Cordkillers 404 - Jitterbugging
Are there too many shows? Rather, are there too many shows RETURNING? A new "peak TV" problem? Plus, HBO Max admits they rushed and IMDbTV gets a new name. All that and more on Cordkillers!
This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: Picard (207), Moon Knight (103), Miami Vice (307, "El Viejo")
Next week: Better Call Saul (601-602), Barry (301), Picard (208), Moon Knight (104)
CordKillers: 404 - Jitterbugging
Recorded: April 18 2022
Guest: None
Intro Video
Netflix's upcoming documentary feature, Our Father
Primary Target
Are too many shows returning? Could this crowd out new experiments?
This isn't based on a news story this week, Tom is just bringing this to the table as something he's noticing. WAY more streaming shows are returning.
Returned recently:
Upload (Amazon)
Picard (Paramount Plus)
Atlanta (FX on Hulu)
Bridgerton (Netflix)
Coming Soon (Selected)
Better Call Saul AMC+ 4/18
The Flight Attendant HBO Max 4/21
Barry HBO Max 4/24
Hacks HBO Max 5/12
Stranger Things Netflix 5/27
The Boys Amazon 6/1
For All Mankind Apple TV + 6/9
Only Murders in the Building Hulu 6/27
New shows
Star Trek: Strange new Worlds 5/5 - Paramount Plus
Obi Wan Kenobi 5/26 Disney Plus
House of the Dragon 8/20 HBO Max
It used to feel pretty easy to adopt a new streaming show. They were new and different. (Tom will explain his way of thinking and how it's affected by the success of streaming and then hand it over for opinions)
Why do movies cost so much to make?
How to Watch
HBO Max execs knew their apps were flawed. They launched them anyway.
- The HBO Max app has suffered from lots of bugs and we talked previously about how a new update is supposed to fix them.
- Protocol talked to Sarah Lyon, HBO Max's head of product experience.
- They felt pressure to launch to keep up with Netflix and Disney
- HBO Max's launch app was based on the tech stack supporting HBO Go and HBO Now. Neither app was meant to be a full Netflix competitor. Go was to catch up with existing cable subscribers not meant for heavy use. Now was for a limited catalog. Not meant for wide discovery.
- Lyons told Protocol : “We knew that that platform never could handle what HBO Max was going to do. It never was intended to go global, it was never intended to go direct-to-consumer.”
- HBO acquired Canada's You.i.TV and rebuilt the app from when he grew up.
- Crashes of the HBO Max Roku app have decreased by 90%
- Load time on Android fell 50%
- FireTV and Xbox are next followed by web and mobile.
- Now that the code is stable, UX is next.
What to Watch
Netflix released a full trailer for the penultimate fourth season of Stranger Things. Part 1 launches May 27 and part 2 July 1.
A trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder is out, focusing on Thor's journey to become a person of peace. Arrives in theaters July 8.
Netflix to launch an ‘Exploding Kittens’ mobile game tied to an new animated TV series
- Netflix is launching its first mobile game and TV series as a package. They've done mobile games for Stranger Things of course, but those came before Netflix had a gaming service. However a show based on the card game "Exploding Kittens" is coming in 2023, and a mobile game developed along with the show will launch this May, along with two new cards for the game.
-The TV series is being produced by Greg Daniels and Mike Judge. The story will involve God and the Devil being sent to Earth in the bodies of house cats. The game will be separate from the existing Mobile Kittens mobile game, which will continue to be sold.
Eyes On
Brian: Come from Away
Tom: Upload. BTS Virtual show
On the Lookout: Making Fun
Front Lines
Amazon’s IMDb TV changes its name to Freevee
- Amazon's free ad-supported VOD service service, as they say, is changing its name from IMDBTV to Freevee on April 27th. That's four total e's. And it's similar to the original name of IMDBTV: Freedive, which launched in January 2019. Freevee will expand beyond the US and UK to include Germany later this year. IMDb TV viewership has grown 138% over the past year.
YouTube Will Stream 15 Live MLB Games for Free, Starting in May
- Baseball will return to YouTube as it has done for the past four years. YouTube will stream 15 games this season starting May 5th. The games will be free to watch in 182 countries. The games will not air on any other network or service, including local television markets.
Soccer Streaming Platform FIFA Plus Launches, Will Have 40,000 Live Games Annually
- Soccer's governing body FIFA has launched a FIFA Plus with plans to stream 40,000 live games per year. The games will be from across 100 FIFA member associations from Europe's top leagues for women and men to youth programs. It will also contain an archive of every World Cup match that was ever recorded, going back to the 1950s. However the 2022 World Cup games will not be streamed through the service. FIFA Plus is available globally for free with ads.
AMC is now letting you buy movie tickets with Dogecoin
- The AMC Theaters app now accepts Dogecoin and Shiba Inu cryptocurrencies through the BitPay service. BitPay also supports Bitcoin and Ethereum which AMC has also supported through PayPal for the past few months.
Season 3 of ‘For All Mankind’ is coming to Apple TV+ on June 10th
Sammy Davis Jr. Series From Lee Daniels Ordered at Hulu, Elijah Kelley to Star
Apple signs an exclusive deal with Tom Hanks' production company
- For All Mankind returns to Apple TV+ June 10th and will jump to 1995 and missions to Mars.
- Lee Daniels, director of Precious and Monster's Ball is bringing his biographical series on Sammy Davis Jr. to Hulu. Elijah Kelley will play Davis Jr.
- Apple has signed an exclusive deal with Tom Hanks' production company, Playtone for series, documentaries and unscripted projects. Hanks is also set to star in a sequel to Greyhound for Apple.
Dispatches from the Front
Hi Team - I wanted to share a new trend I have noticed in South Indian Cinema (Not Bollywood the Hindi Film Industry). Studios and Distributors have started uploading their movies onto Youtube to combat privacy. When you can get the best copy from Youtube why would you try non-legal means? And they are doing this within a month of Theatrical releases. And these are not just small releases but big blockbusters as well. And this is in addition to being on Prime, Hulu, or Netflix.
I know this is a unique strategy for a niche market as these industries are targeted to specific languages and may not apply to everyone, but still thought you might like to know. I am linking my public playlist I have collected of movies I found from just Youtube Recommendations.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR56xAzaN92mdZZ_YfB-YwL_9PUwmimcy
Thanks,
- Josh
Just Watch has the same deep linking feature that you were so excited about in Plex. I can lunch Just Watch, find a show and click HBO to watch that show in the HBO app with no need to find the show in HBO.
I use the Just Watch apps on Apple TV and the deep linking works just well there as it does on my iPhone. You should try the Apple TV app for Just Watch.
I also like the trending shows feature in Just Watch.
Thank you for turning me on to Just Watch years ago. It is a great app.
- James
Links
patreon.com/cordkillers
doghousesystems.com/v/rogue
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