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This week on Superhero Slate, Superman lands with a NEW trailer, Avengers set photos reveal some X-sighting details, Spider-Man Noir makes a live-action debut, and more! News HBO Max (8:00) Returning to original streaming name after several changes HBO Go, HBO Now, HBO Max, Max, HBO Max Kung Fury 2 (12:35) Leaked 10 minute sizzle […]

Final Destination: Bloodlines opens this week, hoping to pull off a box office heist before Ethan Hunt and Stitch arrive. Superman gets a new, exciting trailer that really nails down the character himself. Andor ends (sniff, sniff) and The Last of Us was just kinda okay this week. Max, formerly HBO Max, formerly HBO Now is now...HBO Max...again. A Game of Thrones spinoff gets delayed, while the already long-delayed Ironheart finally makes its way to Disney Plus. Ubisoft pushes back most of their 2026 releases, and Doom: The Dark Ages is a very different beast than its predecessors. Also, get ready for Local Comic Shop Day in September, and get excited for Ben Grimm vs. the entire Marvel universe.Music: "Sweeter Vermouth" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Hello les amis! C'est le dernier épisode de 2023! On revient sur cette année et demi qui vient de s'écouler depuis qu'on a quitté la radio et ce qui allait avec. Aujourd'hui nous avons monté la prod au fond du jardin (www.laprodaufonddujardin.com) et réalisons des évènements en tout genre qui sont parfaitement alignés avec nos valeurs. Notre vie en général semble prendre la bonne direction... Cependant quelque chose bloque et pourrait mettre en péril les jours à venir... Mais de quoi s'agit il ??? Vous le saurez en regardant le prochain épisode de "Anne So and Greg against the force of the mal" on HBO NOW !!! Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Hollywood was largely shut down when screenwriters went on strike, but they are now being joined by members of the Screen Actors Guild with no end in sight.  This strike came just ahead of the release of the latest summer blockbuster, "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One," which had a big opening globally. But production of next year's "Part Two," like everything else, is now on hold. Also in limbo is the status of the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, scheduled for Sept. 18. As part of the strike, actors can't do promotional work and likely cannot participate in the show. Regardless, the nominations (full list here) were dominated by HBO heavyweights and "Ted Lasso" from AppleTV+. "Succession" led the way with 27 nominations, "The Last of Us" got 24, "The White Lotus" got 23, 74 total for the three HBO shows. "Ted Lasso" led comedies with 21. Besides the latest "Mission: Impossible" installment, we discuss the upcoming "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" releases and a documentary that looks at RAGBRAI — the Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa. Read more Two journalists look inside RAGBRAI for a deeper, cinematic story Where to watch "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" in theaters "Barbie" in theaters "Oppenheimer" in theaters "Succession" on HBO & Max "The Last of Us" on HBO & Max "The White Lotus" on HBO & Max "Ted Lasso" on AppleTV+ "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" on Amazon Prime Video "Barry" on HBO & Max "The Bear" on Hulu "Shift: The Ragbrai Documentary" from the Des Moines Register About the show Streamed & Screened is a podcast about movies and TV hosted by Bruce Miller, a longtime entertainment reporter who is now the editor of the Sioux City Journal in Iowa and Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer for Lee Enterprises based in Madison, Wisconsin. Episode transcript Note: The following transcript was created by Adobe Premiere and may contain misspellings and other inaccuracies as it was generated automatically: Welcome everyone to another episode of Streamed & Screened an entertainment podcasts about movies and TV from Lee Enterprises. I'm Terry Lipshetz, a senior producer at Lee and co-host of the program with the very well-rested Bruce Miller at Sioux City Journal and longtime entertainment reporter. Bruce, you're on vacation with me. I was I was on vacation and I did not do any vacation things. I did not visit animals in a zoo. I did not ride rides in an amusement park. I was basically cleaning crap in my basement. That's what. I planned. And it's not done. It's not done. And now I'm freaked out because everybody's on strike. And that could mean I don't get interviews. I know I wanted to talk about this because we were already shut down sort of anyway with the writers on strike. But now the screen actors Guild voted to strike. So on one hand, not a whole lot of changes because most production was shut down anyway because of the writers. But now the actors are on strike as well. And they won't talk about product that they have that's out there. Now. Directors will. So you can we might be doing a lot of directors, you might hear me saying, Oh, I'm, I'm tired. The all these great directors, you go, oh, do we care? We don't care. But that could be our new our new world order. I think something's got to come to a head with this. I think we're getting to the point where. Come on, folks, you got to move. Otherwise, we're having nothing. And you can only watch so many game shows and so many reality shows and so many politicians talking before you're ready to just scream. And I think that's where we need to see some movement in this whole thing. And I, you know, I stand behind the actors and the writers. When you look at the kinds of money that they're not making and you hear about $1,000,000,000 salary for somebody who's the head of the studio. Is there something wrong with this picture? I think there is. You know, it's kind of interesting. I read a few things about the strike. One was kind of looking at the last time or one of the last times it really came to a head like this, which was I think it was in the early sixties maybe, and it was tied a bit to those payments, you know, like a movie would was starting to get aired on TV. How would the actors get paid residuals? So that was kind of like the big thing. The last time there was a real, real big strike like this. But now we're getting into a situation where we're looking at things that, like I and I saw in one report, I think it was Rolling Stone. It's almost dystopian in a sense where they wanted to pay someone is an extra and they talk about, you know, everyone gets hung up on like how much Tom Cruise makes, you know, how much this actor makes and that. But the reality is, is that's like a teeny tiny percentage of members of the Screen Actors Guild. And a lot of it are extras, people that just like stand in the background who make maybe $200 a day at at just whatever the going rate is. And what they were looking to do is like, we would scan your image, pay you the $200 fee, but then only that. Yeah, we, we you know, we own that image of you in perpetuity and, you know, we don't need to bring you in. And I, you know, for, for a perspective of the actor, I would be on strike too. There's no way you know that's that's good money and it's connections. It's this is how you meet people you like. You go on a you go on a on on stage. You know, you go on to a set, You meet people, you meet other actors, you meet directors, you meet screenwriters. This is how you get your foot in the door. And you look at some of the legendary, you know, you talk about like Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford, who's been in the business for 60 years. He was for a decade was working like odd jobs. I think he was a carpenter. But he had. These, like little fill in roles. And then he finally broke through with with Star. Well, American Graffiti in that little role. But then Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Yeah. It's it's interesting how I think you need to make $26,000 a year in order to qualify for insurance. And not that many people make $26,000 a year, which is really scary, I think. And, you know, I've never liked the idea that you could scan somebody and then create a performance. I find that just that's abhorrent when you think that they would like to take Marilyn Monroe, scan all the things she ever did, and then have her in new films. Now, this is not happening. And I think that's one of the big problems. Also, we thought streaming was such a great thing. Streaming. They were paying them next to nothing to do these shows. There were people from Orange is the New Black who said, you know, they barely made money and they had to have some other kind of job just to be able to keep that job. This is ridiculous. This shouldn't happen, especially when they're making such huge sums of money out of this. Pick a side. But I really think that the angels are on the side of the actors and the writers at this point. I find it hard to believe. I mean, any time there's a contract negotiation, a strike, and you have, you know, labor up against management, there's obviously they'll come together and meet in the middle somewhere. But it feels like this one, based on some of the issues, could drag on for a while. And it is like I mean, I try to Im a journalist, you're journalist. We try to, you know, stay neutral on things. But I'm having a hard time siding with management on this one. This is a this is a tough one. When you get into like, you know, people are trying to just make ends meet on a on a you know, on a set and try to break through in an industry. We could be duped. I don't know. I'm not saying that we are, but I had never heard that they made this little money. You know, this was not an issue before we got to the strike situation. And so I wonder why people didn't bring that up earlier, especially when they were negotiating with streaming services about because they were all so excited that there was so much content and there were so many opportunities. And then all of a sudden now it's yeah, they didn't pay well. Why is this? Why did this happen? I do know that they look a lot at European Australia in other countries for actors and so I'm sure that there must have been some easier way to get those people to be in films and TV shows than it is to hire Americans. I don't know what the situation was, but you know, you'll always go, Well, wait a minute, they why did they pick an Australian or why is that guy British and he's doing an American accent and it doesn't matter. You want the best actor for the for the situation. But it just seems strange and I just wonder if they don't work cheap. Now, I know in London they have to put together a lot of jobs to be able to make a career out of it. They're not only in like these six episode series. He's they're also on the West End working in plays. They're doing kind of presenter jobs. They're everywhere and they're not just like one movie and done for the year. So you can see that maybe that is a model for the what the U.S. situation's going to be like. I don't know. It's scary though, because I don't want to see game shows all season long. That's what we're going to be facing is a lot of game shows. Yeah. And you know, you look at the big movie that opened this past weekend, which was the latest in the Mission Impossible series, Dead Reckoning. Part one will Dead Reckoning, Part two now is on hiatus because it was still in the middle of production and they had to shut it down. So, you know, we're now at a situation of like, yeah, we don't want game shows, but there's a lot of movies. You know what? What does our summer movie situation for 2024 look like? If this gets extended. We'll look at Colbert where they weren't able to make new films. And so then they kind of stretch things out for a while. These are long dry spells and I don't want to bail out from stuff I liked when we had a lot of card debt, so maybe I'm in the minority there, but a come to a conclusion, make it equitable for everybody and get us our entertainment back. You mentioned Mission Impossible. I went to Mission Impossible 2 hours and 45 minutes. Yeah. Does not need 2 hours and 45 minutes because 2 hours of that is it's stunt work. And yeah, I can I could make a case where we need a best stunt ensemble Oscar because easily you could, you could see what they've done. But what's interesting about that is a lot of the stunts are very similar to ones in Indiana Jones. The latest one, there are bullets running on top of a train. You know, they're both coming to the edge of something. They're in all different kinds of vehicles. There are many, many parallels, like are they looking at each other's own homework and saying, well, we should do that, too, because if they're going to come out with that, we need that. We've got to have that. If Barbie is running on a top of a train this week, when Barbie comes out, I know that there was. There a motorcycle? Yes, maybe you know this, but I read somewhere or saw somewhere years ago that Tom Cruise needs a motorcycle. And every movie he does. He comes to the end. You've seen it probably in the previews. He comes to the edge of a cliff and looks like falling off it. But, you know, and God bless him, he is a hard worker and likes doing that crap. But enough. We don't need all of that. And you can easily see how if he edited it, it'd be a better film. I have. You know, I've always said this, you know, if it's 90 minutes or less than 2 hours, that's a good sign. They need to be able to kind of pull it in. And it used to be they did, because they wanted to get more showings in a day so they'd make more money. Now, if you see two, two screenings of a film in one day, Oh, that's okay. We're all right with that. I don't think so. I'm with you on the length of films, especially to as I've gotten older, it just feels like I, you know, I get that big drink and then it's, you know, two hour, hour and 45. I'm already like, can we wrap this thing up a little bit? I got a great right here. And then how are they going to have extra scenes after the credits? Do I have to sit for that or do I run like a rat? Yeah. Was was there an extra scene at the end of Indiana Jones? I don't. Know, because I had to run like a. Rat. I did too. I blind. I was. I was so quick getting out of car. We'll see what happens. You know, what's interesting is Oppenheimer opens this week as well. Yes. And Christopher Nolan is one who really appreciates the old way of doing things. He doesn't want to use special effects that he can easily do, you know, with stunt people, with locations, with cars. He doesn't want to have some animator making his movie, basically. And he does black and white with this and an IMAX camera. I mean, it's there are things he is doing that are so remarkable that others need to look at instead of trying to see how how high the bar can be. Maybe you should just make something that's a little more artistic. Just talk on here. We'll see what happens. But have you have you been able to see that one yet or are you waiting until this week? Oh, oh, waiting for the Barbie Hammer? Yeah, I'm Barbie Hammer. I'm waiting to see what happens with it. But yeah, so I, I think more need to follow this lead. And I think, you know, we're going to be fine this year for best picture candidates. You have Martin Scorsese, big film coming out that should be a real strong contender. You have Oppenheimer, which is good. You have the going way back air from Ben Affleck. So there are good films this year, but it could be a drought next year if we don't get people back to work. Box office numbers were interesting this past weekend as well. A solid opening for Mission Impossible. 80 million domestic Indiana Jones, only 12 million. Now overall, Indiana Jones is at 300 million worldwide, just over 300 million worldwide. So it's today. But it the numbers I saw Disney reported, I think 295 million to make it. But there's some estimates that have made it may have actually been closer to 400, you know, with the promotional stuff. So it's still like it either just made back its money or maybe has another hundred million to go. But it will, I'm guessing it'll it'll get there at the end. But, you know, it was a solid week for Mission Impossible. That's already at 235 worldwide. So it's a really strong opening overseas. Do you see that one continuing on and and really bringing in, you know, is that going to be a top five? Oh, yeah. It's Top Gun. It's this year's top gun, Italy is that they make the most money. I think it'll be interesting to see Barbie I think will run away with it or the week because there's enough talk about Barbie and it got good reviews to begin with. Oppenheimer is a little more a acquired taste. And you're not going to get the kids at that. Well, you're not going to have that big repeat business, but I don't think they're looking for it any way. So I think mission could probably be still number one. Barbie could be a strong number two. Yeah, Barbie. To me, Barbie could end up as a runaway hit also, because you're going to get the kids are going to want to see it. But it's that type of movie where the and I told my I told my wife and daughters like, you want to go see it, I'm coming with you. Don't don't run out in the middle of the day without rad. Yeah. That's this is what But I think it has a better message. And they say that Ken steals the film. So you feel sorry for Ken because Ken is kind of also in the cast, if you will, And he kind of pleads his case in the course of this. So I think, yeah, I'm I'm I'm leery of the two ones. I'm waiting for Barbie because I know I, I want to see IMAX version of Oppenheimer. Yeah. And I won't see it the first week. Have you seen the reels, the IMAX reels? It's been they've been popping up on like tik-tok and stuff. Instagram, it's like 11 miles of film. Were there to create an extender on the reels just to hold it just for this movie. Wow. But I missed those days. I really miss exhibition. Exhibition was a big thing back in the day where you had Do you remember Cinerama? Was that ever anything in your your. Oh, okay. These were it was three screens and they were synched so that they all it created one kind of curved picture and they were not theaters that showed other kinds of films. It was basically you went for Cinerama how the West was what you would see it kind of going across the screen, the wagon train, Grand Prix. It was a car race. And so you see that wishing bye. So it was very kind of different and those things were long run. You would go, it was like going to a theme park and you would go, and in my day you had to dress up and they didn't have popcorn and they didn't have soft drinks. They would have like an orange juice or some wine made or something like that. It was very much like going to the theater. And you felt very special when you were at these kinds of things. But it was a different kind of world where the seats were great. There was an overture that started the whole thing, and I think we're missing that. I think that would be really cool to have that kind of buildup for. I know. I think they need to go back to that and look at that. But yeah, Cinerama was an interesting experiment and it was during that time they were trying a whole bunch of different kinds of visual tricks. And then more recently when they did Censor Round, which was where you sound all around you and you felt like, you know, an earthquake was a big one to try it where you actually felt like there was an earthquake in the theater. So I think that's where the future lies more than is. You need to look at how you make the experience special. I don't know that you'll get rid of popcorn, but I do think that you will. You can make it just a little higher. And that or one of the things is when we got the good seats, you know, those. The recliner seats. Yep. That's a nice little that's a nice little touch. I do remember being at a theater once where they gave you a blanket and this is big. You guys bring blankets to the theater? No, my. Well, my wife and kids, they always pack a sweatshirt or something with. Their classic bring you blankets. Well, at this theater, it was in Pasadena. You were given a blanket. And then they had a table where they would wait on you like it was a restaurant. They would have heated seats. It was like it was like better than your house and somebody was waiting on you, which is even I mean, tater tots in your movie. You didn't care how bad the movie was. You were being taken care of. So I think that is the the one area where they can they can sharpen it up a bit. They heard the the AMC theater that is literally within walking distance of my house. I mean, it's just it's a mile from from where I live. So it's it's super convenient but it's it's about 20 years out of date and it doesn't have all those fancy amenities. And it really could use an overhaul. But we're in that area of the state where, you know, if you just go to Madison or you decide to go on a walkie, you can have that stuff. So it's almost like, you know, well, will AMC keep this one moving along or do I just have to be happy with it, you know, until they decide to shutter it or whatever? Because it's just I don't think the foot traffic is there to support even the fancy recliners. We went my wife and I went to a movie, probably going on ten years now when we were living in Appleton, Wisconsin. It was a really small theater. They were showing. It wasn't quite bargain movies, but it was kind of in between. It was in that in-between stage of like first run and then bargain basement and they had tables set up in front of you. And right before the movie started, you'd put in your food order and then like 20 minutes into the film, you would start getting your burgers or chicken fingers or whatever, and you got full service. They had beer and so made and everything. Thanks. Yeah, yeah. So it was that was an interesting concept. But, you know, that was it was kind of a small theater. The screen wasn't huge, so you wouldn't go there to get blown away. It's just more of a different experience, I guess. I remember when we had drive in theaters, you got real dinner food, if you will. You know, there would be a dog or something, you know, I have or whatever it was. And we always had that was like, Oh my God, this is so great. And all it was was where you could spill on the car and you'll risk the wrath of Dad because we're not spilling in the car, so you're not getting on it. But yeah, we have it. We have a drive through not far from us. We took the kids a couple of years ago to see the remake that that live action Lion King. It was fun. It was fun to sit out there. But, you know, I was just like, please, may the batteries still start. When we started the car. I would worry. About yet because you know, the old ones and well this is the soundtrack all right. You think what did they say? They need to close caption these suckers because I don't understand what they're saying at the time. But it was you got out of the house, you know, and I remember, too, that it was car night where you would get as many people as you could get in the car for $1. Mm. And, you know, it was like they were, they were coming lately or clowns at a circus, the cars would be filled and then they would all sit on the wheel after they got in the, in the drive in theater. So you know, who knows where, where the future lies. But I think it's an exhibition. Yeah. Yeah. That's an interesting point especially is is home theater experiences continue to explode with streaming. And speaking of streaming, Emmy nominations came out last week. Now, okay, here's the thing that I think is wrong with the Emmy nominations there. There is a category where there are two shows represented, White Lotus and Succession, and they just over dominate in some of these categories. I think some of the other shows are not even considered. You know, they'll all watch succession, for example, because it's a buzzy show and then they just start picking the people and putting them in there. And I'm not saying they're not worthy, but. Right. You think what the you know, how many thousands of hours of content there couldn't be more. So I was shocked by that. I, I do think that we're going to see maybe some surprises in the comedy categories. For example, several shows are quitting. Yeah. It's who gets the last damn eight, you know, on the way out. And I it'll be interesting to see if they'll if they're going to reward a new show in that category. The bear is nominated for best comedy you still as other times this is Maysles going out. Ed Lasso's going out Yeah. Supposedly is going out. So, you know, how do you split that boat? I don't know how it's going to be. And then you have ones that aren't even in the mix because they didn't have episodes this year, like Hacks. So we'll see what that all brings. But I wouldn't doubt that something like The Bear couldn't slip in there and win it. As a sports fan, right? Sometimes you'll see in baseball a team will have a really good player, but or they'll have to really good players. And then there's a third guy. So as a mets fan, in 1988, Darryl Strawberry had a really good half of the season. Kevin McReynolds had a really good half of the season, and then Kirk Gibson for the Dodgers had a really solid, like start to finish, right. You know, so you ended up having two guys from the Mets effectively split the vote with voters and then Kirk Gibson comes out on top. So I sometimes wonder, too, you know, you've got shows, Ted Lasso, Barry Marvelous. Mrs. Maisel. So if you start splitting that vote because people are getting nostalgic, it's like, Oh, I want to give it to Barry, I want to give it to Mrs. Marzel, then yeah, all of a sudden the bear shows up and can slip in there. You know, I had ones where I have said to people, I think you should win, I think are really good. And they say they're not pushing me. So that means that the studio or the producers of this show may have one in mind and they'll give them more of a publicity campaign then somebody else. And then who knows what the Emmys are going to be like if the strikes are still going on. Do they hand them out or do they wait? Do they? Right. Did they delay the program until February or something? You know, in get it out of get it out of the fall? You know, interesting point I think you made with the number of actors, too. And you look at so many of these shows now like the White Lotus, like succession, like Ted Lasso, these are ensemble casts. How do you pick? You know, I can understand with some shows you're like, this is clearly the best actor nominee. This is clearly the best actress nominee. These couple characters, you know, like what Cheers. Like you would always Ted Danson is the best actor nominee. No, no disputing that. Or or Kirstie Alley is the best actress. And then you might go to a norm or somebody else's as a supporting. But when you have the White Lotus, which is an ensemble show, how do you even differentiate who it is or succession? You know, a lot of times if you look back in the history of some of these shows, they don't have enough screen time to really merit the nomination, but they get the nomination and so they've got to hope that their producers write an episode for them that kind of is built around their character. So they have enough to show off. And it's not like, Oh, what happened here? Hill Street Blues was notorious for giving them little kind of moments, but not enough moments to add up to a big you know, win. Daniel to bond. He always won because he was the lead. And you could tell he was the lead. L.A. Law another example of, you know, I supporting person could win e r a supporting person could win, but not necessarily somebody who is in a better category because they didn't have the scenes that add up to whatever somebody else could do. Or if it's something that is very common, like or Angela Lansbury never won, she was nominated like 13 times for murder. She wrote Never Won. Well, she was facilitating a story for everybody else. And she was kind of the glue, not necessarily the one who went crazy and was the murderer. So she, you know, as a result, probably not going to win. My take on the Emmys, too, in this kind of goes back to my own streaming habits and subscription habits. Now, we've talked about like with Apple TV Plus I kind of come and go from that. You know, I'll I got through Ted Lasso. I got through a couple of other shows like For All Mankind. I got caught up on that. I'm probably going to check out a couple of other shows, but then I'm going to turn it off for six months and then I'll wave it again. And there's a couple other ones now, like with Hulu, I would probably drop that one periodically, except for it's, it's bundled together with with my Disney Plus. So it's like I have a deal. So it's not. And then with Netflix there's there's enough things on there to kind of keep me plus the kids really like Netflix so I guess I'm always going to keep Netflix but it's it's even on the fringe for me where I might shut that one down for three months and then come back for it and just save a few bucks here and there. But pound for pound, you cannot take my HBO away from me. And I think the Emmy nominations, it was like 75, 74 nominations between succession, leading everything in the White Lotus, not far behind the Last of US, Not far behind. I mean, there's nothing that HBO for me can't do, right? I mean, there's no reason if you if all I could take was one, I would just go with HBO all the time. I am a big EPICS fan, and then they've kind of muddied the waters by doing Fox on Hulu. So you're not really sure where their home is, but they make great content and they've got good stuff coming up for the next year, so we don't have to worry that all they're going to be out of the water. But like one of my favorites is reservation dogs. That's going after the end of this next season. Fargo has a new addition. That'll be this year. Those are Epix products, but are they Epix on Hulu? So really, it's a Hulu thing, who knows? But HBO pound for pound if they don't mess around with Max Brown has a lot of good stuff. That's the only thing that worries me a little bit. I mean, I've I've been an HBO subscriber either through traditional cable and then they kind of went to that HBO Now thing and then they went to HBO, Max and now it's just Max. I mean, I'm going to keep paying for it, but is as long as they keep these programs going, as long as there is some sort of Game of Thrones spin off or a nice, you know, dramatic comedy like a white Lotus, a dark kind of show like that for the wife and I to watch those types of things. As long as they keep bringing those in, it feels like, you know, one show goes off the air and then there's something else waiting for me. But as soon as that stops, you know, yeah, they're going to lose me for sure. Isn't it funny how you're voting with your pocketbook? It is. And look at how Disney Plus got a big bump when they did Hamilton. You know, people do see Hamilton. They threw it on there. That got a huge number of subscribe for them. And now they're kind of hurting. They're wondering, what do we do? We don't have that kind of content. We'll see what see what happens with that. Absolutely. I've got a movie that's opening here in Iowa. Yes. And it's timed. And if you've never heard of it, it's called RAGBRAI Register's annual. Great. Great bicycle ride across Iowa. I think that's what. I think it is. Yeah. It's a it's a 50th year where they they start at one end of the state and then they they bike across the state for a week and it's hotter than hell. Usually when they do it a lot of little towns get involved in all of this. It's a fascinating kind of social experiment. But it for most people in the state of Iowa, it looks like it's just a big rolling party is what it amounts to. Well, they've made a documentary called Shift, and it's about four groups or four, I want to say four people, But they're like in Kabul, there's two people or there's two people in another and three, you know, But it's four separate stories basically, that are pulled together. That happened during the course of last year's RAGBRAI. And I had a chance to talk to the directors and how they did this and what they chose and how they were making their decisions because you don't have a chance at a second shot. You have to do it all during that week. If you don't get everything shot during that week, not going to happen. And so I had a chance to talk to the directors, Courtney Crowder and Kelsey Kramer, and I think we've got an excerpt from that interview. If you care to listen, tell me about the project. When did you begin it? Why did you begin it? Was it all time to be with the 50th? Tell me all that kind of stuff. So it was when I mean, it was in the pandemic. So like 2020? Yeah. So I texted Courtney and said, Hey, I want to make this documentary and I want it to be really good, so help me. And we ended up we were going to meet at Starbucks, but all the tables were closed because it was the pandemic. So we went to a park shelter and like sat down and spent like several hours just like talking it through and making a plan. And so we did. We knew we wanted it to be time to the 50th, just as like, you know, that was our news, Peg. So when we talked it there, we knew, you know, that we wanted it to be more than just sort of like a historical retelling of RAGBRAI. We knew it wanted. We knew that we wanted it to be about, you know, people. We wanted it to connect with more than just people who are interested in RAGBRAI. We wanted it to be bigger than that. And so we, you know, plotted all of that out at our first meeting, you know, Mid-Pandemic And then really like going on it in earnest the January before the 49th ride. So last January. And then going from there. So how did you pick the people that you'd focus on? Was that like just spur of the moment or was it something that you, you know, we knew these ones would be good. That was our biggest that was our biggest concern going forward is obviously the story had to have the subjects that really propelled it forward. And so as the main sort of producer of the story side, I took that on and started in that January reaching out in every humanly possible. So talking to people who had done RAGBRAI a lot, talking to people on our staff, just sort of reaching out and saying, what are the big stories? What are the things that you've covered in the past that might be good for us to look at? Looking at some of the submissions that people had put on social media about their own stories, I ended up doing more than a dozen phone interviews, which became a little bit fewer, probably a dozen video interviews, and then we ended up with about seven storylines that we actually followed and four that end up in the film. Well, and then have you guys been on a break right before? Have you done the whole thing, or was this like, Oh, wow. I mean, we've both covered RAGBRAI, so I've worked at the Register for ten years and have covered RAGBRAI every year. So like some of the stuff that we include in the documentary are like people we knew about because we are very much involved in RAGBRAI, like the registered side of RAGBRAI coverage. Like, I also have always been a part of the route announcement. Like I've sort of been a big part of planning the Register's coverage of that. So we've we're very involved in it. Yeah, Yeah. So it wasn't a surprise for us. But then on the on a day to day basis, how do you know who to who to track or do you have other people who are going to do all that. And so you make sure you get something from each of them every day or what? Yeah. So we had a team of ten people on the ride, seven videographers and three producers and a lot of it's it's one of those things where it's like plan as much as you can and then throw away the plan, right? So Kelsey and I sat down in the weeks before talking about which which videographer might match with which subject best, like they might have similar life experiences plotting out what days we'd like to do things. And then every day we'd look at that again, right? So we sent them out a week's plan. Then every night we'd say, You know what's coming up the next day? What's coming up the next day? So we were following those seven storylines and then getting beauty shots of Iowa and that kind of stuff. But we were not deviating. We knew those were our story lines. So how. We. Don't freak out our you during all of that is like, Oh my God, we do we have anything new day. I don't know if we have anything today. This could be bad. I feel like it. I mean, Courtney and I really I feel like we really knew what we wanted to capture because we had also spent time with some of the main the main people that ended up in the documentary. We had spent time with all of them before the ride, so we sort of knew like what days were were end, what moments were important, and we had kind of an idea of how their week was going to go. And so I felt like we sort of knew when we needed to be like where we needed to be. And I think we really hit those marks pretty well. Then there was some adjusting, had one photographer ride the whole ride and he bounced around with different different characters. So he spent time with sort of all of our main people. We had one photographer who Courtney got a bike part of the way through. We realized that it made sense to be on a bike with someone. So we, like Courtney, found a bike. We got another photographer on a bike. And I think that's where having a partnership really came into play, because I feel like any time I was reaching that peak anxiety, I could turn to Kelsey and she could call down. And same thing for her, right? I mean, it was a lot. You have you have eight days to get what you need for a movie. And so I'm not going to pretend like that wasn't an anxiety inducing. It was, but it was like, stick to the plan, be flexible and just go, go, go, go. Were you talking to each other on the phone all the time saying, Oh, this is what I found, Oh, this is great. Oh, we got to do this? Or was it like, Well, wait till the end? No, we had texts going, you know, add you can you're in the middle of nowhere in RAGBRAI. So we had texts going all day long, and then every night at five we had this meeting with everybody from our team. You were expected to be there even if you had to go back out and cover stuff at night, you're expected to be there. So that's kind of how we coordinated on the ride. So we talked through every day. We talked about what everyone filmed. So we had an idea every day what everyone had. And then we also had with a we had some extra help. So one of the people who was helping us was a woman named Kathy. And I'm not even going to try to pronounce her last name, but she is the photo editor for the Detroit Free Press. So a part of going back came and helped us. And she was like looking at footage and she was she was out writing and she was like helping us as a producer. She was looking at people spotted and she was sort of helping guides with visual instruction too. And so every day, like all the photographers had a hard drive that they turned in and all the footage got backed up on a hard drive and then people got their hard drives back. And so we were sort of keeping tabs all week. Yeah. Or there were tragedies then where you go, Oh my God, we didn't get it, or I forgot to turn the camera on or anything like that. No, And I think that's a really good point, though. Bruce is like one thing that I learned being a print reporter is the importance of being there. And I think for me that was the key takeaway is if you're making a documentary, if you're doing something on film and it sounds so simple, but it's really not, you have to be there. So even as much as we knew the times that things were going to happen, we really tried to embed with these people because life happens when you're not looking right. Life happens in those small moments. And we just tried to be with them as much as possible because we can't recreate it, at least in our form of our documentary. We don't have animations. This is all things happening in the time that they happened. And so then the documentary is based on what we experience. Yeah, it's we. So it's sort of like we had an idea of what was important, everyone's storyline. And then we sort of took stock of what we had and that was how we determined what was in the documentary. So at the end then, what did you say to each other when it was done? I'm not the documentary being done, but when RAGBRAI was done, did you go, Did we get everything or do we have everything? Do we need something more or do you just kind of sigh and say, Well, let's see what we've got and go from there? You know, I wish I was not so tired and anxious, but 100%, you know, I mean, driving back from Lansing to Des Moines, that's a four hour car trip to think about. Did we get it all? So I was I was definitely a little nervous. But honestly, it was for me, a feeling of euphoria because at the time, Deb, we were there with our characters and we had been apart because we were with them, embedded with them. We'd been a part of their journey and their story. So for me it's like, yes, Director Courtney was, was worried and thinking about, you know, immediately making meetings for Monday. But Courtney was experiencing it with these people, understood that they were overcoming and they were celebrating. And I was excited to be a part of that. You know, I it felt like we got it. Like I felt like I felt like in the stuff that we because we were interviewing everybody as they arrived, like as they were in line to go to the tired it and the stuff that we were talking about in those interviews was like, Holy shit. Like, we are going to have a good documentary like we just like, yeah, we just like captured something really powerful and that I absolutely felt that when we got to the end, like, oh, like, oh, this is going to be good? Yeah. All right, Bruce, thanks for that interview. Interesting. It sounds like an interesting concept. I'm always into kind of these documentaries on Netflix that look at unusual endurance types, things like climbing mountains and surfing. And so even though it is kind of a very regional thing, I think this is a movie that might resonate with me as well. Would you do it or would you actually go on a bike ride across the state when it's 100 and some degrees? Yeah, I'm not sure I will. I mean, when I was a little bit younger, I did a lot of biking. I did a 25 mile bike ride one time as part of a group in Milwaukee, and I used to bike regularly, like 10 to 15 miles, just, you know, kind of in the neighborhood type of thing. I don't know if I could do that. That length and that amount of heat in the summer, that would be a little bit about it. It was like 50 some miles a day. And then you party for the rest of the day and then you get up the next day and do another 50 miles and party that night. That's a lot. It is. I've known a few people that have done RAGBRAI and including one individual who, if you looked at them, probably, you know, you're like, really? You know, because he was much older, not in the best of shape, but he did it. And I mean, because he biked regularly. So he had the he had the endurance to it to do it and he enjoyed it. But yeah, I've been to Iowa in July and August and. Michael, it's October, but I'll stay in the support wagon and, you know, in the air conditioning. Thank you very much and I'll meet you when we get to the small town And I have the piece of pie too, but I won't even had to ride at all. I couldn't. I am no good at writing. Bye. I fall over right away. I have no sense of balance, you know? So it's not my way. When somebody says to you. It's just. It's just like riding a bike, you know. That's not then it's very difficult. It's like riding a bike. I can't do it. Not coming up. So before we wrap, when are these strikes ending? Do we want to do we want to try to put this one out? I honestly at this point, I'm going to go November. Or you go that far. I don't think it'll be that far. No. No. I think something's got to give. I think they're going to get really antsy around the Emmy Awards in September. Okay. And that will get them to think, well, we lost all the free publicity on this. Let's wrap it up. Let's try and do something, I think, before Halloween. Interesting. I the only reason I'm going out to November is I think there's enough besides these horrible game shows and other unscripted, you know, actor free programs out there. The only thing else that's kind of hanging on is we will have the start of the NFL season. We will have college football, we will have the World Series and baseball. We will have the return of things like the NBA and the NHL. I think there's enough sporting events where these distributors and and other studios and stuff to have something there. But come November, people are going to freak out because they're like, well, college football's ending and then bowl season is going to be gone. We need to get people back to work so we can start getting things ready for the start of the new year. So that's kind of where I'm going with like early November. But that's yeah, we'll see what happens. Hopefully you're right. Yeah, I want it sooner. I think I'm ready for tomorrow. Well, we'll see what happens. All right. Sounds good. All right. Well, thank you all for listening to the latest episode of Streams and Screened. And we'll be back next week with Barbie.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It seems like there's always a new streaming app coming or going lately. Take the creators of HBO for instance. In a short span of time, the subscription platform has been called HBO Now, HBO Go, HBO Max and now it's just Max. We discuss the ever-evolving landscape of streaming. Learn More: https://viewpointsradio.org/culture-crash-why-are-streaming-platforms-always-changing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yes MAX is coming, because this is clearly the greatest name for a streaming service, while also showing off its new content. Star Wars Celebration Europe was this past weekend, and it laid out all the ways we can hope for a bright future in a galaxy far, far, away. And we go deep into the Mushroom Kingdom to bring you a review of the Super Mario Bros movie!

Socialite divorcee Tracy Lord is engaged again to the nouveau riche George Kittredge, which puts her back in the spotlight of Spy Magazine's writer and photographer, who've been put on the scent by Tracy's ex-husband in a transparent bid to win her back. THE PHILADELPHIA STORY helped reverse Katharine Hepburn's slumping career, but it's also a fun rom-com that leverages class politics (old money, new money, and no money) in punchy scenes with writing matched only by its delivery. PROTOTYPES FOR THE ROM-COM (Dec 2022 at the Trylon): https://www.trylon.org/films/category/prototypes-for-the-rom-com/ As of this recording, THE PHILADELPHIA STORY is available to stream on HBO Now. If you don't have that or don't want to use it, click here: https://archive.org/details/nupcias-de-esandalo_1940 Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: Title sequences by Franz Waxman from the THE PHILADELPHIA STORY soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 203: THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) 4:24 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 7:29 - Dialogue, writing, and the unraveling performance of class 15:35 - Meeting messy and nuanced characters 38:20 - The ending 46:00 - The Junk Drawer 57:42 - Cody's Noteys: Trylibs – Cukorian Romance (ad libs)

With a BANG, POW, THWAP, and ZAKOW – it's the original live-action Batman! In this episode, we discuss the film's greatest gags, its surprising self-awareness, the compelling choice to make Batman's first live-action outing a straight-up parody of Batman, and what this version of Batman has on the ones that have come since. As of this recording, BATMAN is available to stream on HBO Now. If you don't have that or don't want to use it, click here: https://archive.org/details/batman-the-movie-1966_202211 A COLLECTION OF BAT-LABELS, collecting the explanatory labels on everything in the 1966-1968 Batman TV series: https://batlabels.tumblr.com/ Follow us on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trylovepodcast and email us at trylovepodcast@gmail.com to get in touch! Buy tickets and support the Trylon at https://www.trylon.org/. Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: Opening credits theme by Nelson Riddle from the BATMAN soundtrack. Timestamps 0:00 - Episode 202: BATMAN (1966) 1:52 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary 4:28 - When Batman was a piss take on Batman 18:05 - Stupid jokes that are also very sharp and funny 24:45 - The villains who just want to get their bits out 33:54 - Location location location 38:13 - Comparing this to other Batman films over the years 41:03 - International politics, respectability politics, and Robin is a eugenicist 47:18 - The Junk Drawer 51:28 - Cody's Noteys: Superhero Scrapbook (Batman movie trivia)

In this episode of The Movie Lovers, Jeff and Shanna review Thor's latest sequel and count down their favorite romantic comedies. You'll also hear discussion of Lightyear,The Staircase, and The Godfather Parts I and II. Be sure to check out Jeff's series of articles on the James Bond film series. https://www.thegibsonreview.com/blog/james-bond-a-review-the-dalton-and-brosnan-movies Next time on The Movie Lovers: Nope. Look for it on Tuesday, 8/2. Show Notes • Opening and Introduction • The Week in Review (0:01:27) o Shanna's Week:  The Staircase  Umbrella Academy  Lightyear o Jeff's Week: (0:16:52)  James Bond  Into the 8th Dimension o Our Week: (0:20:36)  The Godfather Parts I & II • The Main Event: Thor: Love and Thunder (0:30:18) o The Good o The Bad o Spoilers and Final Thoughts (0:48:20) • Film Faves: Romantic Comedies (1:04:19) • Where You Can Find Us and Ending (1:58:28) Shanna's Fave Romantic Comedy: 12. The Lost City (2022) 11. Palm Springs (2020) – Hulu 10. Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar (2021) 9. The Proposal (2009) 8. 2 Days in New York (2012) – HBO Max 7. Crazy Rich Asians (2018) – HBO Now 6. Tootsie (1982) – HBO Max 5. Desk Set (1957) 4. Bringing Up Baby (1938) 3. Long Shot (2019) 2. Crazy Stupid Love (2011) 1. Groundhog Day (1993) – Amazon Prime Jeff's Fave Romantic Comedy: 12. Crazy Rich Asians (2018) – HBO Now 11. Notting Hill (1999) 10. The American President (1995) 9. Love Actually (2003) – Netflix 8. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) – HBO Max 7. High Fidelity (2000) – HBO Max 6. Singles (1992) 5. Clueless (1995) – Amazon Prime 4. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010) 3. When Harry Met Sally (1989) – HBO Max, Netflix 2. Shaun of the Dead (2004) – Amazon Prime 1. Annie Hall (1977) – Amazon Prime

Apparently May 21 was National Streaming Day. That's what Roku told us.   We decided to rant about the overwhelming streaming services (and piling fees) we encounter trying to keep with all the entertainment choices out there. The second half of the show is focused on Netflix, the one who started it all.       Reach out at: @thecmonsonpod thecmonsonpodcast@gmail.com Voicemail: 757-204-5495  

In this episode life finds a way to mess up our plans. No Main Event review as planned this time. Jeff and Shanna do discuss Pixar's Turning Red and count down their favorite action movies. You'll also hear discussions of Pink's What I Know So Far and movies starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Be sure to check out Jeff's Tracy and Hepburn: A Review article coming soon on the blog at www.thegibsonreview.com Next time on The Movie Lovers: Morbius and Film Faves: Unreliable Narrator. Look for it on Tuesday, 4/12. Show Notes • Prologue • Opening and Introduction (0:04:00) • The Week in Review (0:05:45) o Our Week:  Tracy and Hepburn  Pink: What I Know So Far  Turning Red • Film Faves: Action Movies (0:24:16) • Where You Can Find Us and Ending (1:00:38) Shanna's Fave Action Movies: 12. True Lies (1994) 11. John Wick (2014) 10. Revenge (2017) 9. Hot Fuzz (2007) 8. The Nice Guys (2016) 7. Nobody (2021) – HBO Max 6. Mission: Impossible III 5. 21 Jump Street (2012) 4. Kill Bill (2003/2004) – HBO Now 3. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) – Amazon Prime 2. Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) – HBO Max 1. Spy (2015) Jeff's Fave Action Movies: 12. Crocodile Dundee II (1988) – Netflix 11. Desperado (1995) – Netflix 10. The Rock (1996) – Amazon Prime 9. True Lies (1994) 8. Speed (1994) – HBO Now 7. Kill Bill (2003/2004) – HBO Now 6. Hanna (2011) 5. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) 4. Big Trouble in Little China (1986) 3. GoldenEye (1995) – Amazon Prime 2. Lethal Weapon 3 (1992) – HBO Max 1. Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) – Amazon Prime

Quick reviews of David Byrne's American Utopia on HBO NOW and The Muppets Haunted Mansion on Disney+ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chatback/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chatback/support

Hey there Lovelies and welcome back for the 220th episode of Final Girls Horrorcast!  This week the girls are celebrating their 5th Anniversary! Listen in as they discuss the films they watching from the past year  and hand out the prestigious 'Final Girl Awards'! To pick your own award winners & play along visit: https://boxd.it/d5DFq Next Week on Final Girls Horrorcast: 'Twister' & 'Monkey Shines' both available on HBO Now

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 2:39NEWS - 2:56Trailer Corner - 3:00The Enemy Of My Enemy Isn’t Always My Friend - 12:25Super Cash Bros - 16:10Pretty Damn Invincible - 20:10Knife Flix - 22:05All Take Commander Forge For $300 - 26:22 Kong VS Godzilla - Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 1:47NEWS - 3:36Cinnamon Toast Cruuhhh WTF? - 2:58I’ll Take PR Nightmare For $2,000 -8:53New Kind Of Movie Premier - 12:33Mecha-Spoilers - 16:18All Righty Then - 23:01It Was A Run By Fucking - 27:14Justice League - 31:06Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com 

This week the guys discuss back-up QB roles, HBO Now, & reveal their Finalists for the 2nd annnual March Madness Bracket of Hotness! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/richolala/support

Get In to the Zack Snyder justice league cut and the first falcon and the winter soldier episodeWe got MERCH! teespring.com/get-in-merch

INTRO - 0:00Re-Intro? - 1:43NEWS - 5:58MoviePass Back - 6:06The Snyder-demic Continues - 10:52Watch The Throne - 15:03DC’s Got Pride, How About you? - 18:51Toys R Us Back… Again - 22:17Guess Woo? - 29:37WandaVison - 32:31Falcon & The Winter Soldier - 64:15The Merch ThoHoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

HBO Max vs Netflix: Which streaming service is best for you? With HBO Max now live, you may be weighing the differences between HBO Max vs Netflix. The streaming service landscape is getting very crowded now and subscribing to all of them isn't possible for everybody. HBO Max is the new platform from WarnerMedia that aggregates content from that company's iconic brands, including HBO, DC and Warner Bros. film and television. Netflix, of course, is a pioneer in the streaming space. It's built a huge library of licensed TV shows and movies as well as buzzy originals like Stranger Things, Ozark, The Crown and BoJack Horseman. HBO Max's price is $14.99, which is the same amount as HBO Now. (Confused? Learn more about HBO Max vs HBO Go vs HBO Now.) That price was lowered to $11.99 per month if you preordered a full year, though that deal has expired. Netflix's price depends on which of the three plans you get. Basic costs $8.99 (standard definition, one stream), Standard costs costs $12.99 (high-def, two streams) and Premium costs $15.99 (HD and 4K, four streams). --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 2:29NEWS - 3:08Screech Passes at 44 - 3:28LeBron vs Courtside Karen - 6:56Coachella 2021 Cancelled - 11:17Funko Fair 2021 - 14:12The Batman Pod - 23:09Wakanda Forever Plus - 26:36Splash | Trash | Meh - 30:40Promising Young Woman - 31:01Shadow In The Cloud - 36:41Archenemy - 47:17Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 1:52NEWS - 3:52This Bud's For You - 3:57Godzilla VS Kong Trailer - 7:00Donnie Darko Returns - 10:45Harry Potter Series - 13:45Jungle Cruise Revamp - 17:48Wars Hits 19 Milli - 21:22The Anthony Mackie Hour - 25:32Outside The Wire - 26:28Synchronic - 37:49Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

EPISODE NOTESINTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 2:29NEWS - 9:55Disneyland Cancels APs- 10:02Boomshakalaka - 14:13Snyder League Will Go Full Feature - 17:10Batman Returns  - 20:10Cap Back! Flame On! - 23:07Matt Back - 26:23House of M - 28:14Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255

On this episode of Rum and Cinema we discuss Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Now. We also wonder what Passion of the Christ would look like if Judd Apatow directed it instead. Then we dive into the age old debate of is Ed Edd and Eddy good?

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 2:35NEWS - 3:52The Dr Needs a Doctor - 4:02Ray Fisher Never Out -6:30Punished By Marvel or Punished By Warner - 11:45Loki Season 2 - 16:42Pratt Back or Push Back -22:11Vaccinationland  - 27:13 MAIN - Marvel 616 - 31:33Unboxed - 34:54Marvel Method - 39:18Spider-Man Japan - 42:38 Higher, Faster, Stronger - 45:42Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

Your Daily Rec: Trailer--Subscribe now for great recommendations, Monday through Friday!

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 3:01NEWS - 5:14Viacom To Hulu Live - 5:30MF Doom - 9:01Michael B Directing - 14:01Cyborg No More - 16:44WB WW 3 - 21:25AMC All Dried Up  - 24:24MAIN - 30:34The Midnight Sky - 30:39Soul - 42:12Wonder Woman 1984 - 55:22Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

INTRO - 0:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 3:17NEWS - 4:46Cyber Refunds - 4:50Stimulus Felony - 16:18The Lion, The Witch, and 007 -23:11Book of Boba - 26:10Patty Gots To Get Paid  - 34:28Dune Returns - 42:12MAIN - 50:27Elf - 54:00Nightmare Before Christmas - 1:08:37Secret Song - 1:27:27Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

INTRO - 0:00NEWS - 3:16Space Jam 2 - 3:25HBO Max Update - 7:00Chris Explains It All - 11:40Disney Streaming & Movies - 14:06Pixar - 27:33Star Wars/Lucasfilm - 29:05Bax Neighbor Shreds - 51:23Marvel - 51:51Marvel 2021 CalendarWanda Viz - January 15 - Mar 5Morbious - Mar 19Falcon Winter - Mar 19 - May 7Black Widow - May 7Venom - June 25Loki - May (May 21 - July 2)Shang Chi - July 9What If? - Summer 2021 (July 16 - Sept 3)Hawkeye - Fall 2021 (Sept 10 - Oct 29)Eternals - Nov 5Spidey 3 - Dec 17Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

INTRO - 0:00What a Trump supporter would say - 1:00Upcoming Episodes & Announcements - 3:03NEWS - 4:02Ear Biter 3 - 4:18Jokes On You Jack - 6:59This Is The Way - 10:22The Disney Flex  - 12:20Welcome to the Octagon - 18:22Warn A Brother - 22:35MAIN - 34:29Hoodies & Tees http://www.teepublic.com/user/gsplash123Protect Your Funko Pops! With PopSheilds! http://7bucksapop.com?aff=255Hit us up on Instagram @gsplashpodcast http://www.instagram.com/gsplashpodcast or in the email info@gsplashpodcast.com

Hannah's Rec: TrailerListen to Frameform: Apple Podcasts | Spotify--Subscribe now for great recommendations, Monday through Friday!

The Power of FilmSmack in the middle of the RNC Convention, we decided to showcase two movies that exemplify the power of storytelling in film to inform our awareness, world view, and, ultimately, our personal politics.Queen and SlimA Bonnie and Clyde for the BLM set? We discuss why this Queen and Slim  talk about other films in this same vein and why they are so important. One of our favorite scenes feature blues legend, Little Freddy King. Queen and Slim is currently streaming on HBO and HBO Now.The Platform The Platform is a Spanish import, now streaming on Netflix. But no movie we've seen recently more adeptly exemplifies our "trickle-down" American way. We need more dystopian allegories like this one, even if it means fewer zombies, but it doesn't, "obvio!"

Electro convulsive therapy (ECT) sounds scary...but is it? This week, Imani talks with comedian Gary Gulman who underwent ECT to treat severe depression. Plus, Imani and Gary compare notes on the way depression has affected both of their lives over the years. Gary's hour-long comedy special, The Great Depresh, is out on HBONow and HBOGo. 

Coding in Schools (0:00:00) Learning computer science is no easy task. Between complicated algorithms, high-level math, and brand-new terminology, coding feels like a completely different language. It can also be boring to learn. But computer science is becoming increasingly important in our economy and could be a great career path. So, what's stopping people –especially women and underrepresented youth –from pursuing an education in computer science? Well, the mission of Code.org, a nonprofit organization, is to make learning computer science more accessible and exciting for all kids. Joining us this morning is Jacki Reid, a Program Manager for Code.org and Director of CS Education at mindSpark Learning, here with us to talk about their work creating exciting coding lessons that engage young learners.   Imposter Syndrome (0:17:30) It's not uncommon for people –especially women –to doubt their accomplishments. This behavior is defined as Imposter Syndrome. Some refer to their success as “just good luck” or “good timing”. They struggle with an internalized fear of being exposed as a fraud. And everyone else is a fool for thinking they're anything but a fake. But, we're here to tell you that you're better, more intelligent, and more competent than you realize. But no matter what we, or anyone else tells you, only you can get rid of self-doubt. So here to discuss impostor syndrome, the ways it affects us, and how to manage it, is author of "The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women: Why Capable People Suffer from the Impostor Syndrome and How to Thrive in Spite of It", Dr. Valerie Young.   Parental Technology Control (0:33:18) If back in January someone had said that kids would be using the internet twice as much as they usually do this year, you might have thought, “Ha! Please, they're already on there all the time.” While that might have been an exaggeration then, it's true now. Our kids are on their devices ALL the time these days. School moved online, visits to grandparents have been replaced by skype calls, even movies are being released on the internet rather than in movie theaters. It's more important than ever that we know what are kids are doing on their devices and that we're teaching them to use them productively. But how much should we monitor or control their technology use? Here to help us out we've invited Sarah Kimmel onto the show. She's a digital parenting coach and family tech expert.   Cable vs. Streaming (0:52:48) If you're an HBO subscriber, you might have received some confusing emails lately about different streaming services they offer...HBO Now, HBO Go and now HBO Max. Why are there so many options, and why can't they all be included on one streaming service? Like HBO, new streaming platforms seem to pop up every other week—Hulu, Apple, Disney, Netflix, Sling, Philo, Fubo, and the list goes on. I don't have the time to sort through them all, and frankly, my wallet can't take it either. Luckily, we have streaming expert Bill Demas with us on the show today to talk us through it.   Becoming Bulletproof (1:10:33) Life is not for the faint of heart. Each day requires more resilience, more grit, and more fearlessness. This has never been truer than it is right now when every day we wake up to the news of the pandemic, quarantine, mask-wearing, or riots. Have you ever wondered how some people do it when you feel like running away and hiding in your closet? Evy Poumpouras served as a Secret Service agent to multiple presidents of the United States and has written a guide to help people live fearlessly called “Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly.” She knows what it means to face real danger with courage. We welcome her to the show today, and we're excited to learn how we too can live fearlessly.   Authentic Indian Food (1:28:30) I think for most people, comfort food is warm, hearty and flavor-packed. And in my mind, a specific cuisine that always fits that bill is Indian food! Today, we have a special treat for you, our listeners. We are speaking with one of India's most celebrated chefs, Ranveer Brar, to hear his journey in becoming a world-renowned chef, as well as to get tips on finding the most authentic Indian food around. 

WarnerMedia is hoping to make things simpler for anyone wondering whether to get HBO Max, HBO Go or HBO Now. Back in simpler times, there were only two HBO streaming apps — Go for cable subscribers, and Now for viewers who wanted a standalone streaming subscription. Then the company launched launched HBO Max last month. […]

  On this week's podcast, our weekly COVID-19/tech sector update, social media and social responsibility in 2020,  ...and much more. COVID-19 Update Red Dead Redemption 2 Is Now Being Used To Host Work Meetings EV and COVID Sweden's EV Market Share At 23% In April, Doubles Year On Year Australian car sales fall by half in April, but consumers still interested in electric and hybrids Electric vehicles show more resilience than conventional cars during Covid-19 shock Tesla is on the verge of breaking into the S&P 500 index. Here's the last thing it needs to do to be eligible. (TSLA) Bots Are Likely Responsible For Nearly Half Of COVID-19 Tweets, Say Researchers Audible Book of the Week Slowdown: The End of the Great Acceleration - and Why It's Good for the Planet, the Economy, and Our Lives by Danny Dorling Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown Music Break: Would I Lie to You by Eurythmics Social Media and Social Responsibility in 2020 Twitter flags Trump tweet with fact-checking label for first time Trump lashes out at social media companies after Twitter labels tweets with fact checks Facebook Executives Shut Down Efforts to Make the Site Less Divisive The Drill Down Video of the Week Making History: NASA and SpaceX Launch Astronauts to Space! What's the difference between...HBO GO, HBO NOW, & HBO MAX? According to Eli Blumentahl at CNET, Millions of HBO Now customers will be upgraded to HBO Max automatically. After the service launches, many of those users will get an app update that simply transforms the HBO Now app into the HBO Max app. Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! The Drill Down on Facebook The Drill Down on Twitter The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are social media enthusiast Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Vudu product manager Tosin Onafowokan.

Hosts: Emrys and Katie Guest: Cady In our Fourteenth episode we meet Cady, who hasn't seen any Horror movies! We staycation in Groundhog Day, we continue to utilise virtual reality, we visit blockbuster video, we look at the picture of Toast Jesus, we leave behind a social media footprint, doves poo on our windows, we learn that parents are people too, we address The Babadook in our basement and get some therapy, we experience heavy subtext, we get Baba-Shook, and we also discuss the movies The Others and The Babadook.Movies The Others (2001) - Time Stamp - 21:46 Written & Directed by: Alejandro Amenábar Where to watch: US: Stream on Starz, HBO NOW, HBO GO, hoopla, Direct TV Buy & Rent from: YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, MicrosoftBuy & Rent: from Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube & Microsoft The Babadook (2014) - Time Stamp - 39:21 Written & Directed by: Jennifer Kent Where to watch: US: Stream on Showtime Buy & Rent from: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube, Microsoft SPOILER WARNING: We will discuss the plot of these movies in full, so if you haven't seen them, pause this podcast, watch them, then come right on back. We also discuss the following films: Groundhog Day, Prom Night, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Birds, Turn of the Screw, Woman in Black, Gone With The Wind, and the tv series: Don't F*ck With Cats, and the book The Science of Stories by Michale D. Jones. Instagram: @curatorsofhorror Email: curatorsofhorror@gmail.com Produced and Edited by: Emrys Recorded remotely using: SquadCast Opening Music: Tiffany Hern Closing Music: Spooky Scherzo by Sam Fonteyn 

Hosts: Emrys and KatieJoin us as we reveal the next two films we have curated. What do we have in store for our next victim?Join us for Episode 14 one week from today on April 24th.The Others (2001)Written & Directed by: Alejandro AmenábarWhere to watch:US: Stream on Starz, HBO NOW, HBO GO, hoopla, Direct TVBuy & Rent from: YouTube, Google Play, iTunes, MicrosoftThe Babadook (2014)Written & Directed by: Jennifer KentWhere to watch:US: Stream on ShowtimeBuy & Rent from: Amazon, Google Play, iTunes, YouTube, MicrosoftInstagram: @curatorsofhorrorEmail: curatorsofhorror@gmail.comProduced and Edited by: EmrysMusic: Spooky Scherzo by Sam Fonteyn

Well well well. look who's back... It's the Gab To-Go, and this week we are joined by big star, our good friend Liz Fitzgerald! Listen as she schools us on what it means to be a writer, while we gab about Mrs. Vicky Lachey, Jessica Simpson's Open Book, Ashlee Simpson, Lisa dragging Millie Bobby Brown, Meghan and Harry changing their instagram handle, Lisa watching intelligent TV, The Friend's Reunion, HBO Go Vs HBO Max vs HBO Now, Wild Boars as an existential threat, and Argo 2: This Time On The Court! Listen and rate 5 stars ONLY! ======================== FOLLOW US: Garrett (@badboygargar) Lisa (@lisa.albano) Jake (@jakewallachfitness @jaking_photos) Liz (Very bravely off social media) EMAIL US: thegabtogo@gmail.com ======================== SEE OUR SHOWS: Gemma & Jemma's Wine Night: https://www.facebook.com/events/2574736329299645/ Mothership: https://www.ioimprov.com/shows/mothership/ Mean Streak: https://www.ioimprov.com/shows/mean-streak/ Stacks: https://thechicagoimprovden.com

The NAB Streaming Experience website can be found hereLearn about NAB Streaming Summit hereDan Rayburn LinkedIn profileRelated episode: What happens when content owners go directThe Video Insiders LinkedIn Group is where over 1,600 of your peers are discussing the latest news and sharing information of interest. Click here to joinWould you like to be a guest on the show? Send an email to: thevideoinsiders@beamr.comLearn more about Beamr TRANSCRIPTION (Note: This is machine generated and may have been lightly edited)Dan Rayburn: 00:00 There's seven, eight years ago when we were all playing in this arena and trying to really figure out the business model today, this is big business. We have tens of billions of dollars at stake. This stuff has to work. It has to be right and there is a lot of pressure on these new conglomerates to make sure that the video workflows, they're building out work properly because it is truly the future of their business. And I think the great way to really drive that point home is just remember all the services that Dan Rayburn: 00:25 launched say five years ago in the market. When the services came out, one, there was no investor day because investors didn't care what you were launching because at the time you weren't spending that much money and it was still a newish experience from a quality standpoint. Today, every single service that's launching is having an investor day where before the service is even out they're projecting to investors of when these services will become profitable. Talk about a shift in our industry. Announcer: 00:53 The video insiders is the show that makes sense of all that is happening in the world of online video as seen through the eyes of a second generation codec nerd and a marketing guy who knows what I frames and macro blocks are. And here are your hosts Mark Donnigan and Dror Gill. Mark Donnigan: 01:07 Welcome to another super exciting episode of the video insiders. We have Dan Rayburn with us again. Uh, this is part two. Yeah, it's amazing. And his first interview was one of the most popular ones on our podcast. We have to say it's the most downloaded and we have a lot to talk to talk about because since the last podcast episode where Dan was interviewed here on The Video Insiders, a lot has happened in the OTT space. I mean, really a lot. Yeah, a lot. So Dan, you know, welcome back to The Video Insiders. Thanks guys. Thanks for having me. You know me, I always have lots to talk about, so I love chatting about the industry. Well you do, you are an easy guest to host, that's for sure. Dan Rayburn: 01:53 I've always got stuff to say, right? I have an opinion on everything, but uh, it's, it's an exciting time in the space. And since we last talked to your point, we've got, we've got Disney out, we've got Apple plus out, we've got some new announcements from, from NBC regarding Peacock. We've, got a lot going on in the industry right now. A lot of confusion as well though. Dror Gill: 02:11 So let me ask you, when you, when you to watch some TV in the evening, can you really focus on the content or are you always looking for kind of artifacts, HDR levels? You know, stuff like that. Dan Rayburn: 02:26 I really don't want to think about the business because I do so much of that when I am reviewing the services from a business or content standpoint, you know, to your, to your point in terms of yeah, I am constantly looking at bitrates. I am looking at, okay, what's coming through my router because I want to see what the maximum stream is that I'm getting from the Mandalorian. You know, I probably have 40 different streaming services here at home and I've got anywhere between 10 and 12 TV's set up. Just sort of a lab environment and plus all the iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, like it's ridiculous, like a Best Buy here. I'm not the average consumer obviously, but, uh, I think like the average consumer in many cases, we are all looking at where the content is. So I've got some friends who, huge Rick and Morty fans and the new Rick and Morty season is out and this and that. Dan Rayburn: 03:10 And I said to him, you know, Hey, next year you're going to be able to stream this. And they're like, yeah, but I can't figure out where. Well, that's a great point. They can't figure out where, because where it's currently is and where it's currently at right now is going to be removed because AT&T has said that this is going to be exclusively under the new HBO Max brand. The average consumer isn't going to know that. So we're still going to have content fragmentation problems. So as a consumer, I think that's the biggest thing that we look at is just what content do we want to watch? Mark Donnigan: 03:39 You bring up something really interesting Dan, and this is a huge hole that I see in reporting on all the new services. It seems like so much of the press is writing about, you know, this service killing the next service. Dan Rayburn: 03:53 The problem is, look, the problem is the vast majority of people who are writing about our industry don't actually use the product. Mark Donnigan: 04:00 Yeah. They don't have 12 TV set up in their house, you know, like you do. Dan Rayburn: 04:03 They don't have one. All of these major platforms that are either telcos, carriers, wireless operators, content owners, distributors, whatever, whatever you want to call them, they're all creating brand new digital platforms for the future. And by that I mean this, when you think of what's taking place in the market right now with mergers, Viacom, CBS, Pluto, right, CBS All Access, CBS sports, CBS news, they are now all going to be converging and building out a new platform for all of these different products and services. That's one. Now throw in NBC sports, NBC news, Playmaker, Peacock, a, what do they also own? New England sports network. One of the other sports things. Throw all those guys in. That's now a brand new stack in the ecosystem. Now let's move on to AT&T. AT&T, Warner, Turner, HBO Max. That's now a whole system. Oh, and I forgot SKY when you're talking about NBC, you got to throw SKY in there too. So think about some of the largest companies that we have out there that are now creating a brand new stack end-to-end to fuel all these different new properties that they have. The biggest thing that you need there when you do that is what? Expertise, Mark Donnigan: 05:22 there might be some cues here because of course news just came out literally a couple of days ago. Fox signed with AWS a a very large deal. Now, um, I was reading some analysis on this and you know, it's because 21st Century Fox when they were acquired by Disney, you know, so there was a split, right? So the studio was acquired by Disney and all of those technical services actually went with you know, 21st Century Fox and of course then being a part of Disney. And then with BAM, now you've got this huge, you know, service organization that's available. And then here was Fox, the TV studio, the sports, you know, the sports side of Fox that needed a complete, you know, service provider. And it appears that they have selected AWS for even more than just, you know, on demand instances. So it's even more than a data center play. Um, and, and so that would seem to give credence to what your saying that, you know, BAM is far more than just a streaming service that, you know, there's, there's a lot of technical expertise and services they're providing Disney. Dan Rayburn: 06:36 Yeah, there's a huge amount and people, you know, really don't understand. I think a lot of people, even in our industry, don't understand what goes into all these services. Just the amount of beacons that are deployed, right. Just the amount of APIs you have to check. All the QoS and QoE reporting that has to come in and the analytics. And that's before you're doing any advertising. So anything advertising based obviously has more complexity tying into all the ad flows. And if you're doing live, okay, now you're talking about stream stitching for inserting ads into a live stream- that adds complexity. You have to think about latency and different ways to do chunked encoding. There's things you can tweak with HLS. There's just so much going on with these workflows and platforms that you really have to have that expertise. And some companies, you know think of Discovery, right? Dan Rayburn: 07:19 We heard from Discovery six, seven months ago when they announced they were going to hire 200 people to build a new streaming department to run all of Discovery's properties. So in some cases you have companies like that go, we want to own this, we want to build it, we'll bring it in house and it'll take them some time to get to market with that expertise. But they'll get there. And then you have other companies like Fox here where they signed that deal with Amazon and you know what they're really using AWS for is a couple of different things on the Cloud Front side, it's to deliver Thursday night football. Amazon already does live football. They kicked off the Premier League a what, two days ago? Three days ago from when we're talking now. So Amazon obviously has expertise in live streaming. The Premier League went off well with no major hitches. Dan Rayburn: 08:01 You did have some users complaining about latency, but that wasn't a problem Amazon was trying to fix just like we saw with the past Superbowl. That wasn't something where they were like, okay, we want to get latency to the same as broadcast. That was not the goal. So I don't see that as a problem. So they're using AWS for video workflows, editing and graphic storage, but also for this new product AWS calls Local Zone that puts cloud computing hardware closer to the edge and the edge is a broad term. Netflix has also signed on to be one of one of the first customers for this new AWS Local Zone service as well. So, it's super important, you know, we as consumers, we all want a good quality service and we expect it and now we're paying for it. So today this is big business. We have tens of billions of dollars at stake. This stuff has to work. It has to be right. And there is a lot of pressure on these new conglomerates to make sure that the video workflows, they're building out work properly because it is truly the future of their business. Dror Gill: 08:58 We're done with experimenting. Now we need to show the money. Dan Rayburn: 09:01 That's right. And you're spending a lot of money to do this. Look at how much money Disney's lost so far just on Hulu and then the acquisition of BAMTech. But they've already said to investors, here's one, we're going to make it back. Here's where we're going to become profitable. So you saw AT&T do that in their, in their HBO Dan Rayburn: 09:17 Max day. And NBC just announced they're going to have an investor day in January for Peacock. We're in a different era. Mark Donnigan: 09:22 Now for, you know, almost the first time, what is being done in engineering and R&D, can actually move a stock price. You know, meaning that the decisions that are made, whether that's technology choices, um, you know, codecs, certain stacks, architectures... If It doesn't work, like the stock is gonna move. And when the stock moves, it has the attention of everyone, you know, up until this point, you know? Yeah. The tech blogs, you know, would, would "dis a service" for an outage or for, you know, poor quality or you know, so yes it would get coverage but it never moved a stock price. You know? Or maybe there was a one day blip and you know, but, but basically it was kind of a non-event. Now that is no longer the case. Right? Dan Rayburn: 10:13 The bottom line is you have to think about profitability. And it's interesting that we're talking about this at a time when, if you think about Uber and WeWork, and some of these other services, what are investors clamoring for now? Profits, forget all this Amazon model of getting big, fast and burn as much money as possible. Thank God we seem to be getting out of that from a investment standpoint right now and in the streaming space, even more so also, look who's getting into the space? AT&T I think right now is the most heavily indebted US company right now. I mean it's insane how much debt that they have. So you also have companies, some of these that are already very deeply in debt that investors want to see anything new that they get into where they're spending billions of dollars to do it. They better turn a profit pretty quickly. Dror Gill: 11:03 But, but uh, Dan, let's look at the other side of the coin. A company that has tons of money, um, in the, in the bank and now they need to find some creative ways to use it in order to get those profits, uh, coming in again. And of course we're talking about Apple. Um, after selling a, you know, so many devices and now they, they've realized that services would be a much larger part of their revenues moving forward. So they, they really in a, in a spending mode and uh, the real question is will they be successful in catching up to the existing services and competing with all this new stuff that is coming out? Dan Rayburn: 11:47 Well, see I don't think they have to catch up though. That's the difference cause their, their business model is different. That's the other thing is people don't look at the business model of these services. You know, if you think about Apple services revenue, it was twelve and a half billion dollars, um, in the last quarter, which is pretty amazing. Their services business grew 13% year over year, so they're certainly doing a good job there. And Apple TV Plus, you know, the whole deal of that is just drive more usage on Apple's platform and services. But the unique thing with Apple of course is, well they own the hardware as we know, but they also own the OS. They own the browser, they own the store, they own the entire ecosystem. What does Netflix own? They don't own anything except content, right? So it's two different business models and everybody throws these, these folks in together and people go, Apple didn't have a successful launch. Dan Rayburn: 12:38 Well they did. They weren't trying to license back catalog. They weren't trying to launch with a hundred shows. That wasn't the goal of their platform because they're driving revenue in different ways. So it's the same way right now that Roku doesn't make a lot of money on their hardware, their seeding it out in the market to obviously drive the advertising business and the Roku channel, you know, the platform business. And Amazon pushing out Amazon fire TVs is what, $20 on black Friday for those sticks. They're not making much money in that either. So I think it's always bad when you see all these services compared to one another in the media and this horrible term streaming war because it's not a war- hate that term. Uh, and a lot of these services are not competing with one another. They don't see each other as competition. Apple is not trying to do the same business model as a Netflix, nor do they need to because it's a different type of company. Mark Donnigan: 13:31 It's excellent you brought up Roku. I'm looking at their Q3 numbers. They just came out like three weeks ago, um, or early November, I believe. And they're advertising revenue for the period was just under 180 million, 179.3 million. It was up 79% from the previous year's quarter, almost double and their device revenue was up 11% so that's good. But it was 81 million. So the point is their advertising was more than double their device revenue, you know, and their, and their numbers are showing on the advertising platform side, you know, just tremendous growth. And of course that's ultimately what they're really reporting around. I mean, yes, their device revenues are significant enough, you know, they're reporting that. Dan Rayburn: 14:22 Yeah, they shifted their business model. Right. I mean Anthony was smart. Keep in mind, Anthony came out of, came out of Netflix, that's where the Roku was born. Yeah, it was incubated there. Initially. Right. And that's where they got some of the money from and, and they realized longterm, I'd say two things were really smart. In the beginning Roku realized Netflix realized they didn't want to be invested in any one hardware company because then they couldn't be Switzerland. They couldn't be neutral. So that was smart to diverse, diversify from the Roku investment that they have. But then Roku also realized, they were smart to realize the writing on the wall here, you're not going to compete longterm on the hardware side. Hardware pricing always gets pushed down and back then if you remember all the different devices, I mean at one point we had 20 different streaming players in the market. Dan Rayburn: 15:03 It was ridiculous how many were out there. Even Vizio had one. Uh, but then really, I think what changed was when Amazon came into the market. Because we all know Amazon pushes pricing, pricing down on everything and we're, we're at a point soon of where I, I, this isn't official, Amazon hasn't told me this, but I will pretty much bet anything that at some point you're going to sign up for prime and you're going to get a stick for free because at $19 now on black Friday, this thing is getting close to being free. And if you're in the hardware business, do you want to be competing with Amazon on something like that? Absolutely not. So Roku realized that Roku had to become not a hardware device, but a platform. And the key thing there was obviously them getting their platform into smart TVs and especially a lot of smart TVs that are not the high end ones, not that TCL, doesn't make some good "high-ender" TVs. Dan Rayburn: 15:54 But you know, the average Roku enabled TV that's being sold is probably $300. Hisense, TCL, some of the others. So they're getting more of them out there. And, and that's really what Roku has become is that platform and their, their latest acquisition of Dataxu. You know, that's interesting because that is a platform that basically will allow Roku advertisers to better plan and optimize their ad spend across TV and OTT providers. And, and that's really smart of Roku. Uh, because this is the future of the company. You're talking about a company that's doing over a billion dollars a year now, in 2019, if I remember that number correctly. So you have to think about how Roku can capture a larger share of the market because as well known as a brand that Roku is, they still have a very small percentage of total households in the U S when you look at the numbers of, they don't call it consumers anymore, devices. Dan Rayburn: 16:55 Um, you know, which is good because like I have a bunch of devices in my house, but I'm one person. So they're growing, but that's something that they have to continue to do. Their monthly active users has to continue to go up. But yeah, Roku is in a really interesting spot in that regard. Their, their stock is incredible in terms of how much volatility it has in any given day or week. Sometimes. Uh, I think the Roku channel is an interesting thing where, you know, they go out and they're starting, they start offering content for free just like Tubi and Pluto and you know, IMDB TV by Amazon and that market is getting very crowded. And frankly, I don't quite understand that market because the content on those platforms is just so old and outdated. I really don't know who's clamoring to see Gilligan's Island. Mark Donnigan: 17:37 Well, Dan, so how should services be measured, you know, from a QoS standpoint? Dan Rayburn: 17:43 Uh, boy, that's a great question. Uh, I think first and foremost you have to look at what the methodology is. Methodology is the key for anything. So, you know, as an analyst, I don't frankly care about opinions so much. I care about data. I think companies should base how a service is doing, whether that's financially, whether it's technically, whether how it's scaling. They should base that on data because data can't be argued with really in most cases. Uh, so I, I think first and foremost is the methodology. And I think what you have to understand there is different companies have different ways of measuring performance. When I go out and do surveys to CDN customers on how they measure, some go, I care all about time to first frame or startup time. Others go, no, I only care about rebuffering. Some go, well, to me latency is most important. Dan Rayburn: 18:25 Well, none of those are more important than the other. It depends on who the customer is. And what their business model is. So as an industry we have to continue to think about these services as, as isolated services as opposed to every throwing everybody in this group of, Oh, you're a video service, you should measure your video quality this way. Not necessarily. So I think methodology first and foremost is most important. I think sharing that methodology is key as well. Uh, but, but I think you should always value a service based on quality over quantity. And we hear that a lot. The opposite of that in the advertising side where everybody talks about how many ads were delivered. But the question I always then ask is to a brand, would you rather deliver fewer ads and have a better viewing experience or do you just care about how many ads you pushed out there? Dan Rayburn: 19:16 And we have to think about that the same way on services that are not ad based. So I think what we obviously know from consumers from all these reports that we've seen, and frankly I don't think we need any more. I don't know why people keep pushing out more reports saying that if the video doesn't start up quickly, consumers are unhappy. Yeah, thanks. We know that. I think measuring quality has to first and foremost come down to what is the experience that you want a consumer to have with your content. That's the first thing. Once you define that experience, now how do you actually decide how to achieve that? Well, there's different ways to do that. We know that some of the basic ones are startup time. We know that customers get frustrated when something takes long to start. We also know rebuffering is a huge issue as well, which is obviously why we use adaptive bit rate encoding hopefully to relieve those issues. Dan Rayburn: 20:03 But it's interesting when you look online you don't see a lot of complaints honestly around rebuffering you see more with just initial startup time, but the biggest complaint you see actually doesn't have to do with the video. It has to do with just getting to the video. So you're having all these other issues in the stack before it actually gets to delivering the video bits and those are the things that really have to be solved. Those are the things that really have to be scaled because scaling the video is not that hard for someone like Disney Plus. Disney Plus launches that day, let's say it was 10 million actual individual subscribers and let's say they were all watching at the same time, 10 million streams across the five CDNs that Disney was using. That's not a big deal at all. It's 2 million streams a CDN, that's nothing. That's not hard, so people always think it's the CDN. Dan Rayburn: 20:56 I think when you're determining quality first and foremost you have to have a good understanding internally at your company, what you think good quality is to you for your service based on your business model, based on your consumers and also based on the type of device they're watching on is the vast majority of your content on mobile. And the reason I say that is as an example, when Quibi comes out next year, it's a hundred percent mobile focused. Do you think their methodology to measure quality should be the same as a Netflix? Because we know everything's going to be viewed on a small screen in short form content for Quibi. It's a different way to measure. I think there's lots of good services out there to help you measure there. There's, there's newer ones coming to the market in terms of what's being measured. You've got services that are measuring how well API's are doing versus how well streaming servers are doing versus ad servers and ad platforms and exchanges. Dan Rayburn: 21:43 And then you think of their traditional stuff that's been out there in terms of telcos and carriers, last mile providers, how they're doing transit providers. When you put all that together, it gives you a much better holistic view of what QoS looks like across the internet from end to end, from glass to delivery. Uh, but we still have a ways to go in terms of really showcasing that. And unfortunately none of these companies after the fact ever share any sort of methodology and they don't ever share any kind of numbers. You know, I worked on those Superbowl was CBS this year and I can't talk to the, you know, the numbers. I know, but you know, it's too bad. CBS doesn't put out from their Conviva dashboard and Mux and all the other services being used here was the rebuffering rate because you know what, it was really, really, really low. Like why not put that out? It shows a great quality service. Mark Donnigan: 22:32 You made a good point earlier that it's very interesting that now, all these big companies are actually staging investor days, or investor conferences around their services, which is like has never happened previously. I wonder if this methodology is going to begin to make it in, you know, to some of the public disclosures, you know, in some way? Dan Rayburn: 22:55 Sounds great. But, come on, if you deal with investors, you know that you start talking even bit rate calculations with them and they can't figure it out. Right? I mean, so no, investors aren't worried about that stuff. They don't understand it. Um, I mean it's amazing how many people just just on LinkedIn alone, let alone the media, was comparing the success of Disney Plus based on the metric of when Netflix launched and it just, it boggles your mind, right? Because I stuck up on LinkedIn just real quickly, and this is all factual information you can easily look up, which you know, the media doesn't want to do. The year Netflix launched, there was only 34 million iPhones in the market. That's it. Now, smart TVs didn't exist at all. And two years later, in 2012, only 12 million were connected to the internet. And at the end of the first year of Netflix, Apple had sold 7.5 million tablets. So now you're going to compare Disney Plus launching in an era with over a billion iPhones alone and I don't know how many Apple iPads, smart TVs, and you're going to compare that and go, we've now deemed this a success because it's beaten something that launched nine years earlier. Yeah. The methodology is flawed, and forget bandwidth. I mean bandwidth back then compared to now. It's night and day. Mark Donnigan: 24:22 I was there. I was there in 2007 we were just launching VUDU and you know, on a dedicated set top box because that was the way that we could bring a guaranteed experience to the home. You know, it wasn't because, you know, VUDU wanted to be in the hardware business. Uh, and ultimately, you know, the company of course pivoted, you know, to an app on devices. But um, I can, I can remember having to think that that the average broadband capacity in the US in most markets was around two megabits. Dan Rayburn: 24:57 It was a different time, comparing something that long ago. But here's the biggest thing. The media doesn't write for accuracy like we talked about before. They write for one thing, headlines. So the moment you say this kills Netflix and this crushes Netflix or this did better than Netflix, what happens? People click on it because everybody's heard of Netflix. Cause the only way these guys make money is page views. So that's a whole different discussion. We're not going to get into, cause that's a whole different podcast. But the entire model for news on the internet is broken. And has been broken for years. When, it's based on just here's how many page views you have. So let's cram out more articles that are 800 words or less instead of actually telling us. Mark Donnigan: 25:38 So I think it's a interesting, you know, to talk about devices and since we are talking a little bit about history now, you know, there was a time where it was really critical that you got your service on a device and I'm kind of, you know, using "air quotes" there. Um, because if you were on a device that was widely sold, then you, you know, you had, um, you had an ecosystem you're a part of now with SDKs and API APIs and, and it's far more ubiquitous, you know, HTML5 apps and things like that, you know, with the app stores being clearly defined. Um, you know, basically you need to be in the, uh, Apple app store. You know, you need to be in the Google, uh, store, you know, for Android. Um, you need to be on about half a dozen connected TV platforms and then Roku and you've covered like 99% of the market. Right. Um, so what's your perspective of, you know, even like Nvidia launching, you know, the, Shield TV. Dan Rayburn: 26:43 And you know, just the role of devices. What are you, um, uh, you know, what are you seeing there? Well, you know, I think over time devices play less of an important role. And the only reason I say that is to your point, it's really about the platform now and it's about ecosystems and people pick certain devices or services because I'm already in the Apple ecosystem already. And the Android ecosystem, I already have a, you know, an Xbox one. Typically people who have an Xbox one is they're not going to then go out and buy a PS4 just because of a new service. So what we've seen over the years is no longer have services launched with exclusives on platforms. Like we saw when HBO Now launched, it was only available for the first 90 days on Apple TV. That's actually a disservice to the service. Dan Rayburn: 27:28 It's getting in fewer people's hands. So I think the devices we have in the market, I don't see that changing at all. Right. I think you have the major devices between Xbox, PlayStation, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon. Uh, who am I missing? Those are the seven major ones. I look at something like the Shield TV, which now has two new models from Nvidia, which I've, I've tested and played with. Yeah, it's a good device cause it's super fast. And the fact that it's built on Android, you know, you, you can go in there and you can install a Plex server on it, which works really well. It's a great device for Plex media server. Uh, but who's the video really targeting with the device? It's $200. Dror Gill: 28:09 People who like a nice design. I mean look at the shield TV. It's a cylinder shape. It looks exactly like the Roku Sound Bridge come to think of it. Dan Rayburn: 28:18 So the lower end model does, that's the one that's $149, the $199 model, which has storage in it and two USB ports. The original one you're talking about has no USB port, so you can't add additional storage, which is kind of a problem. Uh, you know, $200. Your really targeting the person who wants to build something at home. The enthusiasts, right? That's who you're targeting. I think that's great. Like there's nothing wrong with that, but I, you know, I questioned like, is that Nvidia's core business? No, it's not. But since they're making the chip inside, I get it. Their cost to produce that hardware is probably much cheaper than others because they're not paying for the chips since they own it. Um, but I don't think the hardware changes going forward. I, I do think we've seen an amazing amount of progress with smart TVs over the last five or six years. Dan Rayburn: 29:04 They actually work. Um, if you remember five or six years ago, you never wanted to launch an app on your smart TV cause you didn't know how long it would take a load. Now they work really well. They're pretty seamless. I mean, the new LG device that I just got the remote's really well thought out. It's smart. Uh, it's clean and simple. There's not a lot of bloatware on it. That's the other thing is a lot of these smart TVs used to have so much bloatware, especially Samsung, they've gotten much better at reducing that with removing what used to be mandatory ads. So I think the smart TV has gotten much better there. And I think for a lot of people that continues to be a device that grows down the line because it's all integrated into one. And that's also part of the, the reason Amazon came out with the cube and now the second generation cube, you know, really cool device that is voice-based and will automatically, when you say turn on Hulu, will know how to change your input know how to turn on your TV. It can also control your lights. We're starting to see more streaming services on these platforms that are being combined into the connected home. Dror Gill: 30:05 Right. And you see this with a, with Nvidia shield TV, right? It connects to your, uh, um, uh, nest to the Phillips Hue, to Netgear, all of that. Dan Rayburn: 30:14 I think that that's the future where some of this is going is they're no longer these companies and platforms and no longer looking at streaming services as an isolated service. It's one of multiple services in your house. It provides entertainment or lighting or something of that nature. And the Cube is a really cool device. I've spent a lot of time with the Cube. Um, we recently at the NAB streaming summit in October, we had one of the executives on stage doing a fireside chat with me. Really talking about the technology that went into it. And audio is really hard and I don't think people understand in the audio side just how hard it is to do things on the voice side and actually have it work on the back end and have it worked quickly and in real time. Uh, I would say right now Amazon is by far leading the market when it comes to the technology that they have for voice enabled applications. And you see that with the Cube, especially from first gen, the second gen, and on black Friday the price was down to $90. What do you think is going to be next year? Right. It's probably going to be 70 bucks, you know, just keep dropping. So yeah, I think that's pretty neat to see in our industry, just how streaming is now thought of as a one of many things in the home that we're using for entertainment. Yeah. Dror Gill: 31:24 And, and people are using voice actually they got used to talking to their devices? Dan Rayburn: 31:28 Well, from what we're hearing and the data we've been given. Dan Rayburn: 31:30 Hulu at the show said that uh, people who were using voice to find content tied into Amazon's products were watching 40% more Hulu and it makes sense because people know how to use their voice and they know what to say. When you're doing a search in, um, one of these services, do you put in the title? If the title is not perfect, what you put in, do you still get the right results? Many times? No. Whereas with your voice, it's much more natural in terms of how you're going to search for content. Dror Gill: 32:00 The LG remote, you mentioned earlier, it has like a single button. Then you talk to the remote and it automatically searches on all the applications that you haven't stalled on the TV and finds the content very simple. Dan Rayburn: 32:12 Also, if you don't want to do that, the pointer system's very simple. If you don't instead want to have to type stuff in, they give you flexible options, which I like as consumers, we will all want options and I think options are good. The downside to options obviously is too much choice, too much confusion, not sure what the business model is. And that's why a lot of consumers are going to jump amongst these services in 2020 because when you can try them for a week or 30 days, why wouldn't you? Mark Donnigan: 32:38 Well, Dan, I know you were telling us before we started recording about something really exciting you're doing at the NAB show, um, around devices. So, um, why don't you tell us, you know, what you got planned. Dan Rayburn: 32:52 Yeah. So this, this is pretty cool. Um, and we're going to have some, we're going to have some information on the website up pretty soon and you'll see me announce it sort of everywhere. Dan Rayburn: 32:59 But one of the problems I've always seen at conferences talking about our industry is we're all there talking about video, but nobody is showing it. We're talking about devices, but nobody's getting hands on with them. Nobody can see these platforms in action. And the three of us on the phone, we eat, sleep and breathe this industry. So we see all this stuff. We use all this stuff, but we're not the average consumer. We're not the average industry participant. So my idea here was the NAB show is, is the largest collection of people in the video world. Maybe not all streaming, obviously a lot of traditional broadcast, but those are the people we actually have to educate even more than people in our industry. So what we're going to do in April is for anybody who walked into the North hall lobby, if you remember, there wasn't really much in the North hall lobby. Dan Rayburn: 33:45 There's some little booths and some other things. Well, we're going to take over the North hall lobby and we're going to call it the streaming experience. And we're building out 12 living room style, uh, seating with large screen TVs. And every single TV in all 12 locations is going to be XBox, PS4, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, uh, what did I forget? It's basically gonna be every hardware device in the market today of the seven that we talked about earlier. And then on each one of those, there's going to be 50 different OTT platforms that you can test and these will be pay services, these will be AVOD services, these will be authenticated services. Think like a CBS sports or something like that. And any attendee to the NAB show can walk right in and say, you know, I really wanted to see what Netflix, HDR looks like here compared to you know, Amazon HDR or I want to see what bundling of content looks like. Dan Rayburn: 34:41 I want to see what UI and UX is compared to these services. I want to see how the ad supported services are doing pre-roll. I want to see what live sporting personalization looks like. I want to actually test an Amazon Cube and see how good it is in terms of understanding voice recognition. So we're calling it the streaming experience. We're going to have it out for three days. It's going to be a place where people can also just come to get questions answered about these platforms. I'm going to personally have my folks manning every single one of the stations. Uh, and in addition we're going to be giving away every single piece of hardware that we are installing during the event. We're going to be giving that away after. So, it's about $10,000 in gear, not including the TVs, which those are rentals, but everything else, uh, that we're buying, we're going to be giving away. Dan Rayburn: 35:33 So you're going to be able to get into some amazing raffles, some really good gear. And then in addition to that, we are also going to have a location in the middle of that area. The streaming pavilion, Oh, sorry. Streaming experience where you're going to be able to also test these streaming services on phones and tablets. Oh, that is awesome. And because we have to bring that experience in as well we can't only think large screen and if all works out, hopefully we might even have 5G demos. So these services working across 5G. So think of every service in the market, you know, all the live linear services, the on demand services, the free services, the authenticated services. I basically challenged people to come to the streaming experience and find a service that we don't have on on those devices and we'll have, we will have services from other countries. Dan Rayburn: 36:26 It's not just going to be the US I won't have everything. Obviously there's, there's some of these services that only work based on certain geo-fencing and certain locations. But we also already have some OTT providers who were saying, Hey, we're going to give you special accounts so that the services work for you as a demo even if it's not available in that region. So we have a lot of OTT companies that are working with us. We've got some that are partnering with us on a sponsorship level to really promote the service. And the other thing we're going to do is for the companies that really wants some feedback, we're going to have a, an attendee who comes up and let's say they use Hulu's service for a couple minutes and then they walk away before they walk away. We're going to say, Hey, fill out this quick card that has five questions on it. Dan Rayburn: 37:09 Would you buy this feature functionality? And then we're going to dump all that data back to the OTT platforms. Because now they're going to collect thousands, hopefully of real world feedback from customers who are using the service or thinking about using the service. So we want this to become a focal point for the show where people can come and just talk about these services, see them, compare them, test them. Win Some of this product, uh, get your questions answered. And then also use it as a way to collect data for the industry to share with the platform providers what is actually taking place. So I don't know of any other show that's doing it. It's something that I've been wanting to do for quite some time at this size and scale. And when you have the NAB behind it and once they start promoting it and we've got dedicated bandwidth for it. Dan Rayburn: 37:55 So we're making sure the experience is really good and I'm curating the entire thing so I am going to make sure everything works beforehand. We're there days in advance, I've already bought all the devices for the, for the event for months prior, right were we had them like it's about 2,600 accounts you have to set up across all the devices. It's a big undertaking. This is, this is serious, but it's going to be a good as we're calling it experience. So whether you're in the advertising market and you want to see what ads look like or you're in the compression business and you want to look at artifacting from one service to another, you want to look at 4K and lighting and HDR. You want to come. I think UI and UX is super important. So all those people that come to the NAB show that are doing design or creative UI and UX will come compare how they work and work between mobile and larger screen. So really whatever industry you're in and the NAB gets a lot of different people from different verticals and industries and regions of the world, this is going to be relevant to you in some way, shape or form and you're going to be able to see it free of charge. Dror Gill: 38:59 This really sounds amazing Dan. It's kind of a combination of a, of a playground that everybody wants to play with and also a way to experience, uh, all of this tests, right? And, and the way to experience a lot of things that you don't have access to because nobody can buy all of that gear and get access to all of those services at the same time. So you can really come in and experiment and see video quality as you said, UX, advertising, integration, everything. And also be able to talk to people who are, who are experts in this and can walk you through it. And the fact that you're feeding back the information and the comments from, uh, from the visitors, you know, back to the services is, is really a great service to the industry because then you can finally get those comments and uh, and information back. Dan Rayburn: 39:49 And we're also going to share it with the industry as a whole. We're definitely going to share here are some of the highlights we've seen from what consumers have been saying. And the other way I'm looking at this too is it educates two other portions of the market that are really important. It educates the media because now it's going to happen is when somebody wants to do an interview with Hulu who speaking at the show and you know, wants to talk about the platform. Somebody from Hulu is going to be able to walk them to the streaming experience and actually show it to them, which means hopefully they actually get the coverage accurate. So it's really important that the media sees the stuff. And second, the other market that we have at the show is investors. There's a lot of investors at the NAB show, institutional investors, and they don't get to see this stuff. Dan Rayburn: 40:29 So when they're making predictions about stock and about revenue and loss and capex and OPEX and all these other things that they use to determine success or failure of companies, the best way to do that is to actually see the product in action. So now you're also going to have investors who are going to be able to get hands on with this stuff even from a high level, which is going to benefit them. So I think overall it just benefits the industry. It benefits the platform providers, the consumers, the media, the investors. Those are really the five vertical markets that I'm trying to target. Dror Gill: 40:57 We need something like this. Um, you know, as an installation permanently somewhere. Dan Rayburn: 41:02 Yeah, maybe. I mean, I'm doing this with the NAB and that's, that's the exclusive, you know, group I'm working with now. I'm certainly not going to bring this to other conferences, but this is something that you're going to see now moving forward at NAB show in Vegas for sure. New York is much more difficult to do this only because of unions, some other, some other rules around that. But, uh, in Vegas, this is, you know, this is DnaB also planting a stake in the ground going, listen, you know, last year you walked into the North hall lobby and it was still so much of a focus on broadcast and traditional TV. Well, users are in for a, you know, wake up when they walk in this time and go, wow, what is all this streaming stuff? Mark Donnigan: 41:38 This is an amazing service that you're providing Dan. Uh, and we're gonna promote it and encourage everyone, uh, you know, our customers and those that are in, you know, in our sphere of influence, uh, to check it out, you know, really, cause this is, this is amazing. Dan Rayburn: 41:52 I'm excited for it. It's a lot of work and it's a huge undertaking. It is a lot of work. Yeah. It scares me at times. Just cause to do it right. It's, it's a lot of work. Um, but I'm going to have a good, I'm going to have a good team. I'm going to be flying in some, uh, some of my buddies from the special operations community who are, who are tech guys and they're, they're going to come help me in the booth and whatnot. And, uh, it's, it's going to be a good three days. Well, Mark Donnigan: 42:18 Dan, uh, this is, uh, you've been yet another amazing interview. Thank you so much for coming on the video insiders. Dan Rayburn: 42:26 Thank you for having me again. As you know, I can talk all day about this stuff. So it's a good thing you have to edit this down into something shorter. Mark Donnigan: 42:30 The next time we have you on, uh, I think, uh, will time, the timing will be good with some new, uh, things you have going. Dan Rayburn: 42:41 There'll be some other new things in the new year that I can't talk about now, but yeah, yeah. The, the, the idea of wanting to inform the market more and providing more resources for the community. That's, that's something that's coming up. Dror Gill: 42:51 Great. So thanks again. Thanks again for joining us today. Dan Rayburn: 42:54 Thank you guys. Announcer: 42:55 Thank you for listening to The Video Insiders podcast. A production of Beamr Imaging, Ltd. To begin using Beamr's codecs today, go to beamr.com/free to receive up to 100 hours of no cost HEVC and H.264 transcoding every month.

With the holidays fast approaching we must discuss random 80's movies and the finer points of streaming services. I guess we can quickly mention the recent holiday ale festival, but seriously, these streaming services won't discuss themselves.

Croatia scored and the score is now 1-1 against England. If you're a YouTube TV subscriber, you might not know that because YouTube TV has been down for around 40 minutes. Update: It's back just in time for extra time. People who pay $40 a month to subscribe to live TV on YouTube are arguably mad. One of the main reasons YouTube TV makes sense is that it lets you watch live sports. You won't find any soccer match on Netflix or HBO Now after all.

Game of Thrones has finished its penultimate season, and Deputy TV Editor, Laura Hurley, is here to give us her take on how the show faired this season, her theory on incest and how it has negatively affected Westeros. We compare dragons in the show versus the books, everyone's ideal ending to the series, and, of course, we play a game of, "How To Respond To Annoying Questions From People Who Don't Watch Game Of Thrones." Enjoy!

Element 55” 4K Ultra HDTV, Fire TV Edition Review In addition to the plethora of native Smart TV interfaces on the market, we've seen TVs come out with the Smart interface provided by a third party like Roku or Google. Amazon has recently jumped into that group as well by partnering with TV manufacturers to bring the full FireTV experience directly into the television set. We got our hands on the 55” 4K model from Element and got to play around with it for a bit. We used model EL4KAMZ5517, with a going price of $649, but Element also sells the FireTV edition set in 65”, 50” and 43”. Features Fire TV Edition is a smart TV experience that seamlessly integrates your favorite streaming and live over-the-air content on a unified home screen (HD antenna required). Experience true-to-life 4K UHD picture quality with over 8 million pixels for stunning clarity, deep contrast, and brilliant colors. Refresh Rate: 60 Hz (Native), 120 Hz (Effective). The Fire TV experience is built in so you can enjoy over 15,000 channels, apps, and Alexa skills. Get universal search results across over 140 channels and apps including Netflix, Hulu, HBO NOW, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and Prime Video. The included Voice Remote with Alexa allows you to control live TV playback, launch apps, search for TV shows, play music, switch inputs, control smart home devices, and much more. Prime members get unlimited access to Prime Video, featuring thousands of movies and TV episodes at no additional cost. input/output options: 4 HDMI 2.0 including 1 with ARC, 1 USB 2.0, 1 USB 3.0, SD card, Ethernet, composite/component, headphone, optical audio out. Setup As you can imagine, setup for a FireTV based television is incredibly simple. Sometimes we remember back to the good old days when you had to align a CRT, or connect an HD video signal with 5 RGBHV cables. You had to put in some work to watch good television. Not anymore. We screwed on the feet, plugged the TV in, connected it to WiFi and we're ready in under 10 minutes. No cables to connect at all - except power of course. Once the FireTV interface came up it already knew who we were and connected itself to our Amazon Prime account. This is most likely because we bought the set from Amazon, and may not happen if you purchase it through another retailer. But nonetheless, it was a great touch. We spent a while finding our favorite content apps like Netflix and HBO, and we were ready to lean back on the couch and watch some HDTV. In other setups you may go a bit further than we did. If this is your primary TV, you may want to connect an over-the-air antenna so you can watch free, live TV. If you do that, your live TV integrates seamlessly into the FireTV experience. Or you may have a Set-Top box or Blu-ray player to connect. I that case you'd have to switch inputs to use those devices every time you boot up. Of course you can get live TV from an app like SlingTV, and you can get 4K movies from Amazon, Hulu, Vudu, etc. So you may be able to remove all those devices altogether anyways. Usage It is very clear from the first moment anything appears on screen that Amazon wants the FireTV experience to be incredibly easy and frictionless. The TV removes all the difficult setup questions, any strange configuration steps like scanning for channels, are handled for you. The TV is designed to make any user, with any grasp of technology, successful with it. In fact, the remote has voice search, so if you can't find something or can't figure something out, just ask it. If you use an over-the-air antenna with the Element FireTV set, you're going to love how tightly integrated the channel guide is with the rest of the FireTV experience. You get two weeks of guide info, which is cool, but you don't have a DVR, so how are into the future are you really going to browse? And while it's not a DVR, the TV does have a tiny amount of built-in memory, allowing you to pause live TV for a couple minutes if you really need to. This means you can make that quick snack run, answer a quick phone call, or take a quick bathroom break without missing anything. Amazon Prime members can also subscribe to premium content channels directly through Amazon. You can get channels like HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. without the need for a cable subscription. If you subscribe to any of that premium content through Amazon, those channels will appear in your guide alongside the live TV channels. Amazon has done a great job of creating a full Cable TV experience for the cord cutter. Another cool, differentiating feature is that the channel info and guide are also integrated with Alexa and voice search from the remote. You can tell Alexa to go to a channel by name (“ABC, NBC, CBS, ...”) so you don't have to remember the numbers. Review The Smart TV interface and incredibly simple user experience of the Element set are awesome. Unfortunately, that's where the awesome abruptly stops. Yes it's a 4K set, so the resolution is great. But everything else about this TV comes up mediocre. The black levels are dark grey at best, the contrast is meh, edges are grainy, colors are just OK, and there is almost no ability to calibrate the TV whatsoever. They went so far to make the TV easy that they removed a lot of the flexibility many sets have to make them look good, or at least look better. And while it is 4K, there is no HDR support whatsoever. For TVs this size, HDR is arguably more important than 4K. Conclusion This same set is on sale with two different badges on it, some from Element and some from Westinghouse. We can clearly envision a future where there's an Amazon Basics branded version as well. But to get there, the set will need to come way down in price. The interface is great, but the TV itself is nothing special. And for the price, there are several better options available, some even have Roku built in. But as more FireTV sets come to market, hopefully we'll see some that are great televions as well as some selling for ridiculous deals. But for now, your options are limited. Of course, there's always the FireTV stick you can plug into any TV to convert it into a FireTV set.

Ryan Murphy helps us kick off the new season of Game of Thrones with the return of our Winter is Coming segment. HBO is making headlines with more than just the season five premiere of their most watched show ever. HBO Now is the new streaming service available in the US and as if on queue the first four episodes of Game of Thrones season five have been leaked online by a third party.Be sure to stick around after the show to chat with Ryan and Lou Page about the Netflix original series Daredevil that premiered just ahead of Game of Thrones on April 10th. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, the Apple Watch has arrived, so has HBO Now, a divorce over Facebook, the Russians invade the White House, Star Wars arrives on digital, and can the NSA see your dick pics?... and much much more... What We're Playing With Andy: Alien: Isolation Dwayne: Lexus RC 350 FSport Tosin: initial thoughts on Ready Player One Hot Topic iPhone Killer: The Secret History of the Apple Watch Apple Watch Review roundup Apple Watch has a steep learning curve but can be a life-changer after apps are streamlined and initial bugs are fixed Apple Watch is the nicest smartwatch yet, but it has performance issues with apps and locations services, and it costs more than rivals Apple Watch Review: You'll Want One, but You Don't Need One New Apple TV Will Not Support 4K Video Streaming HBO Now Arrives On Apple TV, iPhone And iPad Audible Book of the Week How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction by Beth Shapiro Sign up at AudibleTrial.com/TheDrillDown Music Break: Papers by Usher More Headlines The Bad News: Russians Hacked White House, Accessed Obama's Itinerary The Random News: Woman can use Facebook to serve divorce papers The Good News; Clean Energy Revolution Is Ahead of Schedule Music Break: Selfies by Nina Nesbitt Final Word: ‘Star Wars': All 6 Films To Be Released On Digital HD For The First Time The Drill Down Video of the Week John Oliver Just Changed The Surveillance Reform Debate Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! The Drill Down on Facebook The Drill Down on Twitter Geeks Of Doom's The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Box tech consultant Tosin Onafowokan. Occasionally joining them is Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor.

Superfish follow up, ResearchKit, Facebook's new community standards, HBO Now, Creepy Barbie, and some TV talk! With Anthony, Georgia, Guy, and Rene.

Apple made the big headlines this week with their announcement of the Apple Watch and release of iOS 8.2. The Apple Watch is trying to make a huge splash in wearables, while tailoring to the business professional and the athletic types. Also, Netflix's stock prices were affected by the news of Apple's agreement with HBO Now. Their stock dropped 3% overnight. Finally, Curt Schilling made Twitter news with his defense taking to the defense of his daughter.

In this special edition of The Drill Down, Andrew Sorcini & Dwayne DeFreitas discuss Apple's 2015 "Spring Forward" event, covering the release of the Apple Watch, new MacBooks, HBO Now on Apple TV, and more. Links Apple's Big Event: Everything You Need to Know The 9 biggest things from the Apple Watch and MacBook announcement Apple's 'Spring Forward' event summarized in 2 minutes Subscribe! The Drill Down on iTunes (Subscribe now!) Add us on Stitcher! The Drill Down on Facebook The Drill Down on Twitter Geeks Of Doom's The Drill Down is a roundtable-style audio podcast where we discuss the most important issues of the week, in tech and on the web and how they affect us all. Hosts are Geeks of Doom contributor Andrew Sorcini (Mr. BabyMan), marketing research analyst Dwayne De Freitas, and Box tech consultant Tosin Onafowokan. Occasionally joining them is Startup Digest CTO Christopher Burnor.

"Rob Black & Your Money" - Radio Show March 6 - KDOW 1220am (7a-9a) Topics include: HBO Now, Amazon, China, India, Google, Apple, Facebook Russia & more.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Con la serie Narcos, grabada frente a mi mientras emito este podcast, Netflix intentará resistir a la competencia que HBO Now le hará en internet y en los dispositivos Apple TV.