SEATTLE—Amazon has introduced a new lineup of Echo products—the all-new Echo Pop, Echo Show 5 and Echo Show 5 Kids, and Echo Buds—and announced that more than a half a billion Alexa-enabled devices have been sold. 

“Customers around the world love Alexa as their trusted, personal AI—they’ve now purchased well over half a billion Alexa-enabled devices, and use of Alexa increased 35 percent last year,” said Rohit Prasad, senior vice president and head scientist for Alexa. “These new devices give customers more options and more utility at incredible value. And as with every Echo device we’ve shipped, they will only continue to get better as we add even more generative AI powered experiences for Alexa throughout the year.”

The new devices include: 

• Echo Pop is a new addition to the Echo family with a semi-sphere form factor, and new Lavender Bloom and Midnight Teal color options for just $39.99.
• Echo Show 5 combines the utility of Alexa, with the convenience of a compact screen so customers can watch news clips, check their Ring doorbell camera, view shopping lists, or easily make video calls to friends and family. 
• Echo Show 5 Kids is designed from the ground up for kids, with kid-friendly responses, jokes, homework help, explicit lyric filtering, and more—in a new colorful space-themed design. 
• Echo Buds bring personal AI on the go, featuring a semi-in-ear design that is built to deliver rich audio, long-lasting battery life, premium features, and hands-free access to Alexa for just $49.99. 
• Echo Auto is now available to customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, and the United Kingdom. 

Echo Pop is available in Charcoal, Glacier White, Lavender Bloom, and Midnight Teal for $39.99. Echo Show 5 is available in Charcoal, Glacier White, and Cloud Blue for $89.99. Echo Show 5 Kids is available in Galaxy for $99.99. An adjustable Echo Show 5 stand with USB-C charging port is available for $26.99. Echo Buds are available in Black for $49.99. 

More information is available here. 

LONDON—The BBC has announced plans to launch its own rival to Alexa next year.

The digital voice assistant will not be a hardware device, but is being designed to work on all smart speakers, TVs and mobile phones.

The assistant will wake when users say the word “Beeb,” although that is currently a working title, the Corporation said.

BBC staff around the U.K. are being invited to record their voices to help train the program to recognize different accents.

According to a BBC spokesman, having its own assistant would enable it to “experiment with new programs, features and experiences without someone else’s permission to build it in a certain way.”

“Much like we did with BBC iPlayer, we want to make sure everyone can benefit from this new technology, and bring people exciting new content, programs and services—in a trusted, easy-to-use way.”

“This marks another step in ensuring public service values can be protected in a voice-enabled future.”

WASHINGTON—We are on the cusp of a new age of consumer technology, said Steve Koenig, vice president of market research at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) during his “2019 Tech Trends” keynote at the 2018 Government Video Expo in late November. At some point over the course of the last decade, which he describes as the “connected age,” we began to take the internet for granted, expecting our consumer devices to be online. “We’re streaming audio, video—most of our waking hours are spent online either passively or actively.” 

Not only have we been using these devices to stay connected, they have been using us, collecting data on what we watch, where we go and what we like to buy.

AI

So what’s on the horizon? “Get ready for the data age of consumer tech,” Koenig said. “More and more business decisions, more and more consumer choices are guided and informed by data. Just think about your Netflix queue. Those recommendations about what you might like, that isn’t just magic. That’s all built off of data. So we look across the whole tech ecosystem, I think data is the common denominator. Whether it’s Netflix or a self-driving vehicle, data is behind much of what we do, and that’s only going to grow and multiply exponentially as we get into the next decade.”

This era will be driven by advances in AI and machine learning, which Koenig anticipates will be a strong theme at the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show, which the CTA produces every January in Las Vegas. Drawing an anticipated 180,000 trade professionals from 150 countries this year, according to Koenig, CES is probably the world’s largest consumer technology event.

About AI, Koenig continued, “Companies have massive amounts of customer data ... that they want to make sense of that would take us humans years and years” to sort. And AI will potentially be able to do it in real time, translating this data into instant, actionable information.

Stressing the importance of AI as a technology enabling the future, Koenig mentioned a study released by the McKinsey Global Institute in September. “Just to kind of underscore the significance of AI, they likened the global economic impact of AI in terms of GDP growth globally to the invention of the steam engine or the steam locomotive 150 years ago... They go on to say that through 2030, AI will add 1.2 percent to global GDP growth. It’s such a small percentage, but what’s behind that is quite literally trillions of U.S. dollars. Trillions. That’s how significant AI is. You don’t have to look too deep to uncover other statistics about the vast majority of commercial operations that are either using AI now or making plans to.”

5G

With the speed of technological progress, it’s not surprising that Koenig noted another change we’ll be navigating over the next few years, and another enabling technology. “We’re bridging into the data age, and 5G, which is the next generation of wireless connectivity, is essentially going to become the central nervous system of the data age.”

The hallmarks of 5G—faster speed, greater capacity and lower latency—are all critical elements to enable emerging technologies such as self-driving vehicles, smart cities, 8K video and others.

In its publication “5 Technology Trends to Watch in 2019,” the CTA noted that the U.S. “is beginning a transformation that will create lucrative business opportunities for many. 5G is coming and its rich bandwidth will reduce latency, allow a fast data stream and incentivize new services that cross the borders of all tech sectors. Combined with low-cost sensors, deep data analytics and AI, 5G will be the backbone for much of the smart city infrastructure that will help drive resilience for unforeseen disasters ... 5G will also fuel the connected home, transform digital healthcare and create immersive experiences for global sports fans. Of course, AI will be at the core of each of these areas, supporting them with data to make informed actions.”

Describing the many potential opportunities it may unlock, Koenig explained that 5G, deployed as fixed wireless broadband, has the capacity to bridge the digital divide in the United States and other large countries with geographically dispersed citizens. Noting that it is too expensive to lay fiber to support access to broadband internet for all the residents of the Appalachian Mountains, for example, “fixed wireless 5G brings those super-fast speeds of broadband to places that heretofore have not been able to get a robust internet connection.”

[Read: 5G—The Future Is Now]

He added that 4G and 5G are going to coexist for a time while networks are built out to support 5G deployments and 5G smartphones are put in the hands of consumers. Koenig predicts that by 2022 or 2023, the majority of handsets shipping in the U.S. will be pure 5G.

8K

Koenig positions the 2019 International CES as “the coming-out party for 8K TV,” based on monthly shipment data CES tracks in the U.S. market: “In the October year-to-date data for TV shipments, we have breached the 1 million mark [for the first time] in terms of unit volume shipped for TV sets 70 inches and above,” the target screen size for 8K resolution.

He admits that there’s little native 8K content now and no 8K transmission in the United States, but we were in a similar position when HDTVs first began to appear around the turn of the century.

As for how many 8K televisions are going to sell in the coming year, Koenig said, “Right now my current thinking is 100,000 or less. It’s going to be pretty small simply because it’s a brand new technology.”

He added, “It starts small but then we hit an inflection point. Now, when that big inflection point comes, I don’t think 8K is going to be a big majority seller simply because it’s domain is very, very large screens.”

The trend in the United States is toward increasingly large screens, so 8K sets may increase in prominence over time. “Ten years ago, under 40 inches was the lion’s share of TV shipments, and that has slowly modulated to where now shipments of TVs above 40 inches are the lion’s share. The size category that’s just crushing it right now is 65 inch. Three years ago it was 55 inch. You can start to see a trend here.”

Smart Speakers and Digital Assistants

This holiday season, tech spending is expected to reach a record $96.1 billion in the U.S. alone, according to CTA research, a year-over-year increase of 3.4 percent. Whether it’s emerging tech like smart speakers and smart home devices, or the popular categories like TVs and laptops, tech is an integral part of our lives.

CTA projects that smart speakers such as Amazon’s Echo and Google Home will sell 22 million units this holiday season, up 44 percent over 2017.

Discussing consumer purchasing trends, Koenig said, “About every five or six years there tends to be a must-have consumer tech product. It has the signature of hyper-growth and hyper-volume of sales, so almost overnight, millions of households adopt it. Today that’s the smart speaker.” Five or six years ago, the must-have consumer tech item was the tablet; before that it was the smartphone, and back in 2002 it was the DVD player.

Smart speakers provide an entrée into the home for AI via the speakers’ digital assistant. Microsoft’s Cortana, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant are some very capable helpers, and they are changing the way consumers interact with and even purchase new technology.

“CES 2018 taught us three things related to digital assistants,” Koenig said. “The first is that these digital assistants are going into more vessels—this is everything from phones to PCs to cars.”

The second point: “Support for these assistants has now become table stakes, just like connectivity was mandatory several years ago.” If you brought forward a non-connected device in 2010, people didn’t have much interest in it; it’s the same now with devices that don’t interconnect with a digital assistant ecosystem.

This has become critically important in smart home products, where digital assistants have become the killer app, according to Koenig, which leads to the third point: these digital assistants are quickly establishing voice as the go-to user interface.

“Voice is really coming into the user experience,” he said. “I predict that within five years, things that we normally do on a website or through an app, that all gets pushed to the digital assistant that is omnipresent in our experience. They’re in our car, they’re on our phone, they’re on our laptop, they’re in the kitchen on the smart speaker, they’re integrated into the fridge—they’re everywhere. Therefore, they’re always standing by to help. So voice and digital assistants become the new search.”

Koenig isn’t simply speculating on this. The CTA conducted research over the summer that revealed several things about how American adults are using these digital assistants. Koenig noted, “The list is very long of the things that consumers are doing with these digital assistants—it’s not just a few things like checking the weather or setting an alarm. Point two: the things that they are doing are what we would normally fire up an app for or go to a website.” At least part of the time, consumers are starting to pivot to a digital assistant to make purchases or schedule their work and free time.

He added, “I’m belaboring the point, but what I’m trying to say is that we are on the cusp of a major shift in consumer behavior and it’s made possible by these digital assistants, and it will transform our interactions.”

Koenig will be at CES next month to track the accuracy of these forecasts. The 2019 International CES takes place Jan. 8-11 in Las Vegas.

ENGLEWOOD, COLO.—Dish customers can now go hands free when watching TV thanks to added support of Amazon’s Alexa voice control to all Hopper “Joey” clients. The additional support allows Dish customers to ask Alexa to control all TVs in the Hopper whole-home ecosystem by pairing each set-top box with an Amazon Echo, Echo Show or Echo Dot.

With Joey, customers can extend Hopper functionality to other rooms, with the Hopper 3 able to support up to six Joeys simultaneously. The Joey, Wireless Joey, 4K Joey and Super Joey platforms are now Alexa-compatible.

Available voice control functions with the Alexa include the ability to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search content based on channel, title, actor or genre.

To set-up, enable Dish TV on the Alexa app, get receiver code and then pair the set-top box with the appropriate Echo device.

Dish had previously made all of its Hopper generations and Wally single-tuner HD receiver Alexa-compatible in April 2017.

SEATTLE—CBS affiliate KIRO is collaborating with its neighbor Amazon to be one of the first TV stations in the country to provide video flash briefings for Amazon’s new Echo Show device, making Alexa an official part of its news offerings.

The new Amazon Echo Show adds video capabilities to the Alexa-enabled device.

KIRO already had experience with Alexa-enabled devices, providing audio flash briefings for the Echo and Dot. Using their anchors, the station would create audio clips to report the latest news and weather. But when the station heard about the Echo Show it immediately jumped on the opportunity to do what it knew best.

“We’re better at video than we are at audio because we’re a TV station,” said Jake Milstein, news director for KIRO. “In some ways, creating the original audio flash briefings for us was more out of our comfort zones than doing a video flash briefing.”

The video flash briefings are done by KIRO’s primary production team, including the anchors. Running between a minute and a half and two minutes, the station produces four a day during the week and two over the weekend.

According to News Operations Manager Deb Adeogba, the production doesn’t differ that much from a normal news broadcast, save for changing up shots to properly fit the Echo Show screen. The finished production file is then sent to the device like the station is uploading a video podcast. Echo Show users access the updates with the simple question, “Alexa, what’s the news?”

The project is part of KIRO’s overall mission to provide its news services to its viewers on any platform. Larger news networks, including Reuters, ABC News, NBC News, People, Bloomberg, CNBC and CNN have also begun creating video flash briefings for Echo Show and other local news stations are also beginning to get in on the new tech, including NBC 4 New York and KNTV Channel 13 Las Vegas.

Additional features of the Echo Show include touch screen capabilities and a curated list of trending topics, which users can access through the voice command “learn more” to hear full synopsis from an attributed news source.

Milstein hopes that the flash briefings will pique viewers’ interest to get more details from the televised newscasts but hopes that one day they could skip that extra step.

“One thing that has never gone away is the desire for people to get live news,” Milstein explained. Streaming live broadcasts is a key constraint that currently exists with the Echo Show. “I hope there’s a ramp up here with Amazon where we can do more live things and then let people know what is going on from device to device so that they can get the news the way they want to get the news.”

The audio flash briefings on the Echo device received praise from KIRO viewers, according to Milstein, and there is an expectation that the same will occur with the new video briefings with the Echo Show. However, as consumers are making the transition to the Echo Show device, feedback has been minimum. KIRO has received positive feedback from other stations under the Cox Media Group banner asking about their process in producing the video briefings.

ENGLEWOOD, COLO.—Dish and Amazon have teamed up to allow viewers to go hands-free with their TVs. Now available, Dish customers with a Hopper or Wally and an Amazon Echo, Echo Dot or Amazon Tap can use Alexa to watch TV.

Users with an internet-connected Hopper or Wally can ask Alexa to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search content based on channel, title, actor or genre. Universal search functionality works across Dish’s live, recorded and on-demand titles, as well as titles on Netflix.

Alexa can be set-up on a Dish TV by enabling Dish TV in the Alexa app, entering the receiver code into the app and then activating, then pairing the Hopper/Wally with the Amazon Echo device.

Also announced was that the Dish Anywhere app experience is now available through Amazon Fire TV products.

CINCINNATI—E.W. Scripps pulled a multiplatform move on Wednesday with distribution on Amazon’s Alexa, while the Scripps cable nets joined the new live pay TV bundle from Hulu.

E.W. Scripps Co. said it made content from its 23 local news operations available via Alexa, the Amazon voice-activated virtual assistant that answers for its Echo smart speakers, which number 11 million in the market, according to a Morgan Stanley estimate that showed up in The Seattle Times last January.

Scripps said that in “many of its markets,” its stations represent the only local news available through Alexa, who/which also offers national outlets that include CNN, NPR and Scripps-owned Newsy. E.W. Scripps has 33 TV stations in 24 markets with an aggregate U.S. audience reach of 20 percent.

In other Scripps-related multiplatform news, the cable media network concern—spun out of EWS seven years ago—is providing its stable of cable networks to Hulu for its new over-the-top pay bundle. The deal gives Hulu live and on-demand rights for Scripps Networks Interactive’s HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel at launch, as well as DIY Network, Cooking Channel and Great American Country. Hulu’s $40 live TV streaming service launched in beta to the public today. Hulu is the OTT joint venture of Disney, NBCU, Fox—with 30 percent each; and Turner to a lesser, 10 percent extent.

Scripps joins NBCU, CBS, Fox, Disney, Turner and A&E Networks on the new Hulu pay platform. The move comes after Scripps launched its own Roku channels“several months ago.”