Cordkillers 407 - Good Ol' Doug-Kenobi (w/ Anthony Lemos)

Amazon and Universal are testing a way to digitally add product placement after filming. What does that mean for creators? IMDb launched a game to decide what to watch--only on FireTV. Dr. Strange 2 rakes in the dough big-time. All that and more on Cordkillers!

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CordKillers: 407 - Good Ol' Doug-Kenobi
Recorded: May 9 2022
Guest: Anthony Lemos

Intro Video
Love On The Spectrum

Primary Target
Amazon is adding fake CGI products as advertisements to scenes in Prime Video and Amazon Freevee Amazon’s Original Shows Will Soon Use CGI for Product Placement Amazon, NBCUniversal take product placement to another level via ad formats unveiled at NewFronts
- Amazon's Prime Video and Freevee will use virtual product placement in original shows. For example a bowl full of a new brand of M&M's could be put on an empty part of a table in scene.
- Henrik Bastin, CEO of Fabel Entertainment and executive producer of Bosch: Legacy. “It creates the ability to film your series without thinking about all that is required with traditional placements during production. Instead, you can sit with the final cut and see where a product could be seamlessly and naturally integrated into the storytelling.”
- Amazon has been beta testing it in Reacher, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, the Bosch franchise, Making the Cut, and Leverage: Redemption. One brand saw a 6.9% increase in favorability as well as a 14.7% jump in purchase intent
- Amazon may also do dynamic inserts in things like billboards or other signage. Peacock has a similar program called In-Scene Ads.

How to Watch
IMDb launches new interactive gaming app ‘What to Watch’ on Amazon Fire TV- IMDB has launched an app for Fire TV in the US called IMDB What to Watch.
- IMDB says it uses its own data to create games that can help players discover a movie or TV series to watch across multiple streaming services. In addition to the title it also lists genre, run time, IMDB rating, a plot summary and a trailer. You can use the Fire TV remote to launch the title to watch.
- The main game is This or That, that lets you pick between options like 'highly rated" or "trending" until you Geta. Full sentence and a recommendation. You can also limit results by running time and ratings.
- Another game called Watch Challenge gives you digital stamps as you watch and rate things from a curated list like the Top 250 movies or award-winning titles etc.
- There's also a seemingly more random game called Quick Draw that just deals three options over and over until you decide on one.
- Other games will be added in the future. One called Time Machine lets you see recommendations form a particular decade. Build-a-Cast lets you assemble your dream cast and then choose any shows that include them or the closest to them.What to Watch

IMDb launches new interactive gaming app ‘What to Watch’ on Amazon Fire TV

‘Doctor Strange 2’ Opens to $265 Million at International Box Office, Flies Past $450 Million Globally
- Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness opened to $187 million domestic and $265 million international for a global $540 million. It's the 11th-biggest Norther American weekend of all time. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore and Morbius did not do nearly as well. The Batman did at $134 million. So it looks like we may be returning to a world where it's the movie not COVID that determines the box office. That's what the folks behind Top Gun: Maverick (May 27th) Minions the Rise fo Gru (July 1st) and Jurassic World: Dominion (June 10th) hope anyway. Thor: Love and Thunder, coming July 8th seems like a lock at this point.

New ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Trailer Arrives On Star Wars Day, Key Art For Disney+ Series Also Released
- Disney+ 's Obi-wan series finally arrives Friday May 27th with the first two episodes then shifts to Wednesday releases. Until the finale Wednesday June 22. A new trailer came out this week showing a pivotal conversation between Obi-wan and Lars Owen, the panel of what looks like Darth Vader's suit and Obi-wan in places that don't look like they are all tatooine.

New 'House of the Dragon' Trailer Teases Classic 'Game of Thrones' Families ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel ‘House of the Dragon’ Trailer Revealed
- The Game of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon comes to HBO on August 21st. The first trailer is out showing lots of platinum blonde Targaryens, a few dragons and even a Stark And a Baratheon. We also get a peek at Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake. This is all a prequel set a few hundred years before the events in Game of Thrones.

Eyes On
Amos: That Chapter
Brian: Operation Mincemeat
Tom: Everything Everywhere All At Once
On the Lookout: The Beforeigners

Front Lines
Tubi reports record growth, expands original content and linear channel offerings
- Fox Entertainment's Tubi (Not owned by Disney) announced more than 100 original shows coming in the next year. And animated series "The Freak Brothers" will return for a second season. Tubi raised viewership from 33 million in 2021 to 51 million in Q1. It will also expand the linear channels (Pluto - TV like offerings) including a channel for The Masked Singer and one for Gordon Ramsay shows. Advertising supported services or AVOD service like Tubi have been growing twice as fast as subscription-based services.

Paramount+ Adds Strong 6.8 Million Subs In Q1, But Higher Streaming Costs Squeezes Profits At Parent
Paramount+, Showtime Top 62 Million Combined Subscribers
Paramount+ debuts in the UK and Ireland on June 22nd
- Paramount+ added 6.8 million streaming subscribers last quarter to finish with almost 40 million. Paramount overall when you add in Showtime and other services reported 62 million streaming subscribers worldwide. Paramount-owned PlutoTV which is free and ad supported reached 68 million global monthly active users. And Paramount Plus is coming to more countries, launching in the UK and Ireland June 22, South Korea in June and Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland later this year. India gets it in 2023.

Roku, Apollo Global In Joint Bid For Minority Stake Of Starz; DirecTV Also Interested
- Lionsgate announced last autumn that its looking for options regarding Starz.
- Deadline reports that Roku and Apollo Global Management are teaming up to make a bid on a minority stake in the cable channel/streaming service. DirecTV is also apparently interested. Lionsgate and Roku have partnered on content and Roku has a deal for a streaming window for Lionsgate films to show on the Roku Channel. Last month Stars reported 19.7 million subscribers, up 44% on the year.

AMC Networks Ends Q1 With 9.5 Million Streaming Subscribers
- AMC Networks ended Q1 with 9.5 million streaming subscribers. That's across AMC+, Acorn TV, Shudder, Sundance Now, ALLBLK and HIDIVE. The majority of the subscribers are on AMC+.

‘Better Call Saul’ Catch-Up Viewing Before Season 6 Propels Show To No. 2 On Nielsen Streaming Chart Behind Repeat Champ ‘Bridgerton’
Will Smith, Billie Eilish, Others to Appear on Season Four of David Letterman Netflix Series
‘Cobra Kai’ Season 5 Gets Premiere Date; Action-Packed Teaser Trailer Sets New Alliance Ahead Of Epic Showdown
ESPN Plus streams its first exclusive NFL game on October 30th
Disney’s ‘Ms. Marvel’ Series to Receive Theatrical Release in Pakistan
‘Dirty Dancing’ Sequel: Jonathan Levine To Direct For Lionsgate, Details Revealed About Plot, Music & Casting: “Music Will Range From Songs From The Original To ‘90s Hip-Hop”
Paramount CEO Bob Bakish Says New ‘Jackass’ Series In The Works For Paramount+
‘Quantum Leap’ Sequel Ordered to Series at NBC
- A few other notes here
- Better Call Saul hit number 2 on the Nielsen streaming chart for April 4-10 as people tried to catch up before the season premiere.
- A new series of ``My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman” is coming to Netflix May 20th with Guests including Billie Eilish and Will Smith.
- Cobra Kai season 5 will premiere on Netflix September 9th.
- ESPN+ will stream its first exclusive NFL game October 30th. If you ant to watch Jaguars vs. Broncos that day you'll need ESPN+.
- Pakistan doesn't have DIseny+ but folks there will get a chance to watch Marvel's Ms. Marvel series in theaters,. With episodes 1 and 2 coming June 16th and two episodes coming every two weeks thereafter.
- Jonathan Levine will direct a sequel to Dirty dancing starring Jennifer Grey and set in the 1990s.
- A new Jackass series is in development at Paramount Plus.
- And NBC ordered its Quantum leap sequel to series.

Dispatches from the Front
Hey Tom and Brian,

Listening to your desire for some "time travel tv" I thought I'd tell the story of a pandemic project of mine. During lockdown I thought maybe now was the time to make a dent in my DVD boxsets of tv shows from the 80s and 90s, so I ripped whole seasons to a Plex server. Where they remained unwatched, like choosing something on Netflix I was just overwhelmed by choice. I still enjoy flicking through channels and accidentally watching the last half of Wayne's World, so I decided to see if I could programme my own linear tv channels to help me watch my DVD backlog. Using a combination of an old CRT, two raspberry pis, an rf modulator and a kodi addon called Pseudo TV I can now sit down in the spare room and travel back to my youth where the only decision I need to make is do I watch Channel 1 or 2. To further set the mood I interspersed the tv shows with old promos and idents from early Sky television.

Thanks to this I have been watching lots of Batman (1966), I Dream of Jeannie, Bewitched and lots of other DVD boxsets I picked up over a decade ago, not to mention plenty of Quantum Leap and Star Trek.

Some of us still like scripted comedy on linear tv!

Cheers,

- Brian

Hi, this is a message from your boss.

Until further notice, all discussion of Avatar needs to be prefaced or appended with "Blue People" or "Airbender", or other appropriate designation. Merely discussing an upcoming second movie about "Water" provides zero clarity. Even expressing guarded optimism does not differentiate between the two.

Everything else regarding your job performance is excellent, so we shouldn't have to take this up with HR at all.

Thanks,

- Ander

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Bryce CastilloMay 10, 2022Comment