Cordkillers 447 - For Sale: Streaming Box, Total Crap

Streaming boxes are coming up short, but who is to blame? Plus, US media spending will go down in the coming years and those upcoming Star Wars movies may not be so upcoming anymore. All that and more on Cordkillers!

This week on It's Spoilerin' Time: The Last of Us (109), The Mandalorian (302), Picard (304)

Next week: Ted Lasso (301), The Mandalorian (303), Picard (305)

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CordKillers: 447 - For Sale: Streaming Box, Total Crap
Recorded: March 13 2023
Guest: None

Intro Video
The Night Agent

Primary Target
All the streaming boxes suck now
- David Pierce wrote an article for The Verge called "All the streaming boxes suck now. There are no good streaming boxes, and I blame everybody"
- He asserts that streaming boxes are just cheap hosts for apps, fulfilling none of the promise of what streaming boxes could have been. You can't turn on a box and say the name of what you want to watch. The tech is there, but it rarely works. He sums it up as "the state of the set-top box world is like the industry agreed “software is king” and then immediately threw the iPhones, Galaxies, and Pixels out of the market, leaving us to choose among Tracfone, Blu, Motorola, and nothing else."
- So why is this?
- One culprit Pierce identifies is the streaming services. They want you to only use them. They keep their data away from the platforms and try to get you to subscribe to services from within them if they can. The platforms also have conflicts, like their own streaming services, ads, retail and more. He points out that TiVo and Slingbox were more powerful hardware than what we have now. He gives partial credit to Apple TV and Nvidia Shield for getting the closest, but even those have shortcomings.
- Is Pierce right? Do we want the Samsung Galaxy S23 of TV streaming boxes. Or are cheap streaming dongles and built-in TV OSs really our best choice?

NOTES
- Commodity items. Roku Express HD is $30.
- smart TVs are slow, riddled with ads, and try to track your every move
- Boxes can't add anything beyond apps. Left with 4K, Dolby, WiFi, remote features
- Olden days of locked in Cable had better hardware, like TiVo and Slingbox
- Pierce gives credit to Nvidia An Apple. Shield does cloud gaming, powerful hardware. And yet even Nvidia doesn't talk about it much.

DISADVANTAGES
- The problem is the app model
- Platforms are also providers. So Amazon wants to show you Freevee, Apple TV+, Google Play and YouTube. Roku Roku Channel. They make money off services. Roku and Google are ads companies. Amazon is a retail company. Apple is a services company. Both those are also growing in ads.
- Streaming services work like apps and withhold data from platforms. They want to be the destination.
- Left with JustWatch as best option - manually created (It's like if the Yahoo directory of 1996 was still he best search engine)

Advantages of streaming boxes
- Upgrade while keeping your screen
- Add features faster than TV hardware
- Choice of ecosystem

How to Watch
U.S. Household Spend On TV & Film Set To Fall Over Next Five Years, Will Be Overtaken By Norway
- Ampere Analysis estimates that the amount people in the US will spend on video will decline 8% between this year and 2027. That includes, streaming, pay TV and theatrical movies. The annual spend peaked at $1,146 in 2022 as people returned to theaters and kept streaming services while also still paying for cable in high numbers. However in Europe, households are expected to increase spending over the next five years. The US will be the only western market to fall.

What to Watch
Star Wars films from Kevin Feige and Patty Jenkins have reportedly been shelved
Taika Waititi In Talks To Star In His Own ‘Star Wars’ Movie
- Variety's sources say Patty Jenkins Rogue Squadron movie and Kevin Feige's unnamed Star Wars movie have both been shelved. However, Damon Lindeloff and Sharpen Obaid-Chonoy's movie is still in the works and Taika Waititi is writing the script for his film, and is in negotiations to appear in it. Deadpool 3 director Shawn Levy is still in the mix as well. Deadline says we'll know in a couple months which Star Wars movies are still on the schedule. December 19, 2025 is the next scheduled Star Wars film, we just don't know which one.

Japanese Smash ‘The First Slam Dunk’ Is Scoring In Asia Ahead Of European Rollout
- Deadline has a story about how popular Japanese animation movie "The First Slam Dunk" is, based on the 1990s Manga and anime series "Slam Dunk." It has raked in $115 million globally since Toei launched it in early December. Most of that is from Japan and Korea. It doesn't hit China until April 20th. It's coming to Italy soon and France later this summer. No US date yet.

Bob Odenkirk Says He’s Starring in a Remake of Tommy Wiseau’s ‘The Room’: ‘I Tried My Best to Sell Every Line’
- Acting for a Cause raises money for charities by asking for donations tied to interesting digital performances. They're working on a remake of The Room with Bob Odenkirk playing Tommy Wiseau's role. Proceeds from this effort will go to amfAR, the Foundation for AIDS Research. Odenkirk said on Twitter "I tried my best to SELL every line, as honestly as I could...and I had a BLAST."

‘I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson’ Gets Season 3 Premiere Date At Netflix
- And Netflix set May 30th as the premier for the third run of "I think You Should Leave" the sketch comedy series from Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin.

The Last of Us will adapt the events of Part II across 'multiple seasons'
- The Last of Us season 2 will pick up the story of the second game The Last of Us: Part II” but the creators of the show say they will take more than one season to tell that story. They didn't say how many seasons that would be.

Eyes On: 
Bryce: Black Mirror
Tom: The Oscars
On the Lookout: The Devil's Hour

Front Lines
Roku’s latest software update brings local news, more live sports and a new mobile app
- Roku announced more details about Roku OS 12. You'll be able to select local news providers to show up at the top of the Live TV zone. Games from teams you seem interested in will show up at the top of the Sports zone. The continue Watching feature will work almost immediately after you leave an app and more companies will let Roku show their shows in the Continue Watching section. Roku will also redesign its mobile app and add the ability to sign into a device from the app. Roku also announced that the first 11 of its Roku-branded TVs are now on sale at Best Buy.

Warner Bros. Discovery, Prime Video Unveil Launch Date, Pricing of Warner Pass Offer in France
Disney+ Hotstar Confirms HBO Content Moving Off Platform In India From March 31
- Disney+Hotstar confirmed HBO content will leave its services in India March 31st. No word on where they will go.
-Warner Brothers Discovery and Amazon Prime Video announced the launch of "Warner Pass" in France. It's a €9.99 a month add-on to Amazon Prime Video available only in France that includes HBO, WarnerTV, Eurosport, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network and CNN.

The first Black Friday NFL game will stream for free on Prime Video
- The NFL will play a game the day after Thanksgiving this year for the first time and it will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video. Amazon will make it available for free, no Prime subscription needed... but you will need the Prime Video app.

Netflix now lets TV viewers customize text for subtitles and closed captions
- Netflix has added the ability to customize the appearance of subtitles and closed captions. You can choose small, medium and large, four styles: white text, drop shadow, black text on a white background and yellow text with a black background. These options existed ont he Web but not for TV apps.

Here’s the final trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie
“Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head” returns to Paramount+ for its second season, beginning with two episodes on Thursday, April 20.
‘The Little Mermaid’ Trailer: Halle Bailey Sings Her Heart Out in Breathtaking New Look at Disney Remake
- Disney released a trailer for the live action Little Mermaid starring Halle Bailey (of Chloe and Halle) as Ariel and Mellissa McCarthy as Ursula. It premieres in theaters May 26th.

Hulu released a new teaser for Only Murders in the Building, "coming soon."
NBC News is expanding the amount of live programming on its free ad supported NBC News Now service to 11 hours. 
CBS Sports is launching a 24-hour free streaming service called Golazo that will stream soccer analysis highlights and games, starting  April 11. 
Amazon will pick up the animated series Batman: Caped Crusader, which was dropped by HBO Max last August. 
And Amazon is considering a spinoff series and films set in the same universe as the Creed movies. 
Showtime released a new trailer for Yellowjackets season 2 which arrives March 24. 

Dispatches from the front
"I'm not the Tim who wrote in about this last week, but as my wife and I started our rewatch of ""Ted Lasso"", I couldn't help but be a little stunned that you guys recommended it to ""Fuddy Duddy"" (his own moniker) who emailed about PG sitcoms they could enjoy. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE ""Ted Lasso"". But Roy Kent's dialog in any single episode would bump it to a R rating easily just on its own. And by episode 3, they're talking about fingering senior citizens (at the charity auction), so it's not exactly free of sex either.  

Seems like maybe y'all suffer from the same thing I do - sometimes I just forget what was in a show that might offend someone looking for a more PG take on the world. 

Ted Lasso the character? Absolutely (minus on F-bomb in the season 1 finale) 

Ted Lasso the show? As Roy Kent would say (on almost all occasions) ""[f] no!""  :) 

I would also like to chime in with Fraser on saying the ""Detectorists"" (especially Series 1) is one of the best shows of all time. I've yet to have a miss in recommending this to anyone. It's just brilliant all around, It's up there with ""The Good Place"" (or ""Ted Lasso"", or ""What We Do in the Shadows"") as one of those shows I think *everyone* should watch. 

- Tim

Hey Brian,

You know you were just joking but Fresno is great: the airport is like Meuller was, it’s less than two hours from three National Parks and the area is affordable. Well, California is affordable.

Love you!

PS Go Oak! (Ask Tom, he’ll tell you what that means)

- Norm 

Brian, Justin, Tom, and Bryce.

Guys it is time... We need to find a way to make the draft work.  Cut the billion dollar money makers (Avatar 2 and Avengers). Extend it out to Jan 1 to get 30 movies. Have a Second round draft in September...

The draft makes summer so much more enjoyable. I have coworkers for whom this is their gateway into the diamond club and it gives us a way to bond outside of the office.  The movie draft is precious and I hope to hear announcements soon.

- James

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