Empire+: An Announcement

0:15Chris Hewitt:Hey everyone, it's Chris Hewitt here, the host of the Empire podcast. I'm joined by James Dyer, who is the host of the Pilot TV podcast, but never mind that, he also occasionally turns up to recordings of the Empire film podcast. Hi Chris. How are you, James? I'm good. How are you? I'm good. Good, good. Not too bad at all. Helen O 'Hara, who is the third point of our trident. Yes. Yeah, does that make sense? The third leg of our table. Yeah. The third prong of our triangle. She's not here. She's not. She's not here. She's off doing something very important right now. But we have jumped into the pod booth very, very quickly to bring you an announcement, Jimbo.

0:54Chris Hewitt:Yes, we have. An important announcement. an important announcement because the other week we said on the Empire Podcast that we had just been to a photoshoot and that we had an exciting announcement to make at some point. Well, that some point has come, folks, because the exciting announcement is about to be made. Jimbo, can I get a drum roll, please? Okay, that's annoying. Stop that. We are getting a new logo. I mean, it's pretty exciting. It's pretty exciting. You can see it now. It's live now. It's up there. Yeah, people will be able to see it now. Really? So look at your podcast device of choice, and that is our new logo, because we've redesigned the Empire Podcast logo.

1:32Chris Hewitt:Like so many podcasts these days, we are plonking our faces on the logo, so you know who you're going to be hearing from during the show. I apologize for that in advance, because I've seen our faces, and so sorry about that. But that is not all, folks. Not only are we getting a new logo, we're getting new logos, because the logo for our spoiler specials feed is also changing. And that's not all. I actually may be bearing the lead here because the spoiler specials themselves are also changing. Say goodbye to the Empire Podcast spoiler specials. Say hello to... Drumroll? The Pilot TV Podcast. Oh my God.

2:15Chris Hewitt:I knew this was a mistake. Say hello to Empire Plus. I don't know how we came up with that name either Honestly, the workshopping took weeks We had top men working on it Top men What is Empire Plus? I hear you ask And what the hell is going on? Well, as you may or may not know the spoiler specials have been behind a paywall now for six years Something like that Six and a half years or so I think 1917 was the first one As in, we didn't go behind the paywall in 1917 because podcasts didn't exist then but Sam Mendes' 1917 was the first film that went behind the paywall and that was when was that?

2:56Chris Hewitt:That was just before the pandemic. Yeah, so around 1917. Did we cause the pandemic? It's possible. It is entirely possible. You'd never know. Anyway, it's been over six years and it's probably time to give him a bit of a lick of paint I would say. And so you and Helen and I have put our heads together and we have come up with brainstormed the name Empire Plus. We looked at what you did with the Pilot Plus and went, yep, we'll do that. In many ways, you're an inspiration. We took the plus from... We took the plus from Pilot Plus and Disney Plus and Paramount Plus and all those other incredible pluses and we added them to Empire.

3:39Chris Hewitt:And what is Empire Plus? Well, the alternative was Empire Minus. So, you know, and that wouldn't have worked. Some people would think that is just a given. Anyway. But, Empire Plus is essentially going to be the spoiler specials that you know and love, or hopefully you know and love, or hopefully most of you know and love, which are the spoiler special interviews with the hottest directors on the planet, plus all the Team Empire deep dives. But it's going to be a whole lot more besides. We're altering the deal. Pray we don't alter it any further. We are going to offer, under the Empire Plus umbrella for Empire Plus subscribers, the following ad-free episodes of the Empire podcast.

4:29Which people have been asking for for quite a long time.

4:31Chris Hewitt:We are aware that the frequency of ads on the podcast has increased of late. And many of you have asked for a way to access the pod ad-free as a good friend of ours often says this is the way. You may also from time to time, not every week, but from time to time, get longer versions of the regular podcast with some of the stuff that I cut out for time on the regular podcast left in... So the stuff you cut out for time, not the stuff you cut out for legal reasons. Yes, not the stuff where I call... a... Not those things. not those things they they will be cut and remain cut but the things that we cut for time yeah they might make it in I'm making a lot more work for me here but this is what we're hoping to do you're also going to get new shows as well that will live on Empire Plus the ranking is going to return as a podcast and it will live on Empire Plus there will be a dedicated Mount Rushmore show on Empire Plus, I Have Just Decided, and other shows...

5:47Chris Hewitt:That's good to know, Chris. Thanks for sharing. And other shows are in the works featuring your favorite Empire podcasters and also James will be... Also me. We should manage expectations. We're not going to be doing like podcasts every day. It's not going to be like that. No, no, no. But what we are promising is in addition to the spoiler specials that you already get, there will be other things which will turn up here and there. Yes. So you still have a consistent output of things, but it will not be restricted to just spoiler specials. Precisely. You're going to have... No, fuck it. I'm going to promise you 25 podcasts a day.

6:17Chris Hewitt:25 podcasts a day. I will work 28 hours a day, 9 days a week to bring you content. It's going to be amazing. You've just turned this from a promise to a threat. What are you doing? I don't know what I'm doing. But basically, I've long subscribed to the Anfield Wrap, and they do the same thing. For your big bucks every month, or your small bucks in my case, you get a ton of content. And that is what I'm trying to emulate. With this, we recognize that paying for a podcast subscription is a big deal, and so we intend to repay you in kind with shows galore. You will be content with our content, folks.

6:55Chris Hewitt:And speaking of paying, as you might expect, the price of the paywall is going to go up. That is beyond our control. But there is a silver lining to this cloud. From July 27th... July 27th. July 27th, the price of the podcast is going up to Jimbo. You're the numbers guy. It's going up by a pound. So essentially, as of July 27th, both Empire Plus and Pilot Plus will be£4.49 a month or£45 a year. So it's going up by a pound a month, but the annual price is going up by a lower amount. So actually, the annual one becomes a much better deal. And you'll also be able to get both Empire Plus and Pilot Plus in a bundle for£80.

7:36That's the first time we've been able to offer them both as a bundle. From July 27th. From July 27th.

7:40Chris Hewitt:Okay. But I will say, and we like to do this, if we are being told to put the prices up, we do like to give you notice. And one of the reasons is so that you still have essentially a month here where you can lock in the existing price for a year. If you sign up for a whole year, you can get it for the current 3849 price. So, you know, if you can and want to, now is the time to do that. You have until July 27th to lock in that price for a year. just to jump in very quickly and clarify that you can lock in the old price for a year if you are currently subscribing monthly as you can switch to the annual subscription at the old price unfortunately if you already subscribe annually unless your current subscription is up for renewal in the next month there's currently no way to cancel it early and resubscribe for a year starting now unfortunately the subscription mechanism just doesn't work that way as it will always keep rolling until it reaches the end of the period that you've already paid for we would love to have offered that to everyone we really wanted to but we are rather hamstrung unfortunately by the way the subscription service works so huge apologies for that it is only another $6.51 a year though at the new price if you're subscribing annually or even less if you get the Pilot Empire bundle alright this could be one of the shows just me and James talking about prices talking about money yeah that's it because$4.49 a month I always say this whatever I plug what can you buy for that well it's a cup of coffee isn't it it's like a cup of decent coffee I drink tea I don't drink coffee or tea but it's five bags of squashums okay that's currency I understand how many crisps can I buy for$4.49 well it depends what you're talking about if you're talking about the best crisp in the market which is the co-op own brand you see it's salt and vinegar crisp which is astonishingly good oh come on and if you're a co-op member which you can join co-op for just one pound this has become an advert for co-op.

9:33Chris Hewitt:I don't know what you're doing. You can get those crisps at the moment. They're big bags of crisps for$1.25. They're no walkers. Taste sensations. Sweet chili. Three. Oh, they are good. Three of those bags of crisps for the price of a podcast. You're just making that sound like a better deal. I'm trying to sell the crisps, not the podcast. You are. Yeah, you've got this completely ass backwards. Co-op crisps plus. Sign up right now. It's going to be absolutely off the chain. Gone so wrong. It is. It's a good offering. $4.49 a month £45 a year which is a great offering because using my maths in my head I think that you would have to pay nearly£55 a year if you were subscribing monthly.

10:13Yeah, it's quite saving the annual one. So yes, we recommend that one.

10:17Chris Hewitt:We recognize things like this price rises can always sting for a lot of people. Certainly stings for you and I, Jimbo. We're just working stiffs. We get none of this money. None of this comes to us by the way. but I wish it did but none of it comes to us but we also want to make sure that you guys know that this is happening and we want to make sure that we are giving you the best product we possibly can to thank you for your continued support of Empire and yes, sadly the Pilot TV podcast over the years as well in an ideal world everything would be free I believe that's called communism yes, but speaking plainly in that world the Empire podcast would no longer exist.

11:00Chris Hewitt:We would have been shut down years ago. This is true. And Pilot would not exist either. Because Pilot Plus exists because we were told to shut down the podcast otherwise. Yes. So it is your support through subscribing to the Spoiler Specials that keeps us going, keeps the lights on, and allows us to share film-related fun with you on a weekly basis. And for that, we are eternally grateful. Thank you. And we hope that you will see this rebranding from the Spoiler Specials to Empire Plus, brackets featuring the spoiler specials close brackets as an exciting step forward for the podcast and we hope that you will continue to support us and again yes sadly the Pilot TV podcast.

11:38Yeah and honestly the new photo shoot logos are worth the price alone I think.

11:42Chris Hewitt:The nude ones will be available on Empire X. Empire's only fans.

11:50Chris Hewitt:That was quite the shoot. I just I don't do well in front of a camera. I mean no one I don't specifically said tackle out to you, but you just wouldn't be stopped. You know? And if that's what the listeners want, then that's what they get. Anyway, listen, this intro is so epic that I don't know honestly what to do with it, but there you go. That's what's happening. Empire Plus is coming. In fact, it's here now, isn't it? It is here now. It launched today. It launched today. It launched today. We would love it if you continued to subscribe and do spread the word. sometimes you can get very bashful and British about this stuff but we are genuinely proud of what we make here.

12:31Chris Hewitt:The pods, I think, are of a very, very middle-of-the-road standard and I went British. I couldn't do it. You couldn't do it. I couldn't do it. So you have no problem flogging the magazine. Give us your money, you motherfuckers. Couldn't do it. No? I'm incredibly proud of these podcasts but I couldn't say they're good. I mean, good is overstating it. They're fine. They're fine. They're fine. They're fine. Tell your friends, Subscribe to Empire Plus and Pilot Plus. They're fine.