribers to YouTube TV from four states filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit against Disney, accusing it of abusing its market position to raise prices. The plaintiffs claim that Disney requires ESPN to be in a base package, which raises the price for all subscribers whether they want the sports network or not. The suit argues that Disney controlling Hulu+Live TV contributes to its undue leverage.

Apple TV+ series ‘Severance’ gets exclusive ‘innie’ and ‘outie’ vinyl records
- Last week Mondo began selling collectible vinyl records of the Severance TV soundtrack. An Innie edition is $60 and comes with inclusions like a Dance Experience card, bingo sheet, map of the severed floor, a Lumon disco bag and more. Only 5,000 Innie edits were made. The outie version is $35, is on white vinyl and doesn't have the inclusions.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Sets Streaming Date On Paramount+
- Paramount's Top Gun: Maverick will arrive on Paramount Plus December 22 in Australia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, UK, Latin America and the US. South Korea and France will get it in 2023.

‘1923’: Paramount+ Drops Official Trailer For ‘Yellowstone’ Origin Story
- Paramount+ released a full trailer for 1923, a prequel series to Yellowstone, starring Harrison Ford, Timothy Dalton and Helen Mirren. It debuts December 18th.

Attack on Titan, More Anime, May Be Pulled from Netflix Over Ad-Supported Tier
- Japanese public broadcaster NHK has requested Netflix pull a number of anime titles after the introduction of Netflix's Basic with Ads plan. NHK chalked it up to a misunderstanding and the removals haven't taken place as NHK and Netflix discuss the situation.

Dispatches from the Front
I have a Roku TV, and a regular roku unit... the main issues I have are just that some of the apps run really slow and clunky, like HBO Max... but I don't really have any connectivity issues ... I switch between roku and chromecast, primarily because I find that watching anime is much better on chromecast, the subtitle experience on roku just has never worked well for me outside of like Netflix.

- Tyson

My take on why >I< haven't dove into Andor. Yet. I WILL. I just haven't. Yet.

While watching the first episode, I checked "somewhere" (I forget where) and saw there were going to be 20+ episodes. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaat!??" I stopped watching and decided to "wait and see what the buzz is..."

LATER, I learned the 20-something episodes were going to be two seasons. "Wellll, MAYBE... I still think I'll wait until I hear what the buzz is before I dive into that much of a commitment for season 1."

I'll get there! I just haven't. Yet.

Later!

- Michael

Y'all wanna do a retroactive spoilering time for Andor? Because there is no more "Let's Talk About Star Wars", Jennie's Fulcrum isn't really the same talk-about-the-episode format. I'm craving my parasocial hang sesh over the best damn show I've seen in years. Am I gonna have to look outside my beloved Frogpants, Diamond Club, & Tom podcasting universe for this? Say it ain't so 😢

- James

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