Category: tv

Apple introduced the first iteration of the Apple TV 4K in 2017, but the company continued to offer the Apple TV HD alongside it in its store as a cheaper option compared to the 4K model, which currently starts at $129 — still much more expensive than the dongles and set-top boxes most people use to stream to their TVs. At present, you can’t even find the Apple TV HD in Apple’s refurbished store, so this appears to mark the end-of-life for the non-4K Apple TV. It’s not too surprising, though; 4K TVs have been a hit. More than half of United States households had a 4K TV as of last summer, and the percentage has been growing substantially year over year.

Zobel is already part of the family, having previously directed The Mare of Easttown for HBO Max. The prolific director also applied his talents to episodes of Westworld, The Leftovers, and American Gods…

If all goes according to schedule, viewers could be enjoying The Penguin by the end of 2023.

The article also notes that Zobel also helped co-create Homestar Runner in its original incarnation as a parody children’s picture book.

In an hourlong chat with emcee Kevin Smith, the 91-year-old actor talked about aging, space travel (both real and fictional) and his place in the pop culture consciousness….

He took time to address the importance and power of fandom to his career, and specifically to Star Trek, which 56 years ago introduced the world to James T. Kirk, his most enduring character. When asked to address the fans of that other major sci-fi franchise, Shatner quipped, “fuck Star Wars…. But not Mark Hamill.”

“We love Mark Hamill,” Smith agreed.

When asked by a fan if there were any new Star Trek series he thought rivaled his own, Shatner replied, “none of them.”

“I got to know [creator] Gene Roddenberry in three years fairly well,” said Shatner, “he’d be turning in his grave at some of this stuff….”
The article also quotes Shatner’s more serious comments about his own recent trip into outer space courtesy of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
“I went, and I vowed that every moment that I spent in space, would not be playing around in weightlessness, but looking out the window and trying to get an impression.”

That is because when a TV set is turned off, it doesn’t always send a signal to the streaming device connected to the TV through its HDMI port, GroupM said. As a result, the streaming device will continue playing the show and its ads unless users had exited or paused the streaming app they were watching before turning off their TV. Due to the nature of the problem, using a smart TV — on which streaming apps are loaded — makes it far less likely that ads would be shown while the TV is off, since in this instance the television and streaming device are just a single piece of hardware. GroupM said it found “virtually no incidence” of the issue on smart TV apps. The study, which included smart TVs and some hooked up with a streaming device, found that on average, between 8% and 10% of all streaming ads were shown while the TV was off.

So why the potential shift away from cable? One factor could be that the industry has clearly changed since NCTC formed in 1984, with cable operators in recent years deemphasizing traditional video offerings. The “Cable Television” part of the group’s name is becoming less accurate over time, said Brett Sappington, VP of Interpret. “Broadband, not television, is the cash cow for the cable industry,” he told Fierce Video. “Many of the organization’s members are actually moving away from offering their own video service and are, instead, focusing on broadband bundled with streaming services.” […] Along with industry changes come some shifts in perception as well. “Cable TV doesn’t necessarily have a positive connotation today,” Sappington noted. “In fact, many online TV services such as Sling TV or FuboTV emphasize why consumers should ‘drop cable’ and go with their services instead,” he continued.

But they’ve just released a trailer for another one — and it’s now derived directly from the original 1960s TV show, even including some of its original characters. The upcoming show’s title?

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Ars Technica reports:

As we’ve reported previously, one of the highlights of Star Trek: Discovery’s second season was the appearance of classic original series (TOS) characters Capt. Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), Number One (Rebecca Romijn), and Spock (Ethan Peck). All three reprise their roles for Strange New Worlds….

“If you want to seek out new life, go where the aliens are,” Pike tells us. But that alien life might not be receptive to first contact, as Pike and the Enterprise find themselves under fire by aliens who consider their presence to be “blasphemy.” And romance blooms for both Pike and Spock (separately, not with each other).

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds debuts on Paramount+ on May 5, 2022. The streaming platform has already greenlighted a second season, with Paul Wesley (Vampire Diaries ) joining the cast as future Enterprise Capt. James T. Kirk.
Ars Technica reports the cast as:

Babs Olusanmokun playing Dr. M’BengaCelia Rose Gooding filling Nichelle Nichols’ shoes as Cadet Nyota UhuraJess Bush playing Nurse Christine ChapelMelissa Navai playing Lt. Erica OrtegasBruce Orak playing an Aenar named Hemmer.Christina Chong playing La’An Noonien-Singh (a relation of the classic revenge-obsessed Star Trek villain Khan).
And on an unrelated note…

Driving the news: Long-time “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace is leaving the network after nearly two decades, he announced Sunday. He will be joining CNN as an anchor for its new streaming service, CNN+. Wallace will anchor a new weekday show and will contribute to the network’s daily live programming, per CNN. It was his decision not to renew his contract with the network, which expired this year, CNN’s Brian Stelter reported.

The big picture: Wallace marks the latest in a string of cable news host departures and shakeups in the past few weeks and months. There are now several holes cable bosses will need to fill in coming weeks. […] Major networks are investing heavily to lure talent to streaming alternatives in light of the decline of linear television. CNN hired NBC News veteran Kasie Hunt as an anchor and analyst for CNN+, reportedly for a salary of over $1 million. It’s hiring hundreds of new roles for the streaming service, set to launch next quarter. NBC News has already hired the majority of the 200+ new jobs it announced over the summer for its new streaming service and digital team, a top executive confirmed to Axios last month. One of its linear TV anchors, Joshua Johnson, moved full-time to host a primetime streaming show for NBC News Now. Fox News launched a new weather-focused streaming service in October. A Fox executive said last week the company is prepared to migrate Fox News to a streaming platform when the time is right. CBS News changed the name of its streaming service recently from CBSN to “CBS News” to represent a new streamlined vision for streaming. “TV networks won’t stop seriously investing in linear news programs until sports move out of the cable bundle, and that won’t be for another few years,” adds Axios.