Digital TV News: Amazon Alexa

Facebook introduces Portal TV set-top box
Sep 18, 2019 – Facebook is expanding its Portal family of home video-calling devices with three new models: Portal, Portal Mini and Portal TV. Portal TV brings smart video-calling to the largest screen in the home.
News categories: Facebook, Australia, Canada, Digital TV, France, Italy, New Zealand, Set Top Box, Smart Home, Spain, Streaming, Tablet, UK, USA

Amazon Prime Video to be made available on Altice One
Sep 16, 2019 – Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have announced plans to launch Amazon Prime Video on the Altice One entertainment and connectivity platform, providing access to the entire Prime Video catalog, for Altice’s Optimum and Suddenlink customers.
News categories: Altice USA, Prime Video, Hakim Boubazine, Andrew Bennett, Apps, Cable TV, Digital TV, Set Top Box, Streaming, USA

DTVKit, DiscVision and OBS bring voice control to DTVKit powered TVs and STBs
Sep 12, 2019 – Ocean Blue Software (OBS) has announced that it has pre-integrated DiscVision’s Voice Control SDK with DTVKit's DVB stack, bringing Amazon Alexa and Google Home compatibility to DTVKit powered TVs and STBs.
News categories: Ocean Blue Software, DiscVision, DTVKit, Paul Martin, Dr. Reinhard Lüling, Phil Evans, Digital TV, IBC2023, Set Top Box, Smart Home, Smart TV, Worldwide

Altice France selects CommScope for SFR Box 8 Smart Media Device
Sep 12, 2019 – Altice France is collaborating with CommScope to bring a personalised connected home experience to its SFR subscribers. Altice’s SFR Box 8 Smart Media Device represents the next phase of customer experience engagement as it aggregates services that consumers love.
News categories: CommScope, SFR, Altice France, Joe Chow, Grégory Rabuel, Digital TV, France, IBC2023, IPTV, Set Top Box, UX

SFR STBs first in France to integrate Amazon Prime Video
Aug 27, 2019 – Altice Europe is to make Amazon Prime Video available to its SFR customers in France. SFR will be the first of Altice operations and the first operator in France to announce the Prime Video app within its LaBox SFR Fibre, SFR Box Plus and SFR Box 8 set-top boxes.
News categories: Altice, Prime Video, Alain Weill, Jay Marine, Apps, Digital TV, Dominican Republic, France, IPTV, Israel, Portugal, Set Top Box, Streaming

Altice USA smart speaker offers hands-free Altice One voice control
Aug 7, 2019 – Altice USA (NYSE: ATUS) has unveiled its Altice Amplify home speaker. The device features Devialet's sound technologies and has Amazon Alexa Built-In. Altice Amplify also offers hands-free voice control of the Altice One entertainment and connectivity platform.
News categories: Altice USA, Devialet, Hakim Boubazine, Franck Lebouchard, Cable TV, Digital TV, Set Top Box, Smart Home, USA, UX

Virtual Assistant shipments to exceed 2.3 billion in 2023
Jul 22, 2019 – The market for virtual assistants (VAs) shows strong positive momentum, driven forward by a combination of rising consumer demand and improvements in the enabling technologies, according to Futuresource Consulting.
News categories: Futuresource Consulting, Simon Forrest, Market Research, Smart Home, Worldwide

2019 LG AI ThinQ TVs add Amazon Alexa support
May 23, 2019 – LG has begun adding Amazon Alexa support to the company’s 2019 TV models featuring artificial intelligence. The update will be implemented through the Alexa app on 2019 TVs featuring ThinQ AI including LG UHD TVs, NanoCell TVs and OLED TVs.
News categories: LG Electronics, Amazon Alexa, Brian Kwon, Apps, Australia, Austria, Canada, Digital TV, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Smart Home, Smart TV, Spain, UK, USA

Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant neck and neck in Smart Speaker market
May 8, 2019 – The Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant platforms will take an almost equal share of the global smart speaker market this year, according to Strategy Analytics. Amazon Alexa's share of sales will decline to 31.7% in 2019, while Google Assistant’s share will rise to 31.4%.
News categories: Strategy Analytics, David Watkins, David Mercer, Market Research, Smart Home, Worldwide