The 2025 Streaming Draft | The Vergecast - video Dailymotion

The Verge

It's time, once again, to see what's what in the streaming wars. For the third year in a row, our hosts — this time Nilay, David, and The Verge's Jake Kastrenakes — have to build a roster of streaming options that will win awards, show 4K content, satisfy their live TV needs, and much more. First, the hosts decide who won last year's competition, and then they pick their favorites for 2025.

Transcript

00:00:00Welcome to the VergeCast, the flagship podcast of like the fifth row of apps on your smart TV.

00:00:09I'm your friend David Pierce, and I'm sitting here reorganizing my Roku. I end up doing this

00:00:13like once a year or so. Usually, actually, it's around March Madness when I go to download the

00:00:19NCAA March Madness app so that I can watch college basketball, only to discover that in this case,

00:00:25I have 86 items on my Roku, and a bunch of them are things that I've never heard of before.

00:00:31Like I have a Freevi app. I don't think Freevi exists anymore. I have one called Fossum,

00:00:36which is just awesome with an F at the beginning. What is that? I have an app that's called Purple.

00:00:41There's a thing here for the Food Network Go, an HGTV Go. I'm pretty sure those are not a thing.

00:00:47I have a deal or no deal app on my Roku. Why? Basically, I assume my smart TV is like most

00:00:53peoples where my top few rows are like the apps I actually use, and then the rest just becomes

00:00:59chaos. And so every once in a while, I come in and I clean up chaos. That is not what we're here

00:01:05to talk about today. This is my lot in life, and hopefully it's not yours. What we're going to do

00:01:09on the show today is the annual Vergecast streaming draft. Once a year, we like to get together and as

00:01:14a way of kind of taking stock of the streaming industry, we do a draft. We see who can put together

00:01:20the best collection of streaming services, which ones are going to succeed, which ones are going

00:01:24to fail completely, which ones will be here, which ones won't be here, who's going to win,

00:01:28who's going to lose. We're going to make a lot of bets about the next 12 months in streaming

00:01:32all on this episode. All that is coming up in just a second, but first, a quick request for you.

00:01:39So the Vergecast is nominated for a Webby Award, which means a lot to us. We've been nominated for

00:01:44this in the past, and the reason we care a lot about this award is because it's voted on by you.

00:01:49This is an award that you can give to us if you so choose. And so if you're willing to,

00:01:55I'll put a link in the show notes. We'll put a link in the container post on the site.

00:01:58Please go to the link, vote for the Vergecast. We're up against, honestly, some really great

00:02:02competition this year. There are a bunch of really good tech podcasts out there right now,

00:02:06but I really want to win. We would really, really like to have the Webby. It's this cool,

00:02:10like springy award thing, and it just means a lot to us. So if you're willing, please go vote for us.

00:02:16We're going to get back to the Vergecast. I'm going to go delete. I have like three

00:02:19Hallmark logos on here for some reason. So I'm going to fix that. Then we're going to get to it.

00:02:23This is the Vergecast. We'll be right back.

00:02:29All right, we're back. It is time for the 2025 Streaming Draft.

00:02:33Nilay Patel is here. Hi, Nilay.

00:02:35Hello.

00:02:36Jake Kastronakis, welcome to the Streaming Draft.

00:02:39Thank you. Excited to be here.

00:02:40So you are continuing with the Alex Kranz saga, which means you either get to or are saddled with

00:02:48Alex's picks from last year, and then we're going to go forward. So congratulations,

00:02:54and I'm sorry, and welcome.

00:02:55I'm going to do my best to honor the chaos of our picks and bring that energy into 2025.

00:03:00They were truly chaotic. So just to remind everybody how this works,

00:03:03we have made it slightly more complicated every year, and I'm very proud of that fact. But

00:03:09basically, what's going to happen is we're going to decide, first, who won last year's

00:03:14Streaming Draft. I'm going to read out what we all picked. We're going to decide who won.

00:03:18This is based on vibes, if we're being honest with each other. I looked up, like, can you find

00:03:24a report card? And it turns out Nilay picked Sony Bravia Core, and Billboard Pro does not spend

00:03:28a lot of time litigating the success of Sony Bravia Core. So we're just going to read them

00:03:32There's no need to litigate it, David. It's the winner.

00:03:35Sure.

00:03:36It's so obvious you don't talk about it.

00:03:39Yeah, I mean, it is the air we breathe. And then we're going to go through, and we're each

00:03:44going to draft into, we have seven categories. So there's, I'll read the categories in a minute

00:03:49again, so everybody can remember, but there's cheap, awards, 4K, live, niche, wildcard, and a new

00:03:55one this year, which is content. I will explain all of those once we order the draft. But the first

00:03:59thing we have to do here is decide who gets to go first. Each service can only be picked

00:04:03once. It's a draft. This is how we do it. So, last year, Nilay, you picked TikTok, the

00:04:13Disney Bundle, Sony Bravia Core, YouTube TV with Sunday Ticket, Motor Trends TV, and Max.

00:04:21I'm obviously the winner. I just want to be very clear.

00:04:25Honestly, are we sure?

00:04:27That's a dominant performance in the draft.

00:04:29Can I tell you something? Sony Bravia Core is not even named Bravia Core anymore. I don't

00:04:33even think it was named Bravia Core when you picked it.

00:04:37I was looking up the FAQ for this thing. They can't even explain what it is or how it works.

00:04:43That's true. And that's why it's like explaining the internet, right? It's just there when you

00:04:47buy a Sony TV. Also, I think Motor Trend TV is dead. So, I'm not... Look, I'm just saying

00:04:53on its face, this is a dominant performance with some risks thrown in the mix.

00:05:01You know, TikTok, you know, big winner there. That really pulled through.

00:05:08You're maybe cashing out right on time there.

00:05:10There's a real chance that most of my picks don't exist by the end of this conversation.

00:05:14We literally had to push recording this episode a week to see if TikTok would still be here. This

00:05:19is how tenuous things are. But anyway, so those are Eli's picks. Alex's picks, which Jake are now

00:05:25your legacy, welcome, were Peacock, Hulu, Netflix, the Channels app, Crunchyroll, and Paramount+.

00:05:33I'm going to be honest, I did not know how to figure out what the Channels app was. I just have

00:05:40a list of his channels. Channels is, I would say, like, imagine piracy, but like, less. Does that

00:05:49make sense? Channels is a good way you can get all the fast channels. That's good.

00:05:52You can get a bunch of... You can sort of curate your own TiVo situation, but it's more complicated.

00:05:57Yeah, if you have an antenna, you want channels to run all of that for you.

00:06:01Well, let me say something. Sounds like the two of you are pretty supportive of channels as a pick.

00:06:04So I'm feeling pretty good about that. It was a good one. And let me say this for Peacock,

00:06:09not only did they announce a new season of Poker Face, but it didn't stream last year, but it will

00:06:15this year. This is true. And not only are there Olympics eventually, but they will have it

00:06:25eventually. So I will actually say... If it actually has its way, there will be Olympics every year for

00:06:28the rest of our lives. Yeah. But I'm not sure how big that's been for them. So I

00:06:34think there's some ups and downs here. Hulu, I think is rock solid. Netflix, we had... What,

00:06:40last year we got a season of Stranger Things, season of Squid Game? And a price of cranks.

00:06:44I mean, yeah. That's just showing how rock solid their service is. That's true.

00:06:49You know, cranks are pretty good. Yeah, this is good. Okay. And then my picks were YouTube,

00:06:54just base YouTube, Apple TV+, aka the Severance pick, 2B, which streamed the Super Bowl,

00:07:02just saying. Prime Video, the Criterion channel, and Instagram Reels. And just really quick,

00:07:08I'm going to say I didn't win because I picked Instagram Reels. So I just... Immediately,

00:07:13I am not allowed to win because I picked Instagram Reels. You have the real, like,

00:07:16discount bundle here. I do. Right? YouTube with ads, just like plain old YouTube with ads,

00:07:22Apple TV+, which you get if you sneeze loudly enough in an Uber,

00:07:272B, which is free, Prime Video, which is free. Essentially free, yeah.

00:07:32Criterion is good, right? You get the one gesture in Instagram Reels,

00:07:36which is just fully T-Moo TikTok. Knock off TikTok, yeah.

00:07:41But it's not banned. And it's not going to be banned, theoretically.

00:07:46So there is an argument to be made that I intend to make that Instagram Reels is actually a very

00:07:50compelling pick in this year's draft for precisely that reason. But we're going to come back to that.

00:07:54So it's pretty clear to me that Alex Kranz won the draft last year, I would say.

00:08:02If you look at it, Peacock did the Olympics last year. Huge success. Netflix has won the streaming

00:08:08wars. Paramount Plus still exists, which was not guaranteed a year ago, but it's still here

00:08:14doing stuff.

00:08:16By the way, can I be clear? Motor Trend TV did fold, but then it was purchased by something called

00:08:21the Velocity Network, which relaunched it as a regular cable channel.

00:08:24So it's an 87 on the Go90 scale immediately.

00:08:28Yeah. It's like a private equity Go90. It's good. It's good.

00:08:32Kranz's list is filled with some, you know, I'm not saying Paramount Plus is a huge winner,

00:08:39but this list has just all of the channels. Like, this is just everything that you actually want

00:08:43to watch. I don't know how you guys allowed this much to get.

00:08:48I'm sorry. I have TikTok in the Disney bundle. I have a lock on everyone's time.

00:08:53You have Bluey, which I think is big for a certain audience.

00:08:56Yeah. And I have Hulu.

00:08:59That's true.

00:08:59I don't remember. I remember this being controversial that I got to pick the bundle.

00:09:02Sort of cheating.

00:09:03But I think Kranz picked Hulu with ads like Solo or something.

00:09:07I believe she picked either Hulu by itself or Hulu with live TV.

00:09:12I think that's the one.

00:09:12Which was an excellent-

00:09:13Because you had to solve live.

00:09:14Right, right. So yeah, that must have been-

00:09:17So I think that's Hulu live TV, which is an important-

00:09:20Which no longer exists.

00:09:22Cool.

00:09:23Yeah, well.

00:09:24Fully gone 90. All right, I'm advocating for myself. What a surprise.

00:09:28I think TikTok, the Disney bundle, and Sunday ticket, and Max is a winning lineup, regardless

00:09:35of my BraviaCore situation, which I hold dearly to my own heart.

00:09:41If you want to tell me that people who love anime weren't the winners of 2024, then I don't

00:09:49even know if we're in the same conversation.

00:09:52And somehow, here in 2025, with the OpenAI situation, they're the obvious losers this year.

00:09:59All right, I'm giving it to Jake.

00:10:01Actually, Jake, I mean, I know you're repping Kranz here, but you're the most neutral observer.

00:10:06That's true.

00:10:06I'm absolutely not neutral here. I'm all in on Kranz. This is-

00:10:10All right, well, it's two to one, and I'll lose.

00:10:11This is for first pick.

00:10:12Yeah, somehow Jake gave himself the first pick.

00:10:14Can I tell you something? I prepped my list assuming I was going to go last.

00:10:18So I have to completely retool this now.

00:10:21Good, even better.

00:10:22I was just like, there's no way I won.

00:10:24We're giving it to Jake, both because I do think Alex won, and because you're new, and

00:10:28it feels like a nice thing to do, so-

00:10:30That's the reason I'm okay with this.

00:10:31I appreciate that.

00:10:32I think that I won on the merits.

00:10:34And boy, is that going to make-

00:10:36I have the only 80 megabit per second streaming service on this entire list.

00:10:40If you want to watch Spider-Man movies-

00:10:42You have to buy a new TV every time you want to watch a movie.

00:10:45That's the rule.

00:10:46At Sony's prices and with Sony's naming schemes.

00:10:51Yeah.

00:10:52If you can name two Sony televisions correctly, you can win.

00:10:57All right, Jake, you're it.

00:10:59So let me remind everybody how this works.

00:11:01So we are going to pick seven streaming services each.

00:11:05This episode may take us several hours.

00:11:08And instead of just picking your favorite seven in order, we each have to fill categories.

00:11:14Some of these are very simple, and some of them are very complicated.

00:11:17So the seven categories are cheap, which means it has to have some tier under $10.

00:11:22It can be free.

00:11:23It can be $9.99.

00:11:25It's just you have to be able to access this service for less than $10.

00:11:28That one's most of them.

00:11:29Uh, there's awards, which means this service has to have won an Oscar, any Oscar, big,

00:11:34small.

00:11:34I don't care what it is, but it has to have won an Oscar.

00:11:374k, which means it has to offer content in 4k live.

00:11:40The service has to have some kind of live element, uh, which is actually going to be

00:11:43much easier this year than it was even last year.

00:11:46It has to be a genre specific service.

00:11:50This one's a little mealy, but we'll figure it out together.

00:11:53Uh, there is content, which is a new thing this year.

00:11:56And that is you get to pick a show or a movie from any streaming service that you didn't

00:12:02draft.

00:12:02So if you don't have Netflix, but you really want squid game, you can draft squid game as

00:12:06your thing.

00:12:07And that just goes on your roster as something that counts for you.

00:12:09It has to be on something you didn't draft, but it can be anything you want.

00:12:13And then there's wild card, which is anything you want in the whole universe.

00:12:17Wait, is the content one, the torrent pick like your one escape valve as you get to torrent

00:12:23one show?

00:12:25No.

00:12:26I mean, I guess if you want, if it's like a weird European documentary, you can't get

00:12:30otherwise.

00:12:31Sure.

00:12:32But I'm not, you don't pick Apple TV plus, but you want severance.

00:12:35You can just pick it and the assumption is we're not gonna ask too many questions.

00:12:40Right.

00:12:40That's what I'm getting at.

00:12:42Right.

00:12:42Like it's, we are just like, I'm going to sneak into Ben Stiller's house in the dead

00:12:45of night and leave with some hard drives and thought.

00:12:48Okay.

00:12:49The conceit here is, is, is breaking and entering.

00:12:51Yes.

00:12:53Yeah.

00:12:55Tiptoeing around the category.

00:12:56Right.

00:12:57So each thing can only be drafted once, not once in each category once period.

00:13:02And once it's gone, it's gone.

00:13:03And so we are going to draft 21 unique things in this draft.

00:13:07Does that make sense?

00:13:08Any questions?

00:13:08Ready to go?

00:13:10Let's roll.

00:13:11Good.

00:13:11Do we have like an intro theme?

00:13:13All right.

00:13:13You're up first, Jake.

00:13:14What do you got?

00:13:14We're starting with cheap.

00:13:15Well, well, you don't have to start with cheap.

00:13:17No, you can go in any order you want.

00:13:18You just have to fill out the card.

00:13:19I can start anywhere, anywhere you want.

00:13:20David, this rule sheet could have, could have been more detailed.

00:13:24All right.

00:13:24I will say the, the key, just as someone who, as a veteran of this draft, you should think

00:13:30about the service that is most likely to be competitive and the category that is most

00:13:35likely to be difficult to fill out later.

00:13:37Yeah.

00:13:38Okay.

00:13:38Those are the two things I would keep in my head.

00:13:40Yeah, David's a competitor.

00:13:40He's lying to you.

00:13:41I'm going to start strong and I'm going to go for awards.

00:13:43And the awards category is the category I hate the most because there are three streaming

00:13:47services that have won Oscars.

00:13:49It's not, not, not a long list.

00:13:50Um, normally I'm a, I'm a real hater of this streaming service.

00:13:55Uh, but in 2025, Netflix has the final season of Stranger Things, the final season of Squid

00:14:03Game and a new Knives Out movie.

00:14:05And I'm sure there will be some other stuff that's worth watching.

00:14:08So for those three alone, I'm going to lock in Netflix for the awards category.

00:14:12It's a good choice.

00:14:13I do.

00:14:13I think, I think Netflix deserves to be the first overall pick in this draft.

00:14:17Normally I'm very, uh, subscribe on subscribe on Netflix.

00:14:22Um, I feel like they have some long periods of, uh, some like reality or stuff that I'm

00:14:29not super in love with, but they've got a handful of really great series and, um, I'm

00:14:34going to be subscribing at various points this year, no matter what.

00:14:38So I feel pretty good about opening with Netflix.

00:14:40Are you consistently good at like remembering to unsubscribe when you're done watching something?

00:14:45I like aspire to be that good at switching streaming services.

00:14:48And instead I just pay for too many of them all.

00:14:50The amount of times that I look at the Netflix tile on my TV and go, Oh, got unsubscribe

00:14:55is like 10 times higher than the amount of times I actually unsubscribe.

00:14:58Okay.

00:14:58That makes me feel better.

00:14:59Like I just, I went to resubscribe to Paramount plus to watch champions league soccer because

00:15:04I subscribed to it to watch champions league soccer last year.

00:15:06And I was like, Oh, I'll just resubscribe and do it this month and found that I had

00:15:09just stayed subscribed to the whole time.

00:15:10So you're welcome for my like $150 Paramount plus.

00:15:14Hey, somebody's got to keep them in business.

00:15:16Yeah.

00:15:17And let me be specific here.

00:15:18I'm paying for 4k.

00:15:20Ooh.

00:15:20All right.

00:15:21Okay.

00:15:22Okay.

00:15:22I'm not dealing with that.

00:15:23Yeah.

00:15:24That's very important.

00:15:25That is important.

00:15:26There was the first time we ever did this draft, there was a like overall price component,

00:15:30but frankly, it's too hard to track what these things cost anymore.

00:15:33So we just gave up on that.

00:15:34It's just not worth it.

00:15:35And they'll all be different in a year and who cares, but okay.

00:15:38You're going high tier Netflix.

00:15:40Oh yeah.

00:15:40In the awards category.

00:15:41I like it for you.

00:15:42Uh, all right, Mila, you get to be up second because Bravia court is just smashing success.

00:15:47Oh, don't worry.

00:15:47I have more extremely weird choices to come.

00:15:50I'm starting strong again with cheap and going to tech talk.

00:15:54Hmm.

00:15:54I've picked it first two years in a row and I'm sticking with it.

00:15:59You're not worried that this time next year, there will be no tech talk in the United States.

00:16:03I'm worried there won't be United States this time next year, David.

00:16:06So I'm just going to close my eyes and, and think of, think of, you know, where we will

00:16:10watch the downfall possibly on.

00:16:13It's very true.

00:16:14But yeah, I think, I think for the purpose of this draft, you can't, you can't be worried

00:16:20about, you know, the nagging ACL injury.

00:16:22You just got to go, you got to go with the consensus.

00:16:24Number one.

00:16:25So like, I think Netflix is pretty undeniably more powerful now than it was 12 months ago

00:16:30is Tik TOK has Tik TOK gone up or down since we last did this draft sideways.

00:16:36Okay.

00:16:37Right.

00:16:37It just remains.

00:16:39It, it's so powerful.

00:16:41You can't get rid of it, but it's so weak that at any moment it might disappear.

00:16:46Right.

00:16:47It might just collapse under its own weight or it might become this political pawn, but

00:16:51I think in terms of where the culture is day to day, it, it's still Tik TOK.

00:16:55No one is, no one's opening Instagram reels to find new music.

00:16:59No one is forced to contend with like every day.

00:17:02Olivia Rodrigo is in a new South American country and you just have to see it happen.

00:17:06Like that's Tik TOK.

00:17:08And like the music industry is still dependent on it.

00:17:10There, there's just something white Lotus had its entire Parker Posey moment on the

00:17:15back of Tik TOK.

00:17:16It's Tik TOK.

00:17:18Is it weaker than ever?

00:17:19Yes.

00:17:20As a company, as an entity, I think culturally it's still as strong as it has been.

00:17:24I think that's right.

00:17:25I don't know if it's, yeah, I think sideways is probably right on that front.

00:17:27It's not, it doesn't feel like it's more central to culture than it was, but I think

00:17:32that's just because we're so used to how central it is to call like the, the, there are

00:17:36fewer people being excited about, like it breaks some 30 year old song becomes a number

00:17:42one hit again.

00:17:42Cause we're just, that's just what happens.

00:17:44That's just how Tik TOK works now.

00:17:45Yeah.

00:17:45And the conspiracies about it are even weirder.

00:17:47Like meta secretly runs the algorithm.

00:17:49Is that a conspiracy?

00:17:51Oh yeah.

00:17:51Like it was, it's already been sold.

00:17:54There's just like another burbling way.

00:17:55Like it's become more of just a platform that everybody understands to your point, but it

00:18:00still is the thing that creates the cultural moments in a way that very few other platforms

00:18:04can do as regularly as Tik TOK does.

00:18:07But I like it.

00:18:09Uh, all right.

00:18:11You guys picked the two I was going to pick.

00:18:13Oh, a decision on the Disney bundle, by the way.

00:18:15Uh, we're going to treat the Disney bundle as three separate things.

00:18:18There is no Disney bundle this year.

00:18:20You, you can, you can take Disney plus you can take ESPN and you can take Hulu, but you

00:18:24can't take all three at once.

00:18:25Sure.

00:18:25Simple enough.

00:18:26Right.

00:18:26Can I say one more thing about Tik TOK?

00:18:27Please.

00:18:28I've watched a number of movies on Tik TOK this year.

00:18:30Oh yeah.

00:18:32It might be all you need.

00:18:33I watched, you know, the Jason Statham movie, the beekeeper, uh, for some reason that is

00:18:38all over my Tik TOK recently.

00:18:40That's amazing.

00:18:40Yeah.

00:18:40Every now and again, Tik TOK is like, you know what that's going to happen.

00:18:42You're going to watch a few good men and you just do it's fine.

00:18:46Love it.

00:18:47It's just, it's just what goes down.

00:18:48It's great.

00:18:49Uh, lately it's like you, you, because of Al Comer, I've watched both top guns, but intercut

00:18:54with each other in a very odd way.

00:18:56Yeah, it's great.

00:18:56Sure.

00:18:57Uh, okay.

00:18:59I, I'm going to take in live.

00:19:04I hate this already.

00:19:05I'm going with it.

00:19:06I'm going to take YouTube TV in live.

00:19:08Ooh.

00:19:10Yeah.

00:19:10Because I think live is one of the trickier categories here.

00:19:16Uh, because everything it does, it is, is equally available other places and it's going

00:19:21to get messy.

00:19:22And also YouTube TV is just kind of running away with it in terms of like, what is the

00:19:27future of cable?

00:19:29The answer is just YouTube TV.

00:19:30It is just winning this game.

00:19:32When you think about things of the future, you think about cable pretty much, but it's

00:19:37sure.

00:19:37Everything else is turning into bundles and YouTube TV is already that bundle.

00:19:40Yeah.

00:19:40The one thing about YouTube TV that confuses me is that Google has not just sold a YouTube

00:19:47TV device.

00:19:48Like any Google TV that you buy, it doesn't just light up with like YouTube TV is here.

00:19:55They have integrations, but it's still an operating system with apps and tiles.

00:19:59And like, yes, you can get to a guide, but they, no one has, I think only Google could

00:20:04do it.

00:20:05Just been like, it's a cable box.

00:20:07Right.

00:20:07Like I have the Google TV streamer right there.

00:20:09Yeah.

00:20:10Uh, and I love it.

00:20:11It is a, it is a terrific set top box, but you're right.

00:20:13Like I, I want to be able to log into YouTube TV.

00:20:16And the very first thing it shows me is not the home screen.

00:20:18It should show me YouTube TV.

00:20:20Yeah.

00:20:20And then I should back out into the apps.

00:20:22Like that would make the whole experience better.

00:20:25And I think more compelling.

00:20:27It's funny.

00:20:27Cause Apple on the Apple TV has the button on the remote and they are desperate to make

00:20:31their app, the actual interface.

00:20:33They don't have the content.

00:20:34And then Google has all of the content and they haven't done it.

00:20:37David, I feel like you're describing the old school, uh, you know, cable box where

00:20:43you just like went to on demand content and like navigate it to this super sluggish and

00:20:47slow interface to like watch whatever five movies are available for you, which was not

00:20:54my favorite, but, uh, it is, you know, you jumped right in stuff.

00:20:57It is, it is my strong belief that when you turn on your television, the first thing it

00:21:03should show you is not a home screen.

00:21:05I think that is like a disastrous product decision.

00:21:07We have let everybody make that when I turn on my TV, it shouldn't show me television.

00:21:12It should show me television, put, keep on the last thing I was watching, pick something

00:21:17for me and put it on.

00:21:18Like, I don't care what it is.

00:21:19It's like, I don't turn on my TV to scroll through apps.

00:21:23David, are you pro Netflix auto playing things?

00:21:26Yes, but I'm not pro them doing it with volume.

00:21:29This is going to get you canceled.

00:21:30This is, that's an unacceptable take the tiles.

00:21:32This is, this is a conspiracy theory that I have not validated, but believe to my bones

00:21:37when it auto plays in the tiles, it is 10 times louder than the actual volume of the

00:21:41program.

00:21:42It drives me insane.

00:21:43We have to keep going.

00:21:45I will say, and I've asked any number of streamers I can do this.

00:21:47And I know David has to, all of them should make a fake Tik TOK that when you're in the,

00:21:52that just shows you bits and pieces.

00:21:53Oh yeah.

00:21:54Yeah.

00:21:55Yeah.

00:21:55And then you can hit the button and it starts playing on the TV.

00:21:57Yes.

00:21:57That's good.

00:21:58I don't know.

00:21:58A hundred percent agree.

00:21:59And they all love that idea and just absolutely cannot figure out how to do it.

00:22:02Um, all right.

00:22:03So that's my pick YouTube TV, Jake, you're up next.

00:22:06What's up?

00:22:07All right.

00:22:08Um, you guys got some good picks here.

00:22:10Uh, those, those sting.

00:22:12Um, I'm going to head over to what I think is going to be the, what feels like the next

00:22:20hardest category to me, um, which is 4k, uh, which is sort of all of them.

00:22:25Um, um, but also lends itself to, I think just big mainstream services.

00:22:31And I think there's a couple left that, that feel pretty strong to me.

00:22:35I'm going to guys, guys, I'm, I'm second guessing myself as we speak.

00:22:41It's amazing how hard it gets so quickly.

00:22:43Second guessing myself as we speak.

00:22:45Um, we're going to lock in on, on Hulu.

00:22:50Hulu is trusty.

00:22:52It's reliable.

00:22:52It has a solid content of, uh, old TV shows.

00:22:57There's always something to watch there.

00:23:00Um, they don't necessarily have big winners, but they have a solid movie selection.

00:23:04Uh, you know, I've got Netflix for, um, some new original content.

00:23:09Uh, I feel good about having Hulu as a backup there.

00:23:13Um, it's a, it's a, it's a standby service.

00:23:15I don't hate it.

00:23:16I feel like 4k is just turning into the name of streaming service now.

00:23:20It is a little bit.

00:23:22A little bit.

00:23:23Uh, this, this category has gotten easier to, to match, which is good, but I think you're

00:23:28right, Jake, that it is increasingly it's it, this is another place to get one of the

00:23:32heavy hitters in here.

00:23:33And so I think, I think you picked it right.

00:23:35You, you both took the top social options.

00:23:37Um, I'm assuming, does YouTube TV include all of YouTube?

00:23:40No, regular YouTube is, is still available.

00:23:43Regular YouTube is still available.

00:23:45If you'd like to change, you're welcome to.

00:23:47Uh, you, regular YouTube is straight up on my list.

00:23:49This feels like cheating to change this, but I, if, if regular YouTube is available, I'm

00:23:53going to make that change.

00:23:54Okay, please.

00:23:54Yeah.

00:23:55Um, what's, what's your category?

00:23:59Regular YouTube can, oh, you got to pick between ads and premium.

00:24:03Between ads and premium.

00:24:04Ads, I think goes in cheap.

00:24:09No ad.

00:24:10Oh, it goes in guys.

00:24:11No, I'm, I'm locking on a Hulu.

00:24:13Forget this.

00:24:14Okay.

00:24:14We're, we're, we're, we're holding to it.

00:24:16Okay.

00:24:17Hulu in 4k.

00:24:18Hulu in 4k.

00:24:19I think Hulu is kind of underrated these days.

00:24:22There's a lot of good stuff on Hulu.

00:24:23The, the, the originals, although I've been watching paradise.

00:24:26Uh, that's very good.

00:24:27Highly recommend, but there's just, it's like Hulu is the one I go to where it's just like,

00:24:32there's just a million 30 minute sitcoms that I'm going to enjoy.

00:24:36It's because it's Fox.

00:24:37Yeah.

00:24:37Like fundamentally it's Fox.

00:24:38Right.

00:24:39Hulu is the most boring pick.

00:24:41Nobody's ever like super hyped to open up Hulu and see the new thing.

00:24:44Um, but it, oh, it has the thing that you're going to watch after a long day.

00:24:49And you're just like, I need to put something on.

00:24:50Like when the TV auto plays something, it should be whatever is on Hulu.

00:24:54Catalog.

00:24:55You're picking catalog.

00:24:56Yes.

00:24:56This is.

00:24:57Yeah.

00:24:57I don't hit it.

00:24:58I'm, I'm, I'm with it.

00:24:59It's a good one.

00:25:00Uh, Neelai, what's next?

00:25:01What do you got?

00:25:01I'm going to put max in awards.

00:25:05That's my move.

00:25:06Okay.

00:25:07Cause, cause you, you get that HBO.

00:25:09I'm assuming the pit will, will be up for awards this year.

00:25:12They've got the movies.

00:25:14They've got the catalog of movies.

00:25:15Feel.

00:25:16It feels correct to me.

00:25:17It's a little like, I don't think max originals have won Oscars yet, but it's like HBO.

00:25:22Yeah.

00:25:22It's, it's the lion is straight enough that I'll give it to you.

00:25:26We'll, we'll allow it.

00:25:27Why, why max?

00:25:28Are you sure?

00:25:30Yeah.

00:25:30Is max going to still be here?

00:25:33Is America still going to be here?

00:25:37Like, this is a very nihilistic draft for me.

00:25:40Like I'm thinking about tomorrow.

00:25:41I'm not thinking about next year.

00:25:42Okay.

00:25:42Fair enough.

00:25:43Uh, but max has the depth of content.

00:25:46It has, it's funny.

00:25:47Um, I have to log into someone else's max account to get 4k.

00:25:51It's like, I can't put it in 4k cause I don't have it in 4k because I'm still grandfathered

00:25:56into my AT&T free max subscription, which AT&T knows about because I keep mentioning it

00:26:02on the show and they can't figure out how to stop giving me free max either.

00:26:05Perfect.

00:26:06But it's only in 10 ADP, which is just very weird.

00:26:10Uh, you know, I've got a daughter, the Harry Potter movies on max.

00:26:14There's a, there's a lot here.

00:26:15We've been watching those together.

00:26:16They get a little too scary after a four for a six year old.

00:26:20So we're just going to wait to watch the additional four movies, but we're going to watch those

00:26:24first four over and over again.

00:26:25Love it.

00:26:26Yeah.

00:26:26I mean, like it's just, it has the catalog and then it has HBO.

00:26:28So if that white Lotus righteous gemstones moment, that's important to me.

00:26:33I'm not a, I'm not a like turn on any garbage TV watcher.

00:26:37I'm a very intentful TV watcher.

00:26:38Do you cancel services?

00:26:40Like, do you like watch your show and then bail for a while until you want to come back?

00:26:43I've been trying to cancel max like five years.

00:26:45I want to cancel more.

00:26:49Um, the challenge is, uh, my wife watches tons and tons of comedy specials and they're

00:26:54on every service.

00:26:56Right.

00:26:56And so you're just kind of like, well, I canceled the one you want today.

00:26:59And then we just like started again, including recently Hulu, which is deep into comedy.

00:27:04All of a sudden, I think they've all figured out this is like a reliable source of cheap

00:27:08content that they can get at a cadence that people will watch.

00:27:11Yeah.

00:27:12And people will always watch.

00:27:13Yep.

00:27:14And then clip it and put it on Tik TOK.

00:27:16And that's where I live, which is the other thing that is all over my Tik TOK all the

00:27:19time is just like stand up.

00:27:21Like Nate Bargetsy is two thirds of my Tik TOK at any given moment.

00:27:25Uh, okay.

00:27:26I, I worry I'm going to run out of awards possibilities here.

00:27:32So I'm going to take Amazon prime video in awards because otherwise I think there's a

00:27:37decent chance.

00:27:38There's just not going to be anything left for me to pick before too long.

00:27:41I think prime is working.

00:27:44It's like the, the football thing is going very well.

00:27:47They way overpaid.

00:27:48They're going to start doing bond stuff.

00:27:50Uh, people seem to like reacher, I guess that's a, that's a show Matt Bellany from the puck

00:27:57for, from puck just recently described it to me as guys with guns shows.

00:28:00And Amazon's very good at guys with guns shows.

00:28:02So prime is like, it's like the least interesting, totally mainstream service, but I'll take it.

00:28:09Have you been watching, uh, uh, the Lord of the ring show?

00:28:13No, I have not watched that one.

00:28:15And I have not watched Citadel, which are the ones that Amazon spent all of its money

00:28:19on.

00:28:19Yes.

00:28:20Um, and maybe why they now have a new person in charge, but I did watch a bunch of like

00:28:25whatever weird stuff.

00:28:26Jeremy Clarkson is up to these days.

00:28:29I will always watch on prime video.

00:28:30So that works for me.

00:28:31He's like, we've done something irresponsible with a car.

00:28:34He bought a Lamborghini tractor and made like three episodes of a TV show about that.

00:28:38And I was like, yeah, I'll watch this.

00:28:39This sounds great.

00:28:40You are very much like whatever's on you're like, that's why you just want the TV to

00:28:44start playing stuff at you sometimes.

00:28:46So like my, my parents used to make fun of me because, uh, I would, I could, I loved to

00:28:50take naps.

00:28:51I still do love to take naps, but I always nap with the TV on.

00:28:53Um, uh, it's just, it's like, I can turn my brain off when I'm halfway listening to a

00:28:59TV show I've seen before.

00:29:00And so there's like background television is a bigger part of my life than I'm proud

00:29:05of.

00:29:05Like I do a lot of like watching TV while I do other things.

00:29:09Uh, and that's where services like prime video where it's like a thing I've seen

00:29:13before, but, or something I haven't seen, but like, don't really need to look at.

00:29:17Can you write while you're listening to music?

00:29:19No, God, no, absolutely not.

00:29:21I can't do anything creative in that headspace.

00:29:23The language center of my brain does not let me listen to music with lyrics while I

00:29:27am writing or communicating.

00:29:29And, uh, it's the same.

00:29:30I can't believe you can do it with TV, but I guess you're just like passed out.

00:29:34I can't do any like creative act while something like that is on, but it's like, if I'm, if

00:29:39I'm cooking or cleaning or napping or whatever, like I almost always will have like an episode

00:29:44of the office on in the background.

00:29:46Huh?

00:29:46It's like a, it's basically a podcast.

00:29:48Like I, I listened to TV shows the way some people listen to podcasts and I also listen

00:29:52to podcasts.

00:29:53This, this explains a lot of your picks over the years.

00:29:55Uh, all right.

00:29:57So just to recap, and then we're going to take a break.

00:30:00Jake so far has picked Netflix in awards and Hulu in 4k.

00:30:04Nilai so far has picked Tik TOK in cheap and max in awards.

00:30:08And I have YouTube TV in live and Amazon prime in awards.

00:30:12We're going to take a really quick break and then we're going to come back, do some more

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00:31:23All right, we're back.

00:31:28Round three.

00:31:29Jake Kastronakis.

00:31:30What do you got?

00:31:30Let's do it.

00:31:31I've been thinking very hard about this.

00:31:33Um, listen, my first two picks, they're pretty mainstream.

00:31:37They're pretty dead ahead.

00:31:38We've got Netflix.

00:31:39We've got Hulu.

00:31:41I've got options here to grab some more big hitters, but I got to get out there a little

00:31:46bit.

00:31:46We got to get a little more interesting.

00:31:47Um, I'm going into the cheap tier.

00:31:51I'm taking Tubi.

00:31:53I'm not paying another penny.

00:31:54I'm expanding my catalog of movies.

00:31:57They have some, some great films on there.

00:32:00Uh, it sounds terrible.

00:32:02You got to watch ads.

00:32:03There's one ad up front and you watch like some Oscar winning movie from the 1970s.

00:32:08Also there's ads everywhere now.

00:32:10Like, oh no, there's ads.

00:32:11It's like not a good case against a streaming service anymore.

00:32:15Right.

00:32:16I think like genuinely this is not a problem for most people.

00:32:20I mean, I listen, if they were interrupting the middle of the movie, I would complain to

00:32:23the end of the earth that you would never hear the end of me, but, um, it's not bad

00:32:28at all.

00:32:28I've watched a handful of movies on it over the past year.

00:32:31Um, I think, you know, we've seen these free streaming services continue to get more

00:32:37and more promotion.

00:32:37It feels like there is more attention on them than ever.

00:32:41Um, I don't necessarily know that Tubi is in for a big breakout year, but I feel good

00:32:45about it as a cheap pick.

00:32:46Well, so, okay.

00:32:47This is, this is the thing I've was waiting until somebody picked Tubi to ask, because

00:32:51I've been thinking about this ever since the Superbowl, right?

00:32:53Tubi had the Superbowl, lots of people watched, was a big hit, did very well.

00:32:58The stream held up like good job Tubi.

00:33:00Do you feel like Tubi has held on to any of that, right?

00:33:04Like the hope is you get this big giant spike of interest and then it comes back down,

00:33:07but it doesn't come all the way down and it like resets a little higher, but I don't

00:33:10feel like even slightly more people seem to be talking about Tubi than they were before

00:33:15the Superbowl, but maybe that's just me.

00:33:17I do think that's a challenge.

00:33:18The, the, the way I end up on Tubi is that I go to look up where I can watch a certain

00:33:22movie and then I'm told that for whatever reason, it is free on Tubi or the only place

00:33:27it is available is on Tubi.

00:33:29Um, but the, actually, actually I will say like the thing where it is only available on

00:33:33Tubi happens more often than I would expect.

00:33:35I think there is just this weird catalog of slightly less popular movies.

00:33:40Um, right?

00:33:42Like, you know, if somebody wants Top Gun, that's going to end up on a major streaming

00:33:47service.

00:33:47I hope that's true.

00:33:48I haven't checked.

00:33:49Um, but there's like, I, oh, I, I watched, um, oh gosh, what was it?

00:33:56Uh, I watched the long goodbye.

00:33:58Uh, you know, very famous movie.

00:34:01I think it maybe won an Oscar.

00:34:02Um, hopefully that's right.

00:34:04Um, you know, this is like a big movie back in the day.

00:34:07Uh, it is only available, I think on Tubi or something like that.

00:34:10Um, and I think like there's a whole collection of films like that, that, uh, are overlooked

00:34:15by these services that are extremely, uh, cutthroat on, you know, is this going to hook

00:34:21my mainstream subscriber base?

00:34:24Um, and there's just stuff that you like cannot find.

00:34:26And since we're not, um, you know, since we're looking for stuff that you can stream, I want

00:34:31Tubi, I want to have those options.

00:34:33I, I think the thing you said about like, I just Google it and it clicks me to Tubi is

00:34:37like a underrated powerful thing in Tubi's favor.

00:34:41And it has been the thing forever, right?

00:34:42In most cases, you don't even have to log in.

00:34:44You don't have to have an account.

00:34:45You just click the thing and it starts playing the movie.

00:34:48And there are almost no other entertainment experiences outside of like social platforms

00:34:53that work that way anymore.

00:34:55And that's kudos to Tubi for pulling that off.

00:34:59I am confused how they got the Superbowl.

00:35:00That's still run by Fox and they chose Tubi.

00:35:05Yeah.

00:35:05Because they don't have another streaming service.

00:35:07Cause they wanted to, they wanted to drive Tubi installs.

00:35:10Well, yeah.

00:35:11I mean, like Fox doesn't have an app.

00:35:12Fox has like Fox nation live or whatever.

00:35:15Like you can't drive.

00:35:16Those are not the same Americans.

00:35:18Yeah.

00:35:18Right.

00:35:19So it's not a choice that Fox can make.

00:35:22Uh, so they're like, where can we stream the Superbowl?

00:35:25It wasn't the Fox sports app, which is like a cable login.

00:35:28And it's our big mainstream fast competitor.

00:35:32Yeah.

00:35:32And that, I think they got all those plugins that way.

00:35:34That works.

00:35:35Very smart of them.

00:35:35Yeah.

00:35:36That Rupert Murdoch.

00:35:37Wiley.

00:35:38He knows what he's doing.

00:35:39Yeah.

00:35:40Fox now is apparently working on some other big streaming service that I'm sure is going

00:35:44to go super great for them.

00:35:46Uh, I think it's a good pick.

00:35:48I'm in favor.

00:35:48I had to be very high on my list here.

00:35:50Uh, Neil, I would sex for you.

00:35:51What do you got?

00:35:52I've been making a lot of, a lot of decisions here while you guys were talking.

00:35:55I've been working my board really motor trend.

00:35:58It's a motor trend TV.

00:36:00I'm going back and forth between two of them.

00:36:02And I think what I've decided is there's no chance that either of you will pick the thing

00:36:12that I'm worried about.

00:36:13So I'm going to go another way.

00:36:14And then when I make that pick, I reveal what it was.

00:36:17All right.

00:36:18Does that work for you?

00:36:18Okay.

00:36:19Okay.

00:36:19So for 4k, I'm picking Disney plus.

00:36:21Oh, that's what I was going to do next.

00:36:24Yeah.

00:36:24I was, this is me working the board.

00:36:26Yeah.

00:36:27I'm a little surprised it lasted this long.

00:36:29Yeah.

00:36:29It's tough.

00:36:30It's a, it's, it's, it's, if you have children, it's a requirement.

00:36:33It 4k, I, we got to work, we got to talk about the 4k category as it exists next

00:36:38year.

00:36:38Um, but it's in 4k, you get all the Disney movies in 4k, so it slots in here.

00:36:43Well, uh, bluey, obviously very important, but frozen to shockingly important in my household.

00:36:50Same, like very important.

00:36:52Um, I don't know how to explain to max that one song is basically just a Peter Cetera song

00:36:56from the eighties, but it is.

00:36:58And then I'd try to make her listen.

00:36:59That song is called lost in the woods and it's a banger.

00:37:03I'm like, you know, there's this band called Chicago.

00:37:04And she's like, I don't care about this.

00:37:07And then I try to make everybody listen to Chicago, which I don't even like listening

00:37:10to, but I just have to make the point.

00:37:12And everyone's like, what is happening in this house?

00:37:14Uh, so that's very important to us as just a weekend cycle that we go through.

00:37:19And then you get, uh, you get all the Marvel stuff.

00:37:21You get Andor.

00:37:22It's all there for you.

00:37:23Like Disney plus the only other one I would say should have been a number one pick.

00:37:28This is a shocking slide because you can, you can make a good argument for number one.

00:37:32Yeah, I agree.

00:37:34I think it is.

00:37:35That is going to be the thing I picked if you didn't.

00:37:37So I buy it.

00:37:37I will say I have one Bob Iger.

00:37:39I know you're listening.

00:37:40Uh, I have one complaint I would like to make about Disney plus, which is, uh, they

00:37:45just launched, uh, like 24 seven Simpsons stream.

00:37:48It's basically a fast channel, but it's all Simpsons.

00:37:50Very good idea.

00:37:51Except for some reason, my two year old now, every time I opened the Disney plus app, it

00:37:56is, it is right at like his pointing level and he runs over to it and goes Simpsons.

00:38:02And it turns out that if you put on Simpsons, someone will say the word hell within six

00:38:08seconds.

00:38:09And so I can't watch it, but now he, every single morning he just runs over and he just

00:38:13goes Simpsons.

00:38:15And I don't, I don't know how to tell him that this cartoon is illegal for him.

00:38:20We had, uh, the parental controls and ours messed up.

00:38:23We, I had the messed up and for some reason I had set it so that unrated TV shows would

00:38:31show up on Max's profile.

00:38:33And so she opened it and the first thing in front of her face was the UFC.

00:38:36And I was like, this isn't, this isn't right.

00:38:40This doesn't go next to my body.

00:38:42Like, no, thank you.

00:38:43And I, you got to go dig through it.

00:38:45There's some real messy Disney brand stuff happening because the parental controls are

00:38:51so confusing.

00:38:51The gambling they've put next to frozen is out of control.

00:38:55It's true.

00:38:56ESPN bet is right there.

00:38:58Will she pull it off this time?

00:39:00Like you, you say that, but we're, we're like rapidly veering towards that.

00:39:04And especially now that, uh, all the stuff is in there, right?

00:39:08Like Hulu is now totally integrated and ESPN is totally integrated and all of the stuff

00:39:12is now just in Disney plus, uh, there's some pretty like racy stuff that shows up at the

00:39:19top of the page while I'm looking to start frozen too for the 85th time.

00:39:23It's a little weird.

00:39:24Yeah.

00:39:25It's, it's just a weird brand.

00:39:26And this is why they didn't do it.

00:39:28Right.

00:39:28This is why they had the other, this is why they had Hulu and then they weren't getting,

00:39:33this is the same as why you go to Tubi.

00:39:34They're like, we'll just shove it on Disney plus.

00:39:37Yeah.

00:39:37It's a lot.

00:39:38Yeah.

00:39:38But I, I feel, I feel confident with, especially as a third pick in the 4k category.

00:39:42It's a home run.

00:39:43It's a good pick.

00:39:44I'm winning so far.

00:39:45I just want to be very clear about this.

00:39:46Yeah.

00:39:46We're all really proud of you, Eli.

00:39:47Um, as much as I don't want to have two YouTube things, I feel like at this point I have to

00:39:55pick like YouTube, man, it is, it is by a mile, the most watched streaming service.

00:40:02It is like, it has won the internet.

00:40:04Yep.

00:40:05But I just, I feel like I have to.

00:40:07Ads are premium.

00:40:08I now have Amazon prime, YouTube TV and YouTube, which makes me like the least interesting American

00:40:15consumer of all time.

00:40:16You know what that gets you though?

00:40:17Not only does that get you Mr. Beast channel, it gets you Amazon's Mr. Beast reality show.

00:40:24That's true.

00:40:24I get Mr. Beast and Beast games.

00:40:26Wait, what category are you in?

00:40:27I'm trying to decide.

00:40:28I think I'm going to put it in 4k.

00:40:30So you're paying for premium.

00:40:31On principle, I'm paying for premium.

00:40:33I seriously believe that no ads on YouTube is the best money I pay for entertainment

00:40:39every month.

00:40:40Wait, is premium 4k on TVs?

00:40:43Is that a thing on YouTube?

00:40:44Am I just making that up?

00:40:44It's not all, not everything is 4k, but it is, it is.

00:40:47You do get lots of 4k stuff and you don't, if you have ads that I don't know, I'm truly

00:40:52just paying for no ads.

00:40:53I am.

00:40:54I am happy.

00:40:55I think I could put it in 4k either way.

00:40:57But why does that go in the 4k content?

00:40:59Because I get 4k content.

00:41:01I could put it in cheap if I was doing ads is my point, but I'm not doing, I'm saying

00:41:05you might have to put this in wildcard.

00:41:07But I get 4k content.

00:41:09Because you're not buying it for 4k.

00:41:11Oh, interesting.

00:41:12Well, no, but it doesn't, I get 4k.

00:41:15There is 4k.

00:41:16We got to rethink this whole category.

00:41:17Marquez Brownlee is out here doing it in like 16k.

00:41:20I could have made that a category.

00:41:21So we're going to rename this Crispy?

00:41:23Yeah.

00:41:25I mean, yeah, we can do that.

00:41:26You want to do that?

00:41:27All right.

00:41:28I'm allowing it this year.

00:41:29Okay.

00:41:29But I think the 4k category is under a lot of pressure.

00:41:32Okay.

00:41:33That's fair.

00:41:33Maybe, maybe that is the one that, that needs a change because you're right that, uh, access

00:41:38to 4k content is increasingly just everywhere.

00:41:41You just can do it.

00:41:42It's gated.

00:41:43It's, you have to pay for it everywhere.

00:41:46Right.

00:41:46And okay.

00:41:47But Jake picked Hulu and you just get it on Hulu.

00:41:50So we're, we're, we'll allow it this year, but fair.

00:41:52This is under reconsideration for 2026.

00:41:54And I would like to hear the feedback about it.

00:41:56Yeah.

00:41:56Agreed.

00:41:57Um, all right.

00:41:57So I'm picking, I'm picking YouTube main or YouTube, YouTube main, YouTube premium.

00:42:02I feel good about it.

00:42:03Jake, you're up.

00:42:04What do you got?

00:42:04All right, guys.

00:42:05I have a real problem here, which is, uh, at this point, David's got YouTube.

00:42:11You know, he's got tech talk.

00:42:12I don't really have a social presence here.

00:42:14Um, so I'm, I'm going to throw something out there.

00:42:18I need you to tell me if, if this, if this fits, if I'm combining too many things, uh,

00:42:23are the, the requirement for the live categories, there needs to be some sort of live content.

00:42:29I don't need that lot of content to be any good.

00:42:31I just need this service.

00:42:32That's correct.

00:42:32It just needs to be live.

00:42:33Listen, hit me up with Instagram.

00:42:36Reels is a perfectly fine knockoff.

00:42:38And there's some live streams in there.

00:42:40Oh, I don't know.

00:42:40I don't know what they're doing.

00:42:42They're selling some stuff, whatever.

00:42:43I will watch all your tick tocks two weeks later.

00:42:46And you know what?

00:42:47You're going with Instagram live for your live.

00:42:50Yeah.

00:42:50Okay.

00:42:50So this, this is Neil.

00:42:52I makes the correct point.

00:42:53You can't have Instagram as a whole because Instagram as a whole is not a streaming service.

00:42:57Are reels and live one thing?

00:42:58No.

00:42:58Or are those just a problem?

00:43:00This is dead.

00:43:01I cannot have reels or you can have live, but you can't have both.

00:43:05You know what guys?

00:43:05Because in classic Instagram fashion, they've made them two different products where there

00:43:08are one product.

00:43:09They are two different features.

00:43:11Why are they two different features?

00:43:12Because YouTube hates you.

00:43:14Here's the thing.

00:43:15I'm locking it in Instagram live.

00:43:17Wow.

00:43:17Listen, there's a big year ahead for Instagram.

00:43:21TikTok's getting banned.

00:43:23Instagram's going to have to figure their product out.

00:43:25It's going to be one thing.

00:43:27And, uh, I'm, this is, this is a long play.

00:43:30It's just Jake and the decaying corpse of Versus.

00:43:33Someone is going to have a rock and roll Instagram live by the end of 2025.

00:43:39Uh, this is going to pay off.

00:43:40It's going to be more interesting than if I had chosen Sling Blue.

00:43:44Um, so I feel good about this.

00:43:46I feel like Versus was the main thing that occurred on Instagram.

00:43:50So Jake, the thing that might work for you here is that like you, you now have to actively

00:43:55root for TikTok to be banned.

00:43:56That's, that is the main thing you need for this pick to pay off because now there's all

00:44:00these, all this reporting and rumors out there about like Instagram is once again, trying

00:44:05to capitalize on TikTok going away.

00:44:07And like, maybe they're going to do a separate app again.

00:44:10And like, there are people out there who are like, IGTV was a good idea.

00:44:12We just, you know, bad timing.

00:44:14They're finally making an iPad app.

00:44:16Yeah.

00:44:16Like it, it could happen.

00:44:18It really, it could happen.

00:44:18You have to know like Instagram's response to TikTok being banned is iPad app.

00:44:24Yeah.

00:44:25What's going on?

00:44:25They can pull this off.

00:44:26They can get there.

00:44:28What are, what are we doing?

00:44:30They're going to buy Meerkat or something.

00:44:32Like they're going to pull it all together.

00:44:33Love it.

00:44:34I'm excited for you.

00:44:35But yeah, you are now.

00:44:36I, I, this, this one I'm buying low trying to sell high here.

00:44:41Listen, it's a swing.

00:44:42Again, everyone's very confused about, by the stock market and that might be us too.

00:44:46That's fine.

00:44:47Yeah.

00:44:48So I will say this means Instagram reels is still available.

00:44:52You can still have it if you want it.

00:44:53You picked Instagram live.

00:44:55Yeah.

00:44:56I'm like, yeah, no, I feel, I feel, I feel absolutely fine about this.

00:44:58It's funny.

00:44:58Cause I don't, I, my prediction is that reels will not get picked over the course of this

00:45:04draft, but it's why I've got picked.

00:45:06Yeah.

00:45:07Yeah.

00:45:07Okay.

00:45:08I agree with both of those.

00:45:09What was your third place live pick?

00:45:11Yeah.

00:45:12Oh, this is my, it's my pick now.

00:45:13Are you, are you, go for it.

00:45:15This is what I was trying to game out against David.

00:45:17Okay.

00:45:18Because I know the NFL is important to both of us.

00:45:21So I'm just picking Sunday tickets standalone, which you can just buy.

00:45:26Yeah, you can.

00:45:27You don't need YouTube TV.

00:45:29You can just buy it.

00:45:30It's a million dollars, but that's my life pick.

00:45:33Yeah.

00:45:33You don't even need, I don't even think you need YouTube premium.

00:45:35You can truly buy it on its own.

00:45:37Yeah.

00:45:37And you just get it on like the YouTube page, which is a weird way to watch football.

00:45:41Like it, that's just, we, it's just, that's a weird thing, but all of my games are out

00:45:47of market.

00:45:48So this works for me.

00:45:49So yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm just picking dead ahead Sunday ticket.

00:45:53Interesting.

00:45:53All right.

00:45:54That's fair.

00:45:55I, I was not going to pick it only because God helped me.

00:45:58I cannot have another YouTube product, but it's a good pick and it seems to, it seems

00:46:04to be working.

00:46:04Do you get, if you buy Sunday ticket on its own, isn't it like $500 a season or something

00:46:09insane?

00:46:09Yeah.

00:46:09It's like, it's like three 50 or something.

00:46:11It's, it's nuts.

00:46:12It's, it's, it's not, it's nuts.

00:46:14Even, even if you like buy it in like the regular, like I have a real playoffs problem

00:46:19here.

00:46:19I'm going to figure something out, but I'll go to the bar.

00:46:23It'll be fine.

00:46:25Okay.

00:46:25All right.

00:46:25So you got Sunday ticket.

00:46:27I feel good about it.

00:46:27Go to the bar is wild card.

00:46:29And by the way, it, even if you have Sunday ticket, you, the NFL is like, here's a game

00:46:34on Amazon prime.

00:46:35Like it's all bad.

00:46:36So the, there's a reason I was asking you about that piracy backstop.

00:46:40You see what I'm saying?

00:46:41Yeah, it's good.

00:46:43Uh, all right.

00:46:44My next pick, I think I'm going cheap.

00:46:48Um, and I'm going to pick, there's, there's two here.

00:46:53I think I'm going to pick peacock, which I just confirmed you can still get for $8 a

00:46:58month.

00:46:59Uh, we're not publishing this episode for a few days, so that's plenty of time for them

00:47:02to raise the price.

00:47:04But, uh, peacock continues to be the like place.

00:47:10I watch the office and parks and rec and new girl.

00:47:14And it's increasingly getting like pretty good movies pretty quickly.

00:47:18After they come out, uh, it's just, it's kind of, it's, it's, it's doing a thing.

00:47:24I suppose this is where we should disclose that Comcast NBC universal is a investor in

00:47:29our parent company, Vox media round five.

00:47:31They do not pay for my peacock.

00:47:33Still exists.

00:47:34Yeah, exactly.

00:47:37Disclosure.

00:47:38But yeah, I think, uh, I think I'm doing it just because I still haven't watched wicked.

00:47:43And at some point this year, I am going to watch wicked and I need peacock to watch wicked.

00:47:47So I think I'm doing it.

00:47:49Yeah.

00:47:50Peacock.

00:47:50Eventually you'll watch wicked.

00:47:52Dirty Comcast money.

00:47:53Well said.

00:47:55And poker face, Jake, like you said, poker face, they got some, they got that one show.

00:48:01There's a lot of like SNL 50 stuff.

00:48:04I still have to watch.

00:48:05Like there's, I got stuff to do, which by the way is also on your other pick YouTube.

00:48:10Oh crap.

00:48:10You're right.

00:48:11That's okay.

00:48:12I'm just, I'm just SNL for life.

00:48:14Two of your, this is good.

00:48:17Uh, all right.

00:48:18I'm taking, I'm taking peacock.

00:48:19Uh, all right.

00:48:20Let's do one more round before we take another break.

00:48:23Uh, Jake, you're up.

00:48:25We got it guys.

00:48:25Are you ready for this?

00:48:26It's about to hit the niche category.

00:48:28Um, tell me, have you ever thought to yourself, I would love to watch a 14 hour documentary

00:48:38about the history of New York city by Ken Burns, brother, like Ken Burns, brother, have

00:48:46you ever thought Ben Burns, boy, these bootleg clips of antique roadshow that I'm seeing on

00:48:52tech talk, I would love to check out the entire series PBS passport.

00:48:58Yeah.

00:48:59I'm telling you, this is a winner.

00:49:01All right.

00:49:02And if you need this specific genre, I'm going to say this is TV.

00:49:04You can fall asleep to.

00:49:06Um, I think this is going to be a big hit.

00:49:08Uh, you get to help support public access TV, which hopefully will exist by the end of

00:49:15this year.

00:49:15Yeah.

00:49:15Will that be here next year?

00:49:16And you know what?

00:49:17Your subscription to PBS passport will help.

00:49:19All right.

00:49:20I respect it.

00:49:21I feel good about this one.

00:49:22A big theme here is that everyone is falling asleep.

00:49:25Like, why are we all paying so much money for streaming services when mostly what we're

00:49:31doing is passing out?

00:49:32Oh, I've got more where that comes from.

00:49:33Okay.

00:49:33Just, just wait.

00:49:34That also appears to be how everyone watches TV.

00:49:37Like, do you, do you guys ever see this thing that flips around every once in a while

00:49:39that, uh, one of the directives Netflix gives to people who are making a show is that

00:49:44everyone has to always say what they're thinking and what's happening out loud because most

00:49:49people aren't watching the show.

00:49:51So they have to, like, you can't, there can't be any unsaid important details in a Netflix

00:49:57show because they understand that lots of people are just sitting there looking at their

00:50:00phone.

00:50:00So they have to say everything out loud and it drives creatives absolutely insane.

00:50:04But like, this is the world we live in now.

00:50:06This is horrifying.

00:50:07This is also what you just described earlier, where you're just like, I have TV on in the

00:50:10background while I'm cooking all the time.

00:50:11And this is like how you watch.

00:50:12And it's just people just saying expository.

00:50:15Yeah.

00:50:15Like, it's just people doing, sorry, let me say that.

00:50:18So it's just people doing exposition all day long in the background of David's house.

00:50:24Yeah.

00:50:25This apple is delicious.

00:50:26Like, there's a reason that Hollywood is dying and it's that and the frame TV, which

00:50:32we will come to.

00:50:32It's, it's, it's bleak out there.

00:50:34Uh, all right.

00:50:35PBS.

00:50:36Love it.

00:50:37No notes.

00:50:37Uh, Neal, what do you got?

00:50:38All right.

00:50:39My, I'm, it's, it's time.

00:50:41It's time for Neal to do a niche pick as well.

00:50:44Okay.

00:50:44So I'm picking Kaleidoscape, which is an ultra high bit rate day and date movie server.

00:50:53What?

00:50:54You gotta have one.

00:50:55You gotta have one.

00:50:56Oh.

00:50:56To run Kaleidoscape, you have to buy a server called the Terra Prime, which you put, you have

00:51:03to like put a rack in your basement.

00:51:04Uh, the server is 20,000, the, the package, I'm sorry.

00:51:08Um, you have to buy a server called the Terra Prime, which you like put in a rack in your basement

00:51:13because obviously you have a rack in your basement.

00:51:16Um, the Terra Prime for the 24 terabyte version is, uh, $10,500.

00:51:20And then you need to buy, uh, the Strato C or Strato V players for all the TV in your

00:51:27house.

00:51:27The Strato C is the budget model.

00:51:29That's $3,000.

00:51:30The Strato V, which is a player and with an integrated server, that's $4,000.

00:51:36And then you get day and date.

00:51:38You can buy full quality movies.

00:51:39How much is the movie?

00:51:41The movies are tremendously expensive.

00:51:43Is this the service that like Tom Cruise uses to watch theatrical movies in his, in his home

00:51:48theater?

00:51:49There's a little bit of that going on.

00:51:50It feels like they're a little later now than they used to be.

00:51:53Okay.

00:51:54Uh, there's this thing called the Bel Air circuit where all the houses in Bel Air have like

00:51:58screening rooms in them, like a day and date.

00:52:00And they used to, they used to be the circuit cause they run the physical reels around.

00:52:04Now there's digital distribution.

00:52:05Um, but the movies are not always expensive.

00:52:08It depends, right?

00:52:09Like some of them are $30, but some of them are like $200 because they're day and date.

00:52:13Okay.

00:52:14I'm just, I'm on Kaleidoscape's webpage and Jake, I just want to read you this paragraph,

00:52:18which is the most Neel Eye coded thing I think I've ever heard.

00:52:20Uh, it says Kaleidoscape movie experts annotate each movie with data such as screen size and

00:52:24credit and intermission cues.

00:52:26This allows our players to integrate with your home automation to dim lights, close shades

00:52:30and adjust seating when the titles roll and automatically screen mask to match the ratio of each

00:52:34film.

00:52:34Immersive experiences that streaming services simply can't achieve.

00:52:37Like I guarantee you, Neel Eye read this and just started just flinging money.

00:52:40The worst part about this is that Neel Eye's right.

00:52:42Like this is, this sounds awesome.

00:52:44Easily the sickest thing.

00:52:45This sounds incredible.

00:52:46Yeah.

00:52:47Like easily the sickest possible movie experience.

00:52:50I've stared at a Kaleidoscape so many times.

00:52:53I'm like, I should sell one of my cars and I can't, I don't watch enough movies.

00:52:57One of us picked Tubi, the other picked the like $30,000 set up to watch Wicked.

00:53:04Hell yes.

00:53:04Slightly early.

00:53:05I have a cousin who sent me a picture of the rack in his brother-in-law's house in Virginia

00:53:11with like five strato Vs in it.

00:53:14And I was like, I'm going to this house.

00:53:15Like, let's go.

00:53:17Like, I'm very excited about it.

00:53:19What screens do you play on?

00:53:20I've been waiting this entire time to make this pick.

00:53:23When do you do it?

00:53:25I could have, I could have done it at number one.

00:53:27Yeah, the flesh would have been to pick it first.

00:53:29Some, one of us could have gotten there first.

00:53:32It's easily the sickest movie experience you can have.

00:53:34It sounds great.

00:53:35It's pretty good.

00:53:35It is ridiculous.

00:53:36You watch it on the frame?

00:53:38You watch it on the garbage.

00:53:40No, you have to build, you don't have to, but you're supposed to build a theater so that

00:53:44But it's optional at that point.

00:53:45So that the strato V can send 12 volt triggers to various home automation devices.

00:53:50I'm just imagining you being like, Max, I'm so sorry.

00:53:53You have to move out of your bedroom and turning it into the kaleidoscope theater.

00:53:58It's very good.

00:53:59I'm very excited about this idea.

00:54:00I've never been more excited about anything, actually.

00:54:02That's good stuff.

00:54:02I think you might only need a strato V at this point.

00:54:04I don't know.

00:54:05It's just a lot of money.

00:54:07Honestly, if you sell your car, you will go fewer places so you'll have more time to watch

00:54:10movies.

00:54:11I'm just saying.

00:54:11It's true.

00:54:12You'll just be alone in my house.

00:54:13Look, if anybody is listening and you want to tell us about your kaleidoscope, we will

00:54:20come to your house and watch movies.

00:54:22I will be there.

00:54:23Yeah.

00:54:23This is not a question.

00:54:24And then you will wake up and you'll be like, where did my kaleidoscope go?

00:54:30All right.

00:54:30I am going to go content and I'm going to pick Stranger Things season five, which I think

00:54:35is going to be enormous and humongous and might win me this draft all by itself.

00:54:40I think in terms of like stuff that is going to be on streaming services in between now

00:54:47and next year.

00:54:48This one is the one that is like, if I can't have Netflix, at least I get to have Stranger

00:54:53Things.

00:54:53Yeah.

00:54:53I think that's a big win for you.

00:54:55The season might be awful.

00:54:56Like there's all these actors are like in their forties now.

00:54:59Yeah.

00:55:00They've been doing this for forever.

00:55:01It's going to be insane.

00:55:04But I kind of feel like everyone on earth is going to watch it.

00:55:07It's also it's like the biggest thing that Netflix will have maybe ever.

00:55:10Right.

00:55:10Like this is the single biggest show they've had, at least like culturally.

00:55:16This conclusion has been coming for years.

00:55:18I think a lot of people are very hyped about it.

00:55:20I'm very hyped for it.

00:55:22I'm not even necessarily sure it's going to be amazing.

00:55:24But yeah, I'm excited.

00:55:25So yeah, good.

00:55:26I think that's a good get for you.

00:55:28I feel good about it.

00:55:28I'm a little worried it's not going to come out this year because it has been like imminent

00:55:32for a very long time.

00:55:34But I have faith and I choose to believe that it's going to happen.

00:55:39I think I almost picked Ted Lasso season four, but then I knew Nenea would make fun of me

00:55:43for a really long time.

00:55:44And I just don't need that in my life.

00:55:45Well, I just want to tell you that Kaleidoscape streams in 65 megabits per second, which is

00:55:49higher than a 4K Blu-ray.

00:55:50I knew when you had not said anything in a minute, it was because you were reading about Kaleidoscape.

00:55:55We've lost Nenea.

00:55:57In lossless audio.

00:55:58My man, come on.

00:56:00It's just a $15,000 initiative.

00:56:05Look, I love this for you.

00:56:06All right.

00:56:06We have to take one more break and then we've got two more categories to do.

00:56:09We will be right back.

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00:57:14All right, we're back.

00:57:20We're five categories in.

00:57:21We got two more to go.

00:57:23Quick recap before we finish.

00:57:25Jake has picked Tubi, Netflix, Hulu, Instagram Live for some reason, and PBS Passport.

00:57:32Some choices in there.

00:57:33Nilay has picked TikTok, Max, Disney+, NFL Sunday Ticket, and Kaleidoscape, and has ceased

00:57:39paying attention to this podcast since he picked Kaleidoscape.

00:57:42I've done everything I need to do.

00:57:43Yeah, Nilay is finished.

00:57:45And I have Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube Premium, YouTube TV, and Stranger Things Season

00:57:515.

00:57:51We have two more categories each.

00:57:53Jake, you're up.

00:57:54All right, guys.

00:57:54It's going to be a stressful year.

00:57:57We all need something to kind of chill out, relax to.

00:58:01Also note that, you know, we're talking about video here, but I don't know what this does

00:58:06for our ability to listen to music.

00:58:08So I've been thinking about that.

00:58:11I don't have YouTube.

00:58:12So I'm going to grab Lo-Fi Girl.

00:58:14Oh.

00:58:15Listen.

00:58:16Lock that in.

00:58:17All right.

00:58:17While the world is burning, I'm going to be in my bedroom, studying, a little scarf

00:58:23around my neck, just sort of zenning out.

00:58:26I think this is going to be a good one for 2025.

00:58:29It's a strong pick, actually.

00:58:31Because if the shtick here is, these are the only things you're allowed to consume this

00:58:36year, you do need that.

00:58:38That's a strong pick.

00:58:39I like that for you.

00:58:40I think it's not covered by anything else that I've got.

00:58:45You know, it's providing, I think, a very distinct service.

00:58:50So yeah, I feel good about Lo-Fi Girl.

00:58:52Which Lo-Fi Girl station do you listen to?

00:58:54There's like three or four of them now.

00:58:56We're just going to go with the main for this pick.

00:58:58I'm going to be honest.

00:58:59I'm not a connoisseur.

00:59:01You can have the whole channel.

00:59:02I'll give you the whole channel.

00:59:03I'm just curious which one you listen to.

00:59:06Whichever one comes up.

00:59:08I mean, I'm going to be honest.

00:59:09Not personally a big Lo-Fi Girl listener, which maybe defeats the purpose of this draft.

00:59:13But I'm trying to think holistically here, right?

00:59:16Sure.

00:59:16I want to get some music in.

00:59:18This is, I think, the single hottest music channel on streaming services that I know of.

00:59:25I don't think I can pick the entire channel for, God, does it even exist anymore?

00:59:32What was the YouTube music video service?

00:59:36Vivo?

00:59:36Vivo.

00:59:37Yeah.

00:59:37That was it.

00:59:38Yeah, they broke it up into individual artists.

00:59:40Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:40You would have to pick like Billie Eilish Vivo.

00:59:41Like, I'm not going to write.

00:59:42Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:59:43Billie Eilish's YouTube channel is not a bad pick.

00:59:47It's true.

00:59:47You could do worse.

00:59:48Probably could just go with that.

00:59:50No, Lo-Fi Girl.

00:59:52Listen, it's not necessarily my constant jam, which maybe defeats the purpose of this pick.

00:59:57But I think it is the right tone for 2025.

01:00:04I like it.

01:00:05That's why I'm locking it in.

01:00:06I support it.

01:00:07I also, for anyone who spends all of their time on the regular Lo-Fi channel, which is very good,

01:00:13the Synthwave channel, also very good.

01:00:16Not nearly as popular.

01:00:17I'm looking at it now.

01:00:17It's like a tenth as many people on the channel right now.

01:00:20But it's called Synthwave Radio on Lo-Fi Girl.

01:00:23It's very good.

01:00:23Highly recommend.

01:00:24There's also a jazz one that I'm not nearly cool enough to listen to.

01:00:28But Jake, you could be.

01:00:29You wear good sweaters.

01:00:30You could be.

01:00:30I'm going to listen.

01:00:31Listen, now that I have Lo-Fi channel, I'm going to find out.

01:00:34I love this for you.

01:00:35All right, Neelai, what do you got?

01:00:36I'm realizing that I made an error in that I did not pick Clyde Escape for every one of these.

01:00:42So, for content, could I have picked just NFL and gotten the out?

01:00:51No.

01:00:52No.

01:00:53Okay.

01:00:54I think you have to pick.

01:00:55We're giving.

01:00:56Could I have picked, like, Reddit slash NFL live streams and gotten the out?

01:01:01Can I pick that for wild card?

01:01:05Do you see what I'm saying?

01:01:06Because I made a very important pick for live.

01:01:09And I'm thinking, oh, I could have, I might, there's only one reason I needed it.

01:01:15I'm going to say no, because I think Lo-Fi girl qualifies as more or less a piece of content.

01:01:21Like, I think if you were to say under content, you're going to pick the Super Bowl, I'd give you the Super Bowl.

01:01:26But I don't think the NFL sees, I think it's too big.

01:01:29Too big.

01:01:30Yeah.

01:01:32And the collected catalog of Lo-Fi girl is not too big.

01:01:35That's a nonstop stream.

01:01:36That thing doesn't, she doesn't sleep.

01:01:38Like, sometimes she gets a murder.

01:01:41From what I understand, she's sort of like a LARP situation.

01:01:43I don't know about the meta story of Lo-Fi girl.

01:01:46Every night and again, she disappears and people have to do a quest.

01:01:49Oh.

01:01:50So this is, I've got gamification built in here, too.

01:01:53Oh, yeah.

01:01:54The lore is so much deeper than you know, Jake.

01:01:56All right.

01:01:57So the one thing I don't really have here is any kind of news content.

01:02:01True.

01:02:01Except for whatever extremely weird version of CNN they run on Macs, which is, like, not worth watching because it's not actually CNN.

01:02:12It's like, what if this was worse?

01:02:14You know, like, I don't want this.

01:02:17So here's what I'm picking.

01:02:18I'm going to throw it in content.

01:02:20I'm going to throw, I've got to put a news service here, right?

01:02:25That's what you need live television for, especially in this moment.

01:02:29And I feel like the regular cable news channels have just become weird podcasts unto themselves.

01:02:35So if I'm going to pick a weird news podcast, I'm picking my pals at CNBC.

01:02:39I'm just putting that here in content.

01:02:42Because if line's going to go down and I'm going to panic with a bunch of weirdos, it's my buddies.

01:02:48Okay.

01:02:48So that's my content.

01:02:50I'm glad we got a podcast in here.

01:02:52Yeah.

01:02:52Is it a CNBC, like, podcast stream?

01:02:56Like, what?

01:02:57CNBC, literally, if you go onto their homepage right now, there's a button that says watch live stream, which is an incredible button for a cable channel to have.

01:03:05And then it says prefer audio.

01:03:07Because I think they've realized that it is just a weird podcast about a chart.

01:03:12Like, what does CNBC make every day?

01:03:14A podcast about a chart.

01:03:16The hosts come and go.

01:03:17But they're making a podcast about a chart.

01:03:19Sure.

01:03:19And so there's a button where you can just listen to it.

01:03:22And they put out all the shows as podcasts in various ways.

01:03:24I don't know if any of this is working strategically.

01:03:26And obviously, they're being spun out of Comcast into their own.

01:03:30They're going to live whatever weird life in a company called Literally Spin Co.

01:03:34Yeah.

01:03:34I don't think this is going to happen.

01:03:35But I do know that if I want to listen to people panic about Line Go Down, I prefer that over the general interest news channels.

01:03:43I can get that for my bastardized CNN and Max.

01:03:47You see what I'm saying?

01:03:49Yeah.

01:03:50I like it.

01:03:50And I think CNBC is like, it's got to be weird to program a thing that you know many of your viewers are going to watch with no sound.

01:03:56And many of your viewers are only going to listen to.

01:03:59It's like very few people seem to actively sit and listen and look at cable TV.

01:04:04They all, it's one or the other.

01:04:05It's like you're in an airport with no sound.

01:04:08Oh, you put audio stream here.

01:04:09I'm just saying.

01:04:10Well, yeah, you can have the live stream.

01:04:11I don't care.

01:04:12You can have whatever you want.

01:04:13Yeah.

01:04:13I just want the live stream of CNBC.

01:04:14My point is all cable news broadcasts are now weird podcasts.

01:04:19Like if you just look, if you look at what we do every week, it was like, here's some people talking to each other for a while about stuff.

01:04:25And you like watch any major cable news, they're like, here's 35 people in a grid talking about stuff.

01:04:31And it's just a podcast.

01:04:33And like everything is converging on this form, but you do need the like live reactive to news in your content mix.

01:04:42We need more charts on the vert cast is what I'm hearing here.

01:04:44A podcast about a live podcast where we panic about a chart is like, that's, that's cable news in 2025.

01:04:50I'm ready for it.

01:04:52All right.

01:04:52That's a good one.

01:04:53I will be watching as little news as possible over the rest of this year.

01:04:57So I will, I will skip on that one.

01:04:59All right.

01:04:59I'm up next.

01:05:02I have niche and wild card left.

01:05:05I think I'm going to pick wild card and I'm going to go paramount plus with, with great sadness and trepidation, but I need sports.

01:05:16And paramount plus has a lot of very good sports.

01:05:19Paramount plus is how I watch March madness.

01:05:21It's how I watched the masters.

01:05:23It's how I watched champions league soccer.

01:05:25It is like, there's just this like steady drumbeat, a very important sports to me on CBS that I can only get through paramount plus.

01:05:31And I don't love giving them my money because it's not a good service.

01:05:37Other times, although they do also have the mission impossible movies.

01:05:39So that helps.

01:05:40That's going to be big this year.

01:05:41They got another one coming up.

01:05:42You're going to have a rewatch marathon.

01:05:44I think there's something there.

01:05:45Yeah.

01:05:45So I'm, I'm taking a paramount plus, but like, I will probably cancel it three separate times over the course of this year, but I want to have it available to me.

01:05:54Also, this is the Alex Kranz memorial pick because.

01:05:57And you know what?

01:06:00Turned out to be a winner.

01:06:01So yeah.

01:06:02Whoever picks paramount plus.

01:06:04Yeah.

01:06:05Listen, if they finally make the great star Trek show, I'm sitting pretty.

01:06:08It's going to be amazing.

01:06:10Uh, all right.

01:06:11We got one round left.

01:06:12Jake, you have wild card left.

01:06:14Neela, you have wild card left and I have niche left.

01:06:16Jake, you're up.

01:06:17All right, folks.

01:06:18I'm going to pick a service that I do not believe has appeared in the Vergecast streaming draft to date.

01:06:27Um, this is one of the greatest streaming services I've ever used.

01:06:31Um, but it's also not widely available.

01:06:34And that is canopy canopy is the service that you can get through your library.

01:06:41This thing is free for you because your library pays for it.

01:06:44They have an excellent library of movies, um, including, you know, new stuff, old stuff.

01:06:51Um, this is, is once again, the library that you do not find on Netflix because, uh, Netflix doesn't want to pay for this because it's a bunch of weirdos who watch this stuff.

01:07:00Um, the only, the only, uh, downside to the services, your library has to be a partner of canopy.

01:07:05But if your library is a partner of canopy, um, just watch as much as you want for free.

01:07:09And it's great.

01:07:10Um, what's the, what's the bit, right?

01:07:13Uh, I guess like 40.

01:07:1440, probably what are we talking about?

01:07:16Like, I don't know.

01:07:16You got a privatized library, Jake.

01:07:18I, I, I, I did not check out the bit rate, uh, requirements in that.

01:07:23Um, I, I do, I'll be honest.

01:07:27Uh, the New York public library does not currently support canopy.

01:07:30So I do need to pretend I live somewhere else and get another library card in order to take advantage of this pick.

01:07:35Um, however, there was a brief period of time when, uh, I had canopy access and my God, uh, it was, it was a shining star.

01:07:44It was the best service I've ever used.

01:07:46I'm not saying I recommend this, but I'm also saying it's not very hard to get a library card somewhere you don't live.

01:07:53That's all I'll say.

01:07:54It's just, it's just.

01:07:55Have you ever been to reddit.com?

01:07:57Our library cards.

01:07:58There we go.

01:08:02That's a good pick.

01:08:03Canopy canopy is sneakily very good.

01:08:05And they'll like the whole sort of stuff you can get with your library card on the internet ecosystem is perpetually way better than it gets credit for.

01:08:12Canopy is great.

01:08:13Libby is great.

01:08:14It's like, there's a whole universe of good digital content out there that you can get with your library card.

01:08:19Uh, please don't close all of our libraries.

01:08:22That's a good pick.

01:08:22I think canopy has come up before, but I don't think anyone has ever picked it.

01:08:26So you've done it.

01:08:27You've also really between canopy and PBS passport and lo-fi girl, you've really like Brooklynized your draft in a way that I, I very much approve of.

01:08:36There are some ups and downs, uh, in, in my selections, but, um, you know, I'm feeling good about, about a few of these.

01:08:43It's strong.

01:08:43I love it for you.

01:08:44All right.

01:08:44Nilay last pick.

01:08:45What do you got?

01:08:46All right.

01:08:47Because I was not allowed to just pick an entire sports situation as content.

01:08:53This really changed my dynamic.

01:08:55So for my wild card, I'm picking F1 TV.

01:08:58That's good.

01:08:59That's good.

01:08:59And really, I've been inspired by how much sleeping we're all doing.

01:09:03And that's what I sleep.

01:09:05That was good.

01:09:05That was the truth.

01:09:06That was the middle 15 laps.

01:09:08You just, I'm out.

01:09:09Like, good night.

01:09:09Yeah.

01:09:10Middle 30 even.

01:09:11I saved niche for last because I was positive no one was going to pick F1 TV and I was going to pick it.

01:09:16Oof.

01:09:17Yeah.

01:09:17Rough.

01:09:17You and I have been dancing around the sports situation this whole time.

01:09:20David, can I tell you, Instagram Reels is still out there.

01:09:24F1 TV is also a very good streaming service.

01:09:27In the, like, how should sports be broadcast?

01:09:30It's like, show me a million different angles.

01:09:31Show me all the data.

01:09:32Show me none of the data.

01:09:33Just, like, make it chaotic in cool, interesting, sportsy ways.

01:09:36F1 TV does a very good job.

01:09:37I was looking in a Reddit thread for a bar around me that would, like, show races.

01:09:44Which is a weird thing because it's either very early in the morning or you've got to, everyone's got to agree to watch a replay.

01:09:50And there's a number of comments there that are like, I will never watch this in a bar because I need to be locked in with data from F1 TV.

01:09:59And it's like, not, does anyone want to go to a bar?

01:10:02Everyone's like, locked in with an Excel spreadsheet measuring tire degradation live from F1 TV.

01:10:08That's how I prefer to experience this sport.

01:10:10It's like, okay, so I'm going to be taking a nap at home.

01:10:14It's very good.

01:10:15A strong correlation, by the way, between people who love video games and F1 because they're just, they're just doing video game stuff.

01:10:23Like, they're just, like, min-maxing, like, European voice.

01:10:25It's very good.

01:10:27The Polygon people love F1.

01:10:29They're always like, is it a spreadsheet game?

01:10:31It is.

01:10:34It is very much, it is, like, the nerdiest sport you could possibly imagine in all of the best ways.

01:10:39Well, this sucks because now I don't know what I'm going to pick.

01:10:42I want to say, by the way, this officially means Apple TV is going to go undrafted.

01:10:47I was wondering.

01:10:50I thought about taking it in wild card, but I think I need, like, Severn's already happened.

01:10:56So, like, I'm good on Apple TV for a while.

01:10:58Hey, Dave.

01:10:59Did anything happen, Dave?

01:11:00I'm not doing this video again, Eli.

01:11:05Same conversation about White Lotus, by the way.

01:11:08It appears Netflix has issued rules where everyone just has to be doing, like, bold-faced exposition.

01:11:13And Apple and Macs have been like, nothing happens for three episodes in the middle.

01:11:19But it's beautiful.

01:11:20So people can look at their phones.

01:11:21Yeah.

01:11:22Yeah.

01:11:22Like, huge, gorgeous establishing shots.

01:11:25The end.

01:11:26End of episode.

01:11:27Will this monkey murder someone?

01:11:30No.

01:11:30Actually, nothing.

01:11:32Nothing.

01:11:33Okay.

01:11:34Also, ESPN Plus, undrafted.

01:11:38Interesting.

01:11:39And I think ESPN Plus doesn't count as a streaming service.

01:11:42That feels too mainstream, right?

01:11:43I don't think I can get away with that.

01:11:45I'm going to take BritBox as mine.

01:11:49BritBox is just an unbelievable repository of, I believe, BBC-specific British content.

01:11:57A, a lot of good stuff.

01:12:01Like, oh, boy, do you want people, like, quietly solving murders in beautiful countrysides?

01:12:06BritBox has you covered forever.

01:12:08A lot of good house shows on BritBox.

01:12:11But really, I'm taking it because I think in a time where people are looking for less America in their lives, we're all going British.

01:12:21It's just going to be me and my BritBox homies.

01:12:24I'm just checking it out.

01:12:25Is that what we're doing?

01:12:26That's what it's going to be.

01:12:28That's the bet I'm making.

01:12:29I feel like you ought to pick a Russian streaming stream.

01:12:31We want a king again.

01:12:33Like, what's going on over there?

01:12:35Is it cool?

01:12:35Because it seems like we ought to know.

01:12:40Yeah, I'm just looking at this now.

01:12:41There's a show called Douglas is Cancelled that I think I can watch.

01:12:44Anytime people tell me what they're watching on BritBox, truly just shows I've never known existed.

01:12:52I'm sure they're delightful.

01:12:53But it's just, it's very goofy names.

01:12:57They've been on for a decade.

01:13:00I've just never heard of them.

01:13:02Jake, there's a show on here called Gardener's World that I'm pretty excited about.

01:13:05Oh, you know what?

01:13:05That is a hit, though.

01:13:06Gardener's World is the number one worldwide gardening competition series.

01:13:13Monty and the team are back, full of the best practical tips and advice for gardeners.

01:13:17Five seasons.

01:13:19Yeah.

01:13:19Let's go.

01:13:19There was a big contract negotiation issue with Monty, so that actually was a big deal.

01:13:24Monty actually got replaced in season three silently.

01:13:27Look, David, extremely weird pick.

01:13:30That's what I have to say.

01:13:30That's what I did about it.

01:13:31We really, really fizzled out here at the end, where David just started Googling cool streaming services

01:13:36and realized that both Canopy and Lo-Fi Girl were taken.

01:13:41In person, Neelah gave a very solemn sigh after you did Big Box.

01:13:45Just like scooping up the bottom of the barrel.

01:13:50All right.

01:13:50That's fine.

01:13:51You picked this over Apple TV+.

01:13:53I think that's really saying something.

01:13:55Listen, Apple TV+, doesn't count in niche.

01:13:57If I had truly, if I had known you were going to pick F1 TV, I would have done it backwards.

01:14:03And then I would have had a real Paramount+, versus Apple TV+, debate to have.

01:14:08But I blame myself.

01:14:10Only one of those has both Top Gun movies, David.

01:14:13That's not a debate.

01:14:14I don't know what you're talking about.

01:14:15Ted Lasso Season 4 is coming.

01:14:17Might come out.

01:14:18In the future.

01:14:18Yeah.

01:14:18Do you think he's going to be optimistic?

01:14:20Listen, do I every once in a while tap a wall and say believe to myself?

01:14:27Yeah, I do.

01:14:28This is who I am in my life.

01:14:29Do I walk into a bar and just blow people out of the water at darts every couple days?

01:14:33Yeah.

01:14:33That's what I do.

01:14:34Be curious, not judgmental, Neelah.

01:14:36All right.

01:14:37To recap, the 2025 VertCast streaming draft.

01:14:41Jake, in Cheap, you picked Tubi.

01:14:44In Awards, you picked Netflix.

01:14:46In 4K, you picked Hulu.

01:14:48In Live.

01:14:48Let's pause there.

01:14:49Let's pause there.

01:14:50I have a really winning selection right there.

01:14:53In Live, you picked Instagram Live.

01:14:55What a choice.

01:14:56In Niche, you picked PBS Passport.

01:14:58In Content, you picked Lo-Fi Girl.

01:15:00And in Wild Card, you picked Canopy.

01:15:02I think most of those are strong picks.

01:15:05David described this as very Brooklyn.

01:15:07I would describe this as a guy who insists they don't watch TV.

01:15:10No, this is straight up.

01:15:12This is accurate.

01:15:13This is the cheapest slate, right?

01:15:16I'm paying for two of these.

01:15:18PBS Passport, you just make a donation.

01:15:20Like, once.

01:15:23I mean, it's good.

01:15:24I'm not saying I wasn't the kid who did have a TV.

01:15:27There's a real vibe here.

01:15:30No, that's completely right.

01:15:31I want to watch a bunch of old movies that nobody else cares about.

01:15:35That are only available with ads on Tubi.

01:15:37Because nobody else wanted to pay for them.

01:15:40Um, I'm going to the library because it's the only place you can check out, uh, you know, the Peter Greenaway movies I want to watch.

01:15:47Um, and then I don't know.

01:15:48I'm not in touch culturally.

01:15:50And so I'm like, what's happening?

01:15:51Let's check Instagram Live.

01:15:52I just feel like you've also won the, uh, unofficial, uh, how many of these companies will send me a tote bag race in, in pretty handily.

01:16:03Yeah.

01:16:03You get a lo-fi girl tote bag.

01:16:05That's the move.

01:16:05There we go.

01:16:06You're the winner.

01:16:06Uh, all right.

01:16:07So, Nilay, in cheap, you picked TikTok.

01:16:10In awards, you picked Max.

01:16:11In 4K, you picked Disney Plus.

01:16:13In live, you picked Sunday Ticket.

01:16:15In niche, you picked Kaleidoscape.

01:16:17In content, you picked CNBC.

01:16:19And in wildcard, you picked F1 TV.

01:16:21This is a real, like, content monster lineup.

01:16:24Yeah.

01:16:24I feel like I've outed myself as a dad in the worst possible way.

01:16:28This is like you have five TVs on a wall and they've all got something going on.

01:16:34Yeah.

01:16:34It's a lot.

01:16:35And I, yeah, I, I needed one cool one and I didn't pick one.

01:16:40Instead, I picked CNBC.

01:16:42But I'm okay with it.

01:16:44F1's out there.

01:16:44F1's cool.

01:16:45F1 is cool.

01:16:46Yeah.

01:16:46It is in its way.

01:16:48You're like, I'm a nerd who watches cars at three in the morning.

01:16:51That's me.

01:16:52It's a deeply me, but.

01:16:53Yeah.

01:16:54And you have TikTok, so you still get trucks jumping over stuff.

01:16:56So, I think, I think you've, you've represented yourself fairly accurately here.

01:17:01Yeah.

01:17:01As a dad.

01:17:02Yeah.

01:17:03That's, that's, that's my choice.

01:17:04And I have a cloud escape server, which is sick.

01:17:06I've won on strength of streaming quality alone.

01:17:10In terms of like number of bits delivered to the house, you've won and it's not close.

01:17:15No question about that.

01:17:16It's so many.

01:17:17You need an $11,000 server just to download them overnight.

01:17:22Do you understand what I'm saying?

01:17:23They, you know, it pre-downloads a bunch of movies so you can buy them locally and watch

01:17:27them right away.

01:17:28They're just assuming you're going to give them another 200 bucks every week.

01:17:31Yeah.

01:17:32They're just like, we're just going to preload your Terra Prime.

01:17:36So you're ready to go.

01:17:37It's not bad.

01:17:37That's why you need the server in the basement.

01:17:39That's good service.

01:17:40I'm look, if you're out there, uh, I'm guessing it's Steve Kaleidoscape.

01:17:45Just give me a call.

01:17:46I give it like 12 days before you reappear on the show and you're like, so let me tell

01:17:50you what I've been up to.

01:17:52Uh, and then my picks were in cheap.

01:17:55I picked Peacock in awards.

01:17:56I picked Amazon prime in 4k.

01:17:58I picked YouTube premium live YouTube TV niche Brit box content, stranger things, season

01:18:04five and wildcard paramount plus.

01:18:06I would call this the like basic parentheses derogatory set of picks.

01:18:11Yeah.

01:18:11This is David is passed out in the aisle of a best buy.

01:18:14Like stuff is just happening to you.

01:18:16You don't know why.

01:18:18Yeah.

01:18:18There's a real like B tier selection to, uh, the streamers.

01:18:21I don't want, I don't mean to, to criticize you as a person, David, you're great.

01:18:25No, I'm looking at this and I'm like, no, this is pure.

01:18:27Just like the algorithms get to decide.

01:18:31Like, I don't, I don't care what I watch.

01:18:32Just put something on is like the energy I'm getting from.

01:18:34There's an argument that YouTube alone tops everything else.

01:18:38Like if you have YouTube, you can, uh, you have access to the entire world of content

01:18:43in some ways.

01:18:43I frankly, the con, the, the combo of YouTube premium and Amazon prime video, like who was

01:18:49going to run out of content last?

01:18:50It's me and by lifetimes.

01:18:53So I'm good on that.

01:18:55But like, I don't know.

01:18:57The ceiling's pretty low on David's picks over here.

01:19:00The combo platter of Peacock and Paramount plus ending up on your board, but not Apple TV

01:19:06plus is perfect.

01:19:08You're like, I could have, but I did not choose the one that has won an Oscar.

01:19:14Yeah.

01:19:15It's good.

01:19:15There's that.

01:19:16You do get all of the weird Jurassic Park movies.

01:19:20And I'm not saying that they weren't successful.

01:19:21They've made billions of dollars.

01:19:23Super weird movies.

01:19:25Can you name the titles of any of them?

01:19:28It happened again.

01:19:30Oh no, more dinosaurs.

01:19:31All right.

01:19:34We're done.

01:19:35We got to get out of here.

01:19:37Tell us who you think won the draft.

01:19:39I guess we have like a year to really figure this out, right?

01:19:41So like, maybe we'll, we'll ask a bunch of overtime, but we should, we should put a poll

01:19:45in the, in the post on the site about who won the draft.

01:19:49Spoiler alert.

01:19:49It's, it's me.

01:19:50I won the draft.

01:19:51But, uh, I, I don't know.

01:19:55I don't know that any of us did great.

01:19:56We'll see.

01:19:57And we have 12 months to figure it out.

01:19:58Maybe TikTok will still be here and maybe Instagram live will have taken over the internet.

01:20:03We will see.

01:20:04I just feel like my choices are very good.

01:20:06And like by rights, I'm the winner, but I'm also wearing a quarter zip.

01:20:09You know what I mean?

01:20:09It's like, it's rough.

01:20:12The net worth of your picks is very high.

01:20:15Do you know what I mean?

01:20:15That's what I, you know, it's like, I have a golf sponsorship now.

01:20:20Yeah.

01:20:21I won.

01:20:22I'm saying I won as, but you know, but you're sad.

01:20:26I'm getting my own victory.

01:20:27Yeah.

01:20:27I'm saying I could have won in a cooler way.

01:20:29Yeah.

01:20:29All right.

01:20:29We got to get out of here.

01:20:30Jake, Neelai.

01:20:31Thank you guys so much.

01:20:32This is really fun.

01:20:33All right.

01:20:33That's it.

01:20:34That's the show for today.

01:20:35Thank you to Jake and Neelai for doing that with me.

01:20:37And thank you as always for listening for lots more on everything we talked about.

01:20:40If you want to see our picks again, if you want to see previous drafts, if you want

01:20:43to just yell at us in the comments about who won, head over to the verge.com.

01:20:48And seriously, I honestly do want to know who won.

01:20:50You can also send us an email, vergecast of the verge.com.

01:20:53Call the hotline.

01:20:53It's six, six verge one, one, all of your thoughts, all of your feelings, everything

01:20:57about who we should have drafted sooner.

01:20:59If you think it's like nuts that Disney plus didn't go first.

01:21:02If you think I'm a lunatic for picking Brit box, which I'm not.

01:21:05But if you think that I am, tell us, we want to hear from you, leave us comments, everything

01:21:11we see at all.

01:21:12And we love hearing from you.

01:21:14This show is produced by Eric Gomez, Brandon Kiefer, and Will Poore.

01:21:17The Verge Cast is a Verge production and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

01:21:21Neelai and I will be back on Friday to talk about AI news, politics news, tariffs, chaos,

01:21:26and everything else going on right now.

01:21:27We'll see you then.

01:21:28Rock and roll.

The 2025 Streaming Draft | The Vergecast

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