Cordkillers is Your Fault

Let's Speculate Irresponsibly
Number	31
Broadcast Date	August 3, 2014
Episode Length	1:09:19
Hosts	Brian Brushwood, Tom Merritt
Guests	None

Pay TV subscribers dropping but nobody cares. Also why Hulu is getting less annoying.

Guest

• None

Opening Video

• Mike Tyson Mysteries

Primary Target

• Pay TV companies shed video customers, but revenue rises

DirecTV

US Subscribers Lost 34,000

Income up 22% (AS/cust 4%)

Charter

Subscribers Lost 29,000 video (gained 49,000 broadband)

Income loss $45 million (increased rev./customer 2%)

TWC

Subscribers lost 152,000 video (gained 67,000 broadband)

Income up 3.7% (AS/cust 1.7%)

Secondary Target

• Cord-cutting hits Europe
• German broadcaster next to build Netflix competitor

U.K. research group IHS Technology

Growth in traditional pay TV declining in 12 European territories in the first quarter of this year.

DECLINE - Italy, Scandinavia, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Central and Eastern Europe

RISE in Germany France UK

Netflix launching in 6 European countries in September (Germany is one)

German public broadcaster ARD building competitor and Austria’s ORF investing in Filmmit

Signals Intelligence

• Hulu now lets you watch free TV shows and movies on Android

Hulu for Android has most all free content available on mobile.

Coming to iOS later with redesigned app

Gear Up

• Apple TV Gets CNBC And FOX NOW Channels
• What is on Apple TV

What the heck is up with Apple TV?

CNBC and Fox Now added.

Too many apps now?

Under surveillance

• The first trailer for 'The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies' shows a Middle-earth ready for war

Front Lines

• Netflix and AT&T came to an interconnection agreement in May and those connections are just now turning up.
• Since XBMC doesn’t even work on the last two versions of the Xbox, they’re changing the name of th emedia center software to Kodi.
• Netflix saves another show as season 4 of The Killing goes live for a short final season.
• Sony has added 3D Blu-ray playback support as part of its latest PlayStation 4 firmware update. (Xbxox One is getting it sometime this month too)
• A 21- minute featurette called “Prelude to Axanar” is out for you to watch atthe Axanar Kickstarter site.

The film is about the first major Federation/Klingon war, staring Tony Todd, Kate Vernon, Michael Hogan, Richard Hatch, J.G. Hertzler, Gary Graham & Alec Peters.

2014 Summer Movie Draft

• http://draft.diamondclub.tv/
• 1. Amtrekker: $710,276,699
• 2. TMS: $628,566,340
• 3. DTNS: $606,076,934
• 4. Night Attack: $449,641,313
• 5. GodsMoneybags: $430,344,625
• 6. /Film: $411,718,526

On Screen

• Brian: The Leftovers, Orphan Black, Guardians of the Galaxy
• Tom: The Leftovers, Rome, The Shield (211), Guardians of the Galaxy

Dispatches From The Front

Hey Guys,

I remember you used to do a “is this illegal, unethical, or both” bit on your show, so I had a question for you.

Hypothetically, if I where to purchase digital copies of movies and TV shows, and then go download them off a torrent site, to have DRM-free backups, is that cool? I know technically it’s illegal, but I feel like if you’re paying for it already, it’s not hurting anything to have a clean copy, especially because someone could just buy Blu-Rays and rip them to essentially achieve the same thing, which is totally legit.

Thanks, love the show!

Jake

Gentlemen, it's your boss (Tom, that's double for you (DTNS)).

Hey, I thought you might want to hear my cord cutting experience today. I unplugged the DVR box and took it down to the Time Warner building on Mopac in Austin, Texas. I did this so that I would not get the counter offer over the phone which I have taken at least twice over the years. The wait was about 45 minutes, which really wasn't that bad. I told them that I wanted to cut off the cable and phone and keep the internet. The lady was nice and then she told me that I would be billed 40 bucks to turn the service off. I said, "that doesn't make sense" and she said, "yes it does". She said that the 40 bucks was to have someone come out to my house to make sure that the basic cable was not still coming into my house. She said that I could dispute it (over the phone) with the billing department if I wanted to. I probably will, but it just gave me a sick feeling in my stomach leaving that place knowing they got the last laugh on me with that 40 dollar charge. I guess that 40 bucks is just two months rental on that box I just dropped off, anyway. Happy Cordkilling! Thanks for the show.

Steven

Hey guys,

I've got a couple things:

1) I've got a place in College Station and I tried the cut-the-cord challenge with Suddenlink and didn't fare so well; they didn't offer a deal so I cancelled my cable and ended up with internet only saving myself $5 a month. Oh well.

2) I've got a friend who's interested in cutting the cord but is looking for the best cord cutting solution for Spanish language channels. I suggested Roku before I heard the Spanish requirement but didn't see many Spanish channels on their marketplace. Could you talk about options for non-English speakers for me to share?

3) And I think you've covered this before but I can't seem to find it. Is Roku built into any TV's? Or is it just an external box?

Thanks!

Norm (one of your 1928 patrons)

Hello Killers,

I have a few related question for Brian. Could you talk about what it is that you currently do to watch video (TV, movies and so on)?

I would imagine since you cut the cord now that you are on "vacation" away from your home set up it would be easy to just go through the same motions to watch the content you want? Do you find yourself only watching on your laptop? Or is there a device that you took with you (Roku, apple TV whatever)?

Cheers!

Byron

Hey guys,

With all this talk of Net Neutrality and bandwidth, how about discussing data caps? I mean, the mega ISPs instituted these, when? 3-5 years ago? Are they planning it increase them - ever? Shouldn’t that be something they do on say an annual basis? I mean, internet use is NEVER going to decrease.

Just something else to throw in the pot to stir things up.

Steve

Links

• http://www.cordkillers.com/blog/2014/8/3/cordkillers-ep-31-cordkillers-is-your-fault
• patreon.com/cordkillers
• Dog House Systems Cordkiller box

Preceded by: "Let's Speculate Irresponsibly"

Cordkillers is Your Fault

Followed by: "Cord Apathetics"