Kings of Streaming

Kings of Streaming
Number	99
Broadcast Date	December 7, 2015
Episode Length	55:58
Hosts	Brian Brushwood, Tom Merritt
Guests	Ewen Rankin

YouTube wants its own House of Cards, NBC's new comedy channel is in beta, and Twitch comes to Android TV.

Guests

• Ewen Rankin

Intro Video

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny - Trailer - Netflix

Primary Target

• YouTube in talks with studios over streaming rights for shows, movies.

WSJ “People Familiar With the Matter”

Susanne Daniels (Head of YTO, former MTV)

Kelly Merryman (Content partnerships, former Netflix)

Meeting with studios and production companies

new content and licenses for 2016

Using Google Play relationships

Signals Intelligence

• Seeso, NBCUniversal’s Subscription Service for Comedy Nerds, Is Here

Seeso kicked off free beta trial Thursday, Dec. 3

Eventually costs $4/month

NBC shows like The Office and Parks and Rec, SNL

Kids in the Hall, Monty Python, UCB

Late night clips and full shows

Gear Up

• Twitch Comes to Android TV

Android TV gets Twitch

That puts Twitch on Shield TV which becomes only box that can broadcast and watch Twitch

Twitch also updated its Android mobile app to give everyone the new Whispers 2.0 functionality, aka an "enhanced chat experience."

Front Lines

• Miss YouTube Video Responses? Vessel Brings Them Back With Launch Of “Threads”

Vessel is adding the ability to respond with videos, something YouTube used to have but got rid of because of supposed low usage. It’s called “Threads” and lets anyone, even people not paying for Vessel video use the feature on Vessel’s iOS and Android apps, starting with a few creators and expanding from there.

• Vevo Buys Showyou To Take On YouTube In Subscription Content

Music video service Vevo is a acquiring ShowYou, a curated subscription-based video streaming platform. Showyou offers a wide selection of video from content providers like NASATV, the AP, Reddit TV, VICE Media, ABCNews,and more.

• The BBC is testing TV shows that adapt to your tastes and personality

The BBC announced its working on something called “Visual Perceptive Media” last week, an experiment that automatically edits video stories to suit the viewers tastes. An app tracks music tastes and asks personality questions, then assembles a version of a video drama for you. Action may change, character perspectives emphasized, scenes may be lengthened, shortened or cut. Color palette and soundtrack may also vary. There’s no public prototype yet.

• Streaming Video Now Accounts for 70 Percent of Broadband Usage

Sandvine’s latest broadband usage numbers show video taking 70% of bandwidth in North America. Netflix takes 37.05%, YouTube 17.85%, Amazon 3.11%, iTunes 2.79%, BiTTorrent 2.67%, Hulu 2.58% and Facebook 2.53%.

• The Smartphone Is Eating the Television, Nielsen Admits

Nielsen says TV viewing by all age groups has been declining since 2010. In May, among 18-34-year-olds, the use of smartphones, tablets, and streaming boxes increased 25% to 8.5 million people per minute while TV viewing fell 10% to 8.4 million peopler per minute.

• DirecTV will broadcast live 4K content by “early next year”

DirecTV announced it will launch 4K broadcasting service sometime in early 2016. DirecTV has some 4K but it only works with its Genie HD DVR and Select Samsung TVs.

Under Surveillance

• Netflix to double its original programming in 2016

Netflix content head Ted Sarandos said Monday Netflix will almost double its number of original shows in 2016 from 16 to 31. Netflix also plans to release 10 feature films, 12 documentaries, 10 stand-up specials and a whopping 30 children's programs

• First trailer for "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny"
• Netflix will release a one hour Marco Polo special called “Marco Polo: One Hundred Eyes” on December 26th.
• Brian: The Profit, The Man in the High Castle (ep4), Transparent (most of 201), The Leftovers 207-210, Fargo
• Tom: Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Doctor Who, The Flash, Arrow, The Wiz, Fargo (208), Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, A Very Murray Christmas, Leftovers (210)
• Ewen: The Man in the High Castle, Terminator Genisys
• On the Lookout: From Kevin: Charlie Jade (via Hulu free)

"This show is part scifi and part detective show. It's a 20 episode single season/story. It is very cinematic. The visuals and the score are a big part of the experience.[...]It's not full of action. It's actually a slow moving story that rewards you for paying attention. Not for everyone but those folks who appreciate good scifi will likely want to watch it."

• Easy background shows for holiday get-togethers: Mythbusters, How It's Made, Pawn Stars, Bob's Burgers
• What's streaming online in December by Iyaz

Dispatches From The Front

I went to go watch Man in the High Castle this weekend, and I found that it is ONLY available if you sign up for Prime. I prefer to use Google Play for my video content when possible, and this is one of the few shows that I can get on Amazon, but not on Play, and I previously found that the free Prime shipping in my area was worse than UPS or USPS in that they kept delivering packages to my neighbors instead of to me. If I could just pay for a month of Prime, I wouldn't mind quite as much, and I've already used the free 30 trial to find out that I dislike the shipping service used. Or, If I could just buy the season, that would be my preference.

- Brian

"Hello wonderful employees, Just got this survey in the mail Saturday. It's not a diary, just a $2 bribe to fill out a survey and possibly be contacted. I'm kind of excited to provide a cord cutting opinion. I can't help but wonder though, what difference it will make as the only prime time show I actually watch live is Big Bang Theory. Keep up the wonderful work, and Merry Christmas to you both 🎄.

- Jay, Bozeman, MT

We've been a TiVo household for 15 years now, and I have to agree that an Android-powered TiVo is perhaps the best cord-cutting device idea yet to be conceived! We currently have a TiVo HD and a Fire TV attached to each of our two televisions, and switch between them to watch broadcast television and streaming content, respectively. So far none of the new TiVos to come out provide enough additional value for us to justify upgrading, especially since we bought the lifetime service for each TiVo. If TiVo came out with a device that had Android apps built-in AND can implement something like their OnePass technology to search for content on multiple services, they will be killing cords all over the place!

TL;DR: Android + TiVo = SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!!

- "Stealth" Dave

In Episode 98, the last ""Dispatch from the Front"" that Tom read from Marcus; he was looking for a way to figure out when new episodes premiered. I use ""followshows"" they offer and iOS and Android app along with a website. You just create a login and ""follow"" any show from all the networks and Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc. It works well for me and I like the calendar view to tell me which shows are coming on for the night. You can also mark an episode ""watched"" so if you know you are not going to watch the others episodes for awhile you know what episode to start back on. It's a free service I have never paid for it, they may mess up on a show every once awhile, but I find them pretty good at getting everything updated. From what Marcus wrote I think this service will help him out.

followshows.com

Follow Show Google Play

Follow Show iTunes

Thanks, - James

People keep telling Tom that Vudu isn't on Fire TV even though he keeps saying he can watch his movies there. He thinks he figured out his confusion

Links

• http://www.cordkillers.com/blog/2015/12/7/cordkillers-99-kings-of-streaming
• patreon.com/cordkillers
• 2015 Winter Movie Draft

Preceded by: "Ask-it Basket"

Kings of Streaming

Followed by: "Cat Video Stink"