Pandora rolled out voice control, based on SoundHound's voice and conversational artificial intelligence platform, to select iOS and Android users, it said Tuesday, with general availability “coming soon.” After the "Hey Pandora" wake phrase, users request to change stations, control volume, skip or pause music and other basic navigation.

Comcast's 2020 foray into a streaming service is incrementalism (see 1901140030) since the MVPD "has many masters to serve" and can't totally disrupt its cable TV or content licensing businesses, MoffettNathanson wrote investors Tuesday. The company appears to be taking an experimentation route, and that might be the smartest path since there are no obvious easy answers, it said. Netflix's announced price hike, with the money presumably going into more content development and marketing, shows the streaming company focused more on a spending war against competitors than a price war, the analysts said: Comcast apparently doesn't have the stomach for the level of investment into content that Netflix does, or doesn't think it needs to spend that much. Comcast and Netflix didn't comment.

That consumers by 2023 will watch 20 percent fewer minutes of video advertising daily than they do today is one of several “shifting consumer behaviors” that will be a “destabilizing threat” to chief marketing officers who don’t adjust, predicted Gartner Monday. It recommended “embracing short-form video ads.” As “voice interfaces” continue to improve, “consumers are beginning to embrace the convenience,” another trend to watch, said Gartner. Consumer concerns about how marketers use the information gleaned through voice assistants “and where it is all stored continue to mount,” it said. Gartner found 44 percent of consumers “would be more willing to use a virtual personal assistant app if they knew that all their personal data would only remain on the device,” it said. “Regulatory changes on the use of customer data now threaten to hinder many common marketing practices.”

The publisher of the Choose Your Own Adventure book series is suing Netflix for a reference in the heavily hyped Black Mirror: Bandersnatch Netflix original production. Chooseco asked for damages of at least $25 million in its trademark infringement and unfair competition docket 19-cv-00008-wks complaint (in Pacer), filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Burlington, Vermont. It said a reference early in the Bandersnatch film about a Choose Your Own Adventure book was done without license or authorization. Netflix didn't comment Monday.

Freedive -- the advertising-supported free streaming service launched last week by Amazon's IMDB (see here) and available via PCs or Amazon Fire TV devices -- trods a similar path as Roku, nScreenMedia analyst Colin Dixon blogged Thursday. He said makers of smart TVs increasingly are building free ad-supported linear channels from Pluto TV, Wurl and others into their devices.

Charter Communications and Tribune reached a retransmission agreement for the stations and its WGN America cable network to return to Charter's Spectrum cable systems, Tribune said Friday. That ends a blackout (see 1812280055).

Home entertainment content spending increased 11.5 percent in 2018 to a record $23.3 billion, reported the Digital Entertainment Group at CES. Spending growth was especially strong in Q4, rising 13.1 percent to $6.3 billion. Subscription VOD streaming was the engine that drove the train, rising 30.1 percent for the year to $12.9 billion. SVOD spending also was up 30.1 percent in Q4 to $3.5 billion. Overall electronic sell-through spending rose 20 percent in Q4 and 14 percent for the year. Overall sales of 4K content increased 70 percent for the year and 46 percent in Q4, said DEG, which estimated the number of Ultra HD Blu-ray titles grew to 445 by year-end, and 682 4K titles were available digitally. Sell-through sales of physical media were down nearly 15 percent for the year and the quarter. In deference to subscription streaming’s growing share of the home entertainment pie -- it was 55 percent of total 2018 spending -- DEG used CES to announce the formation of a DTC Alliance subsidiary geared toward “advocacy” of the direct-to-consumer services that abound and will become more numerous. “Every major media company and TV network” will launch DTC streaming services in the next five years, “representing a significant new chapter in how television and film content is purchased, accessed and consumed,” said DEG. “As DTC streaming currently is a longtail situation with a few high-reach apps and many low-reach services, DEG's DTC Alliance is designed to support direct-to-consumer media services of all sizes to tackle difficult challenges and coordinate voluntary best practices and initiatives.” It expects the alliance will “advocate for the industry by presenting a common front to the commercial community” and help promote “member channels through campaigns aimed at building awareness among consumers.”

This year could see household bills for streaming content services starting to rival the cost of traditional cable packages due to the proliferation of over-the-top services, each with exclusive content, CCG Consulting President Doug Dawson blogged Wednesday. Rather than heading toward a model of super-aggregators, OTT is going the other direction toward owners of unique content each selling directly to the public, he said.

3D, as much a buzzword at CES nearly a decade ago as artificial intelligence and 5G today, is attempting a revival by way of Philadelphia-based Stream TV Networks. The company is planning 16 million-pixel panels -- between 4K and 8K resolution. It’s looking at a North American launch under the SeeCube brand in 2020, Duncan Humphreys, head of broadcast, told us. It's banking on the library of available 3D content, and through a relationship with William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, it's looking to partner with studios and content owners to deliver media. Watching TV is a shared experience that wearing glasses interfered with, Humphreys said, saying SeeCube doesn’t involve glasses and promises a group-friendly 140-degree viewing angle. He said 3D tablets and smartphones may come next.

TCL announced the first 8K Roku TV, a 75-inch screen size in its 6-Series TVs, that it's joining a related association and that it's working on smart speakers, Monday at CES in Las Vegas. The company will work with voice assistant companies including Amazon and Google, said Aaron Dew, director-product development, North America. An update for 5-Series and 6-Series TCL Roku TVs will bring Dolby Vision gaming compatibility with Xbox 1X and 1S game consoles. TCL became the first TV brand to confirm it’s joining the fledgling 8K Association as a founding member, said Dew. The association, which launches officially at a Wednesday afternoon CES news conference, says its charter will be to promote 8K consumer adoption.