Amazon Wants to Own the Living Room?

Is this because it has been unable to completely own the home, front door or the car?  Looking forward to seeing this.

Why does Amazon want a branded TV?  by Tom Ryan  in Retailwire

Amazon.com reportedly plans to market its own branded TVs in the U.S., possibly as soon as October.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Business Insider said the TV will be designed and manufactured by China-based TCL, range between 55 to 75 inches and have Alexa built in. Amazon Devices and Lab126, the R&D team behind the Kindle and Fire TV Stick, are collaborating on the project that’s been covertly in development for nearly two years.

Amazon is also developing a separate TV product that it is designing in-house, according to the report.

In the TV space, Amazon offers a streaming service, Amazon Prime Video, to Prime subscribers and sells a wide range of Fire TV devices that hook up to TVs to deliver streaming content. An Amazon Basics TV has been sold in India Since late 2020. Amazon earlier this year partnered with Best Buy to sell Toshiba and Insignia TVs that run on Fire TV software.

It is unknown whether Amazon plans to compete head-on with Sony, LG and Samsung or target the budget market as a way to further extend Alexa technology’s reach into households. A few analysts seem to be betting on the latter.  ... '

Wal-Mart Makes a TV Stick

Interesting choice.  To control and tailor some of the  ads and resulting data?   Certainly a possibility. 

 Walmart is making an Android TV stick under its Onn brand  By S. Shah   @eightiethmnt  in Engadget

The basic dongle features a Google TV-style remote.

Walmart sells everything from Roku-powered smart TVs to tablets to gaming keyboards under its affordable Onn brand. Now, the retailer is apparently wading further into the connected TV space with its first Android TV stick. Spotted in an FCC listing by Android TV Guide, Walmart's new device looks like a fairly basic dongle that plugs into your set's HDMI port. However, it's unclear if the stick (which carries the Onn logo) will offer access to Android TV or the revamped Google TV interface. The listing says the stick runs on Android TV 10, but the accompanying remote looks like it's for Google TV, according to 9to5Google.   ... " 

Your Smart TV is (and has been) Watching You

Almost obvious, its one reason that smart TVs are relatively cheap.  My TV seems to do an update every time I switch services.   A massive download?  After 1 AM every night it does a scheduled, major update.  Meanwhile some fairly obvious bugs in their system have persisted for years.   Don't think they are updating bugs.

It would be instructive to see what is being gathered, the Princeton paper, linked below,  has some hints. Consider that they already have quite a bit of information about behavioral, demographic, and life choices from what you choose.  And then adds to that things you don't choose.   Link this to some of the 'big data' collections being established?   Talk about data as an asset, in the midst of looking at that.    Knowledge Graphs that can be used to explore and simulate engagements?

Smart TVs are data-collecting machines, new study shows
Roku and Amazon Fire TVs are tracking you like everything else   By Zoe Schiffer@ZoeSchiffer in theVerge

Add smart TVs to the growing list of home appliances guilty of surveilling people’s movements. A new study from Princeton University shows internet-connected TVs, which allow people to stream Netflix and Hulu, are loaded with data-hungry trackers.   .... " 

Getting Your TV to Understand You

Its  the ultimate challenge, understanding complex context.  Good direction.

Understanding in Context   University of Waterloo News

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada, the University of Maryland, and the Comcast Applied AI Research Laboratory have developed a method to improve the voice query understanding capabilities of home entertainment platforms. The method relies on artificial intelligence (AI) technology to achieve the most natural speech-based interaction with TVs to date. The researchers utilized a technique known as hierarchical recurrent neural networks to better model context and improve the system's accuracy. In January, the researchers' neural network model was deployed in production to answer queries from live users, and they found that it handles the majority of highly complicated queries appropriately, greatly enhancing user experience. Waterloo's Jimmy Lin said, "What's special about this approach is that we take advantage of context—such as previously watched shows and favorite channels—to personalize results, thereby increasing accuracy."and is to shoppers in a broader category. ... " 

Smart Speakers/Assistants Reduce TV Use?

Intriguing stats embedded here.   Now will the integration of Assistants with devices with screams bring the mediums together?   Note how rapidly this has occurred, in the last two years. Soon with the opportunity to start real marketing conversations?

39 million Americans now own a smart speaker, report claims
 by Sarah Perez (@sarahintampa) in Techcrunch

One in six Americans now own a smart speaker, according to new research out this week from NPR and Edison Research – a figure that’s up 128 percent from January, 2017. Amazon’s Echo speakers are still in the lead, the report says, as 11 percent now own an Amazon Alexa device compared with 4 percent who own a Google Home product.

Today, 16 percent of Americans own a smart speaker, or around 39 million people.

The holiday shopping season also seemed to have played a role in the increased adoption of smart devices in the U.S., with 7 percent of Americans reporting they acquired at least one smart speaker between Black Friday and the end of December, and 4 percent saying they acquired their first smart speaker during the holidays. ... " 

" ... 30 percent of smart speaker owner said the device is replacing time spent with TV. They’re also listening to more audio (71% are), including news and talk radio or podcasts. ... " 

(In my case I say absolutely less TV    ... probably considerably.  It primarily makes me listen to more music and podcast content than TV.  But I also find myself often muting the TV and adding and switching to other video.   That's probably not good for TV advertising. ) 

On the Future of TV

Walt Mossberg looks at the future of TV,   from cable driven to TV as an intelligent service  A thoughtful and frustrating view of progress.  I am ready to try something new here, my estimate is that 90% of what we are paying for we don't use.   So we are paying for infrastructure too, but there are better ways to do that as well.

Mossberg: TV is changing, but not fast enough
What I learned at Code Media    by Walt Mossberg@waltmossberg  ... "

Watson Social Media Analytics

Interesting, but not very detailed view of IBM social  media analytics with Watson.   Analyzing the global reach of the UK retailer John Lewis.

" ... Is TV advertising dead? Given that these days most of us consume our media via the internet, that’s not such a strange question to pose. And at this time of year, does the impact of expensive Xmas TV commercials by big retail chains justify their high cost?

Or have we all become too media-savvy to be taken in by scenes of snow and happy families? Yes and no, it appears, if we look at the results of a Watson Analytics for Social Media exploration. .... " 

Shift from TV to Digital Video

From Google:   An interview with creatives,  How fast is this moving today?

" .. Great YouTube ads are born from great creative ideas. But how does the shift to digital video change the creative process? Google's head of agency sales, Tara Walpert Levy, shares insights from a conversation between Sal Masekela and creatives David Droga and Emily Anderson  .... 

  "Make it viral." Uttering that in a conference room is about as popular as announcing you have an actual virus. And although that particular pitfall may seem painfully obvious in today's sophisticated world of content marketing, there are other traps that hold us back from creating great videos that aren't as clear. We created the "Behind the Scenes" series to explore the challenges that agencies and brands face when making digital videos (and YouTube ads, specifically) and to see how they're solving them. ... "

IllumiRoom Peripheral Augmented Reality

In the CACM: "IllumiRoom: Immersive Experiences Beyond the TV Screen," by Brett R. Jones, Hrvoje Benko, Eyal Ofek, and Andrew D. Wilson, uses virtual and augmented reality to move action from the TV into your living room. Jones and Benko discuss the IllumiRoom in an original video at bit.ly/1JE43JC.   ... 

IllumiRoom: Peripheral Projected Illusions for Interactive Experiences
IllumiRoom is a proof-of-concept system from Microsoft Research. It augments the area surrounding a television screen with projected visualizations to enhance the traditional living room entertainment experience. ... " 

Intel Compute Stick

Another example of a device that can be connected to an HDMI port of a big screen TV to turn it into a Windows 8.1 computer for about $150.   Connects to Internet with Wifi.  You likely also need a mouse and a keyboard.  Nice idea, but probably with a somewhat limited market.     See also a similar offering by Google/Chrome: Chromebit.

(Update) Gizmodo has strong criticism of the Compute Stick, tested with gaming applications.
(Update) CW says it provides just adequate Windows or Linux power for typical Biz applications.

Chromebit to Turn Display into Chromebook

Have experimented with the Chromecast idea, has somewhat limited usefulness, turning TVs into somewhat smarter devices.   Now Engadget reports on the Chromebit, which can convert any HDMI connected display into a Chromebook.  Available later this year for less that $100.  Taking displays into new levels of intelligence.   I can see many applications.   How will this effect system sales?   Or replace a more expensive smart TV?    Or in-store displays?  I saw in the article that Intel there has a similar solution:  the Compute Stick.

Gathering Television User Sentiment

Gathering Television Viewer Sentiment ... Case study: Learn how Hong Kong–based TVB uses social media to analyze audience sentiment    ... " 

Traditional TV Watching Falls

In the Washington Post, reporting on Nielsen  studies:

" ... Traditional television watching is declining faster than ever as streaming services become a mainstream feature in American homes, according to new research by Nielsen.

Adults watched an average of four hours and 51 minutes of live TV each day in the fourth quarter of 2014, down 13 minutes from the same quarter of 2013, according to Nielsen’s fourth-quarter 2014 Total Audience Report. Viewing was down six minutes between the fourth quarter of 2013 and 2012. And between 2012 and 2011, viewing time actually increased for live TV. .... " 

Digital to Overtake TV Ad Spending in 2 Years

In Adage:  Comparing  digital to TV ads, a prediction.  But how about streaming TV via digital?

Online TV Tracked Across Devices

Expected next step.

" ... Showing all viewers the same commercial six minutes into, say, an episode of "Modern Family" might soon be over. If you're watching it online.

A new partnership between TV measurement company Nielsen and analytics provider Adobe was announced early Tuesday, presenting detailed data about how people watch TV and other media on the Internet. The team-up adds smarts to existing forms of tracking, by letting broadcasters get a better picture of how Internet users consume media across devices and platforms. ... "

TIVO Again

I was a very early user of the Tivo DVR system, used it until we were hit by lightning.   I see they are now trying to pick up some of the legally nixed Aereo traffic with a wireless DVR system for users without Cable.   They say it is legal and brilliant.  Described in Adage. 

Social TV, Syncing Social and TV

Recently started to use a system that included what was called 'Social TV'.   Which aimed to show a social feed from the other people watching.   But there was almost no activity there.  And no synchronized offers for me.  I have tried to follow some hashtag based twitter feeds for TV events.  Is it an on demand future?  I recall that social shopping did not work.   How do we become social on TV?  What can it be synced with?   Interesting piece from the Altimeter group blog.

Real-time content synchronization between offline and online media has become the darling of social TV, frequently serving as its very definition for companies looking to marry traditional and digital marketing experiences. Take Target, for example. Prior to the 2013 release of Justin Timberlake’s “The 20/20 Experience,” Target promoted the album synchronously on social, mobile, and TV. Its Facebook video post offered an exclusive pre-order of the album, and appeared simultaneously in fans’ news feeds while the commercial was broadcast. More.

Social TV, A Study

In Knowledge@Wharton.   Video podcast and transcript.

As social media grows more popular, it’s increasingly becoming a way for industries, companies and brands to figure out what the cultural zeitgeist is thinking — and from there, to recommend other things consumers might like.

Wharton operations and information management professor Shawndra Hill has extensively studied how social TV — i.e., people contributing or consuming commentary about their favorite programs — can be used by Hollywood and advertisers to better reach their target demographics. In this interview, she discusses her method and findings, and also responds to a recent announcement by Nielsen that it will now include demographic information as part of its Twitter TV ratings service. That service offers data that gauge which shows are generating the most chatter on the social network. ... " 

Delivering TV over the Internet

In Adage: " .... In the race to deliver TV over the Internet, Charlie Ergen's Dish Network Corp. is pulling ahead. And that may have implications for marketers and other media companies that have grown familiar with Mr. Ergen's penchant for disrupting established businesses.
With a groundbreaking agreement this week with Walt Disney Co., the satellite-TV company is poised to be the first to offer an internet-based competitor to cable TV, a new kind of business that other major companies such as Intel and Apple Inc. have tried -- and so far failed -- to deliver.  ... " 

On New TV Experiences and Technology

In AdAge;  I am late to the use of smart HD TVs.  Started an experimental look at how shoppers could experience TV programming, both broadcast and on demand, and simultaneously interact with the content and fellow watchers.  Also how this experience will further interact with tablet and other-screen sharing.  The article:  " ... The TV Experience Is Finally About to Catch Up to Technology ... For Better or Worse for the Industry .... "