Comcast's Universal's Games and Digital Platforms group and Earplay, an interactive audio story producer, on Friday released premium chapters of Jurassic World Revealed for streaming on Alexa-enabled devices. The six-chapter story parallels events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, which opened in theaters Friday.

The BBC, livestreaming trials of 29 World Cup matches in 4K with hybrid log-gamma HDR over its iPlayer internet catchup service (see 1806200001), will extend those trials to Wimbledon tennis, it said Thursday. Viewers with an iPlayer, compatible TV and an internet connection of at least 40 Mbps will be able to watch all Centre Court matches when the tournament gets underway July 2 for a two-week run, said the BBC.

Spotify should enjoy “years” of global penetration, Macquarie's Amy Yong wrote investors Thursday, saying “music has no boundaries.” Affinity for top artists across shared markets and a rise in connected devices should drive a 23 percent three-year compound annual growth rate in monthly average users, to 200 million by the end of 2020, the analyst said. Spotify's ability to convert free users to paid is one of the service’s “most impressive feats,” she said. Its mobile presence coupled with a 70 percent user base under 35 years old should translate to growth in an addressable market of $100 billion for digital ads and another $45 billion-$50 billion in radio, Yong said. At roughly 75 percent of revenue, content is the company’s biggest cost, she wrote, and its relationships with labels including Sony, Warner, Vivendi and Merlin “are delicate.” The labels have had stakes in Spotify and see it as a preferred streaming platform against Apple and Amazon, she said.

The HDR10+ consortium of Fox, Panasonic and Samsung announced the start Wednesday of the royalty-free licensing and logo certification alternative to Dolby Vision (see 180321004). There’s no charge for a “content company” to join, says a new “overview.” It costs $10,000 annually for a TV manufacturer, SoC suppliers would pay $4,000 a year and a “source provider” such as an Ultra HD Blu-ray player manufacturer or supplier of an over-the-top set-top or service would be charged $2,500.

Global shipments of augmented reality and virtual reality headsets declined 31 percent in Q1 to 1.2 million units, said IDC Tuesday, citing “unbundling” of “screenless” VR headsets from high-end smartphones. It “anticipates the overall market will return to growth over the remainder of the year as more vendors target the commercial AR and VR markets and low-cost standalone VR headsets such as the Oculus Go make their way into stores.” It forecasts the AR and VR headset market to grow to 8.9 million units in 2018, up 6 percent from 2017, and that shipments will reach 65.9 million units by 2022. "Expect easier-to-use devices at lower price points. Combine that with a growing lineup of content from game makers, Hollywood studios, and even vocational training institutions, and we see a brighter future," it said.

Alexa voice control will arrive in hotels this summer, Amazon said Tuesday, announcing the service with an in-room Echo speaker. Charlotte Marriott City Center in North Carolina and Marriott Irvine Spectrum in California will be among locations with voice control features. The hotels will evaluate guest feedback and adoption to determine how to expand skills and functions, said Jennifer Hsieh, Marriott vice president-customer experience innovation. Alexa can play music from iHeartRadio, Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn and others. It works with guest room entertainment providers World Cinema and GuestTek for voice control of TV, and in-room control of connected devices with Crestron and Honeywell. LG announced a hotel TV smart ecosystem that enables guests to work with Amazon Alexa and the Google Assistant.

Following AT&T's buy of Time Warner, more M&A and vertical integration of access and content businesses "appears inevitable" thanks both to the domino effect of such large M&A deals and to the fact mature markets have reached saturation in penetration levels for pay TV, internet and wireless, Northern Sky Research (NSR) analyst Carlos Placido blogged Sunday. He said the scope of New AT&T, with no regulatory conditions and given the recent modifications to net neutrality, "is worrisome" due to the possibility of competitive market access governed by prioritization agreements. He said satellite operators could end up losing bargaining power when negotiating space segment lease contracts with fewer, more-concentrated players. And he said key internet-era issues still to be hammered out include what antitrust means in the context of cross-industry and cross-sector deals.

While not dead, the theory of must-have video programming isn't doing so well before judges or the FCC, video lawyer Paul Feldman of Fletcher Heald blogged Thursday, citing the U.S. District Court rejecting DOJ's attempt to block AT&T buying Time Warner (see 1806120060). The must-have programming notion was central to DOJ's case and the court's decision "may be the final blow" to a theory that already was dying from recent changes in the video market such as online distribution of diverse and smaller programming packages, he wrote. He said the FCC also has shown itself unlikely to inject itself into the issue of programmer/distributor negotiations. AT&T said Thursday it had closed on its TW purchase (see personals section of this publication).

Hisense sees smart TVs becoming “something to play with” and offering a “new way of shopping,” said General Manager Yu Zhitao during a demonstration at CES Asia in Shanghai Wednesday. In the U.S., Hisense launched ULED 4K TVs Tuesday with Android TV and Google Assistant. The set maker also is bowing smart TVs to coincide with Thursday's opening of the World Cup games in Russia. Owners can use a designated button on a TV remote to engage interactive mode, clicking on any of the 1,000 players from 32 World Cup teams to see statistics, videos and background on a participant using Hisense image recognition technology, Zhitao said. This extends to TV actors and celebrities, he said. During the World Cup, users will be able to order a player’s jersey by scanning a QR code with a mobile device scanner in front of the TV, Yu showed. Users can find restaurants nearby, order beer and find content on TV using voice recognition, Yu said.

News content will be separated from political and issue ads under Facebook’s new advertising policies, Head-Global News Partnerships Campbell Brown Tuesday said in response to “concerns (see 1806110034) publishers may have about conflating news stories with advocacy.”