In the growing competitive field of Streaming Sticks, Amazon introduced the Fire TV Stick today. Designed to take on challengers like the Roku Streaming sticks and Chromecast dongle, Amazon’s HDMI-based media adapter represents a smaller, less expensive complement to their $99 Fire TV box. The new smaller and even more affordable device sells for
$39 and features access to Netflix, Prime Instant Video, Hulu Plus, Twitch, WatchESPN and a variety of other services right out of the box. Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO, said in announcing the new product, “The team has packed an unbelievable amount of power and selection into an incredible price point.”
The company said the Fire TV Stick has 50 percent more processing power and 2x the memory of Chromecast, and 6x the processing power, 2x the memory, and 32x the storage of Roku Streaming Stick It supporting standards like DIAL allowing users to fling shows from services like YouTube, Spotify, and Netflix (coming soon) from an Android phone or iPhone. They began to take pre-orders today and will
start shipping the new product on 19th of November.
Overall the specs look good and based on Amazon great success with the Fire TV Box, which launched a little more than six months ago and quickly became the best-selling streaming media box on the e-retailer, the Fire TV Stick might be the first product that will be a serious challenger to Chromecast in terms of both features and value. Obviously Mr. Bezos believes he has a winner, the rest of us will have to wait and see how it performs in the real world to be sure. More: TechCrunch.com 10/27/14 - Amazon’s New Fire TV Stick Is A $39 Chromecast Competitor With A Hardware Remote and Variety.com 10/27/14 - Amazon Whips Out TV Stick Against Google’s Chromecast and Roku and/or Twice.com 10/27/14 - Amazon Unveils Fire TV Stick
Television is changing and viewers are embracing and personalizing it as they're consumption habits morph. According
to Adobe's bi-annual Video Benchmark Report, authenticated TV Everywhere
viewing surged 388% in the second quarter compared to the same quarter last
year. Indicating that more people watched more TV online than ever before while programmers witnessed broader use as unique monthly viewers increased by 146 per cent across browsers and TV apps. Although online TV consumption still remains fragmented across platforms, gaming consoles and OTT devices gained the largest percentage of market share and Android apps surpassed desktop browsers as access points for watching TV online.
The
pace of industry consolidation as well as the businesses general move towards IP distribution models were
never more evident than they were this past week. On the heels of HBO's announcement of a plan to offer a Web-based service that doesn’t require a cable or satellite TV subscription, CBS announced that it will launch an All Access video-on-demand service that comes with a $5.99-per-month subscriber fee and has current and past seasons available for viewing. Local CBS television station streams will also be available through the subscription in 14 markets. "It seems pretty apparent that every media company in America is thinking about direct-to-consumer, mobile, digital" said Les Moonves after the announcement. ReCode also reported that CBS is considering an HBO-like service for its premium network Showtime. “We are always looking at ways of expanding our audience and it is certainly something that we have been examining for some time” said Moonves.
What HBO and CBS have done suggests the future of TV will be messier and more confusing in the near-term but ultimately consumers will have more choice of what they watch and how much they pay for it. No doubt this weeks developments suggests an avalanche of
television networks and studios moving quickly to announce online apps and
services. Sony, Dish and ABC all have been developing streaming strategies. And in the way that chattering about changing technology helps propel that change, the HBO and CBS announcements, separated by one day, creates a new momentum. Things are going to change even faster now. It’s a sign that the content business is suddenly racing into the
broadband space. MORE: ReCode.net 10/16/14 - Now CBS Is Selling Web Subscriptions to Its Shows, Too
Late yesterday, measurement specialist comScore, issued a research paper titled "The U.S. Total Video Report" that looks at shifting TV viewing habits in the digital age. There's little doubt that American's viewing patterns are quickly changing, and our youth are leading the way. The study – The U.S. Total Video Report, which tabulated results from 1,159 respondents in August – found that Millennials (adults 18 -34), watch original TV shows on digital platforms one-third of the time. ComScore notes that the older the viewer, the more likely to watch on a TV set. In other bad news for TV broadcasters, comScore found that 1 in 6 millennials hadn't watched an original series on a TV set in the past month. Instead, they're getting their video from set-top boxes such as Roku and Apple TV, and game consoles.
Unsurprisingly, Millennials are also more likely to be cord-nevers or cord-cutters and they are more likely to time-shift their viewing: 46 percent of them time-shift shows, while only 35 percent of those 35 to 54 do so. Among other findings, consumers who subscribe to paid digital video services are more likely to binge-view TV shows over a monthly period – 87% vs. 69%. TV via the DVR (43%) is the preferred binge-viewing platform, followed by the TV via VOD (19%); Internet connected TV devices (12%); live TV – a category that includes reruns or marathons from MVPDs – (11%); tablets (4%), desktops/laptops (3%); and smartphones (2%).
While comScore's results are interesting, their methodology and approach called Total Video to track unduplicated audience metrics across platforms has some flaws. ComScore surveyed 1,159 viewers with an online questionnaire, so those surveyed are all active internet users. The report is available for free download (registration required). MORE: TechCrunch 10/14/14 - Netflix Leads In U.S. Digital Video Subscriptions In Home And Among Millennials by Ingrid Lunden
In what seems like an effort to catch up with Apple's
Airplay and Google's Chromecast, Roku, the leading OTT device manufacture
unveiled their screen mirroring feature yesterday. Launching in beta, This should work with
anything that supports Miracast screen mirroring, but so far Roku has only
tested a handful of devices to ensure a stable connection.
In the companies blog they state: "Screen mirroring is
one of the simplest ways to share any type of content with those around you,
and you won't need additional apps or software. All you'll need is a compatible
device with mirroring capabilities. Once you turn on mirroring for your phone,
tablet or laptop, you can pair with your compatible Roku player (presently Roku
3 or the Roku Streaming Stick) and whatever you see on your mobile device is
exactly what will be displayed on your TV."
In full disclosure we use their streaming HDMI stick at home
and it packs a lot of punch for the dollar. I believe this is a great first
step for Roku, as it takes their inexpensive streaming hardware and opens up a
whole new world of opportunities. This isn’t likely to be used by the casual
user, which is Roku’s target market, but it makes this hardware a lot more
compelling to a wider audience now. More: engadget.com 10/03/14 - Roku tries out screen mirroring from phones and PCs
