For the first time, a majority of U.S. viewers have TV sets connected to the Internet, according to data released today by Frank N. Magid Associates and advertising software maker TubeMogul.

Connected TV penetration -- through gaming consoles, set-top boxes and smart TVs -- has more than doubled from 26% of U.S. households in 2013 to 53% this year. The study, based on Magid's online polling of 2,400 Americans last June, found the number rises to 64% among Americans ages 19 to 37.

The trends outlined in the study have broad implications for programming, distribution, advertising and every other corner of the TV and video marketplace. They've been hotly debated throughout this year's edition of the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The means of connection have also shifted along with the rise in households. In 2013, 64% of connected homes went through a gaming device. This year, that number decreased to 45%. Smart TV connection grew from 29% to 38%, while Roku’s penetration increased 91% to 21% of households. Similarly, Google Chromecast netted a 14% share in less than two years on the market.

This influx of hardware follows directly behind the expansion of content options. In 2015, subscriptions to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Instant Video increased by almost 10 percentage points over 2014 levels, to 62% among the general population and 76% among consumers ages 19-37.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Amazon Studios’ sophomore series Annedroids is an entertaining, humorous, educational show that follows the adventures of a young genius, Anne, her friends and the robots she creates, which she calls “Annedroids.”

In this upcoming season, Anne (Addison Holley) and her friends continue with their outrageous adventures around their neighborhood as well as their hangout spot, the junkyard, where all of Anne’s creations come to life. The main goal is to keep the Annedroids from escaping the junkyard and being seen by other humans.

Lessons of right and wrong provide Annedroids with its educational hook. Also, the series demonstrates how one can make something from nothing and how to think on one’s feet. The show’s target audience of 6- to 11-year-olds will learn a lot from these characters through their traits and flaws, while the second season introduces some new characters.

The mix of character traits is humorous and entertaining. For example PAL (Millie Davis), one of the main Anne-droids, is smart but still naïve and curious like a young child, but like a parent Anne guides PAL along by answering all of her questions.

One drawback to the show is the characters often lack understanding of simple vocabulary words that kids of this age should know. At the same time, those and other flaws exhibited by the shows’ characters — including the parents (because who says parents are perfect?) — are what give them a more relatable feel.

Overall, Annedroids is enjoyable and gives viewers a good laugh. The more educational aspects of the show, including the science experiments, are interesting and exciting. Annedroids is creative, witty and fun programming for the whole family.

— Chelsea Anderson 

Amazon Studios will continue its outreach to kids with the greenlighting of six animated kids-targeted pilots that will debut on the Amazon Instant Video OTT service this summer.

The four pilots include pre-school kids-targeted The Adventures of Knickerbock Teetertop – created by created by brother-sister team Adam Wilson and Melanie Wilson LaBracio (Marvel Universe Live, Evergone; Lost in Oz is an animated, action-adventure comedy set in a modern, metropolitan Emerald City; Lily the Unicorn, based on the hit children’s book by Dallas Clayton (An Awesome Book) and produced by The Jim Henson Company (Dinosaur Train, Fraggle Rock);  Bear in Underwear, based on the bestselling books by Todd Goldman and written by Goldman and Dave Schiff (That 70s Show, Robot and Monster); A History of Radness, written and executively produced by Andrew Green (Hannah Montana) which captures the authentic experience of aspiring musicians forming their band; and The Kicks, based on a book series by US Olympic Gold Medalist and current US Women’s National Team soccer player Alex Morgan and adapted by David Babcock (Brothers & Sisters, Gilmore Girls).

“These new pilots will bring sophisticated stories and unique points of view that we hope will resonate well with kids and families,” said Tara Sorensen, Head of Kids Programming for Amazon Studios in a statement. “We’re very excited to be working with such passionate creative teams and look forward to sharing these projects with our customers later this year.”

Amazon said it has extended support for its X-Ray for Movies and TV Shows to the Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick, building on the feature’s earlier debut on Fire tablets.

Powered by IMDb and currently exclusive to the Amazon Instant Video library, the X-Ray feature help viewers quickly call up information that’s pertinent to the TV show or movie they’re watching, including other titles that feature a particular actor, additional backstory details, as well as trivia and other “fun facts.”

X-Ray, a data reference element that’s also baked into Amazon’s Kindle devices and apps for electronic books, presently supports “tens of thousands of titles” in the Amazon Instant Video library, including originals such as Transparent, Bosch and Alpha House, and shows offered via the subscription-based Amazon Prime service, including Orphan Black, The Americans, and Vikings.

In addition to providing more raw data, Amazon clearly views this feature as a discovery tool. By way of example, a viewer bingeing out on Bosch could learn that the actor in the lead role, Titus Welliver, has also appeared in shows such as Lost, White Collar, The Good Wife and Sons of Anarchy.

Amazon said the video-focused X-Ray feature, being delivered to Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick devices through a free over-the-air upgrade starting today, draws from more than 180 million data items from IMDb. To activate the feature, users must press the Fire TV’s remote’s “Up” button while they are watching a TV show or movie that supports X-Ray

 “We’ve all been there: you’re sitting on the couch, watching a favorite movie or TV show, and a familiar face enters the scene—but you can’t for the life of you remember who he is, or what other movies he’s been in,” said Peter Larsen, vice president Amazon Devices, in a statement. “X-Ray solves this—it integrates the vast database of IMDb right into the viewing experience, so you can easily see trivia, actor information and soundtrack music behind TV shows and movies. We think Amazon Fire TV customers are going to love this elegant experience on the big screen at home, and it’s just one simple click of the remote away.”

Amazon is preparing to launch a new ad-supported video streaming service “early next year” that will operate separately from Amazon Prime, a subscription-based service that features a large OTT library, theNew York Postreported Friday.

The Wall Street Journalreported in March that Amazon was considering an ad-supported video and music streaming service, but today’s report suggests  that Amazon is closing in on a launch. 

Amazon has implemented some advertising into the Amazon Instant Video service, but has not outlined any plans for something beyond that.

“We currently offer the first episode of some television shows free with ads through our First Episode Free feature on Amazon Instant Video, and there are display ads on some short videos such as movie and game trailers,” an Amazon spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “We’re often experimenting with new offers and experiences for customers, but we have not announced any plans to offer an ad-supported video streaming service.”

Amazon’s Prime Instant Video offering already competes with subscription-based OTT  services such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, but a new advertising-based offering could enable  Amazon to put more heat on other free, ad-supported online VOD services such as Sony-owned Crackle and TubiTV, which launched in April. Depending on the quality of its ad-supported library, Amazon’s purported new offering might also lock horns with MVPD-delivered VOD. 

Amazon has not disclosed how many customers are on its Prime service, though the NY Post notes that RBC Capital analyst Mark Mahaney believes it’s in the neighborhood of 50 million.

Although Netflix continues to dominate fixed wireline broadband traffic, Amazon Instant Video has been gaining ground, according to a report issued this week by bandwidth management firm Sandvine.

TiVo has followed through with the launch of a new Amazon Instant app for TiVo Roamio and TiVo Mini devices that also extends access to the massive Amazon Prime Instant Video library.

So, in addition to the Amazon Instant fare, TiVo adds streaming access to originals such as Alpha House and Transparent, select original series from HBO, and other titles that are part of the $99-per-year Prime subscription service. Titles will stream up to 1080p resolution, TiVo said.

In October, TiVo started to offer access to the Walmart-owned VUDU streaming service as part of rolling update that also was to include the new version of the Amazon instant Video app. TiVo noted at the time that apps for Vudu and the Amazon Prime enhancements would also become available to earlier-generation Premiere boxes sometime in 2015. 

In the meantime, the legacy Amazon app will continue to be available to the TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, Premiere 4, Premiere XL4, Premiere Q, and Preview platforms, as well as Series2 and Series3 DVRs, TiVo said Thursday in this blog post.

With the enhanced app, TiVo is expanding a commitment to a streaming service that appears to be gaining in popularity. According to a new report from Sandvine issued Thursday (November 20), Amazon Video has seen its share of usage on fixed broadband networks in North American during peak periods more than double in the past 18 months. 

Netflix continues to generate the most wireline traffic in North  America – and continues to do so  by a wide margin – but Amazon Instant Video is starting to make some inroads, Sandvine found in its just-released Global Internet Phenomena Report 2H 2014.  

The report, based on anonymous data tabulated from Sandvine’s 250-plus customers around the globe over the course of a month, found that Netflix gobbles up 32.39% of aggregate traffic (downstream and upstream) on North American fixed networks, about where it was the last time the bandwidth management firm issued this report about six months ago.

Also on an aggregate basis, YouTube was second (13.25%), followed by HTTP traffic (8.47%), BitTorrent (5.03%), Facebook (2.94%), SSL (secure socket layer, a protocol that nails up a secure channel), iTunes (2.55%), MPEG-Other (2.44%, which includes long tail video from a number of smaller sites), Amazon Video (2.37%) and Hulu (1.2%).

Amazon Video, Sandvine noted, has seen its share more than double in the past 18 months, establishing it as the second-leading paid OTT video service in North America, despite having no presence in Canada.

Sandvine said HBO-sourced video traffic will be worth watching next year, when the premium programmer launches a standalone OTT service that does not require subs to take a pay-TV service from an MVPD. HBO Go, the network’s TV Everywhere platform, accounts for about 1% of downstream traffic during peak periods in the region, offering a benchmark that could help to measure the level of adoption of its coming OTT service.

“With both Netflix and Amazon Instant Video gaining bandwidth share in North America during 2014, it will be fascinating to see how a standalone HBOGO streaming option will impact networks when it launches in 2015,” said Dave Caputo, president and CEO, Sandvine, in a statement.  “The dynamic streaming video market underscores how important it is that operators around the globe have the business intelligence and big data solutions in place to understand the ever-changing behavior of their subscribers.”

Sandvine also found that mean monthly usage on fixed access networks in North America was 57.4 gigabytes, a 13 GB increase from the 44.5 GB observed in its report from a year ago. Median usage, meanwhile, also jumped year-over-year – from 17.6 GB to 22.5 GB – roughly in-line with the 30% to 40% growth rate that many of Sandvine’s customers forecasted for 2014, the company said.

On the mobile side of the equation, Facebook generated the most aggregate traffic (19.43%), followed by YouTube (18.02%), HTTP (11.26%), MPEG (5.72%), SSL (4.63%), Instagram (4.27%), Netflix (4.10%), Google Cloud (4.09%), iTunes (2.96%), and Pandora (2.53%).

Among data trends seen in other parts of the world, Sandvine noted that on fixed networks in the Australasia region, where Netflix isn’t even launched yet, 2.5% of subs are accessing the service, with Netflix representing 4% of peak downstream traffic, making it a top 10 app on a usage basis.

Broadcom said it will supply silicon that will power TiVo’s coming line of Ultra HD/4K-capable set-top boxes, packing in a chipset that supports HEVC decoding, 10-bit color and the ability to pipe in video at 60 frames per second, the rate needed for sports and other fast-action content.

Broadcom, which has been supplying chips for TiVo’s Series4 and new line of Roamio DVRs, said it will equip TiVo with its BCM7445 chipset, which has already reached “volume production.”

The expected shipment date for TiVo’s Ultra HD product line was not immediately known, but the company will be demonstrating its 4K tech at the Broadcom booth at the IBC confab in  Amsterdam.

Update: "We're committed to remaining on the front edge of technology and we're proactively planning support for UltraHD content," a TiVo spokesman said via email in response to questions about the company's go-to-market plans. "But, this is solely a technology demo and we don’t have any launch dates available."

TiVo’s pursuit of a 4K option isn’t a surprise. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Jeff Klugman, TiVo’s EVP and general manager of products and revenue, told Multichannel Newsthat Ultra HD was on the company’s product roadmap for this year, expecting to bring native 4K support to its retail-focused Roamio line as well as MSO-distributed TiVo hardware.

TiVo is getting ready to enter the 4K fold even as there’s still a dearth of content available in the format. Netflix, which TiVo supports now, has already launched a small library of 4K titles. Amazon Instant Video, which is also expected to deliver some 4K fare, is poised to join the TiVo app lineup in late November, according to ZatzNotFunny.

"TiVo is committed to bringing the ultimate viewing experience to our customers, delivering all video content to any room and any screen with the only user experience that allows consumers to easily discover content whether it is linear, On Demand, or over-the-top. With Broadcom, we can deliver the stunning picture quality and color clarity of Ultra HD to our subscribers worldwide," said Klugman said, in a statement. "Demonstrating our 4k capabilities with Broadcom at IBC marks an important next step in our bringing Ultra HD to consumers everywhere."

Amazon will offer its Amazon Instant Prime subscribers five new series pilots as part of its third "pilot season," beginning Aug. 28, said network officials.

The prospective new Amazon pilots include The Cosmopolitans, written, directed and produced by Whit Stillman (Metropolitan, Barcelona, The Last Days of Disco), about a group of young Americans in Paris searching for love and friendship in a foreign city; Hand Of God, which stars Ron Pearlman as Judge Harris, a man who receives “visions” and “messages” he believes are being sent by God via his ventilator-bound son to find the rapist who tore his family apart; Hysteria, about a psycho-physiological illness spread through technology engulfing a Texas community; Really, which looks at the complexities of marriage and how it changes the dynamics of a tight-knit group of friends; and Red Oaks, which follows antics at a New Jersey country club during the 1980s.

Amazon will choose which pilots will be greenlit for full seasons based on viewer input. During the last pilot preview session, this past March, Amazon greenlit four scripted series and two children's shows. In December 2012, the online provider ordered six comedy series pilots after giving subscribers a chance to view shows and offer their opinion.

“We are delighted to be able to bring Amazon customers new shows from some of Hollywood’s most talented actors and creators,” said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios in a statement. “There is something for everyone in this season and I can’t wait to hear our customers’ feedback when they premiere later this month.”

Starz Digital Media, the global digital and VOD licensing and syndication arm of Starz, said it has notched a deal to offer the first two seasons of Spartacus– Blood and Sand and Vengeance – as well as its six-part prequel, Gods of the Arena, to Amazon Prime and Prime Instant Video members in Germany.

Seasons one and two and the six-part prequel are available now at www.amazon.de/piv, and Amazon Prime or Prime Instant Video subscribers can also watch those titles via Playstation 3 and 4 consoles, the Xbox One and Xbox 360, WiiU and Wii, connected Sony Bravia devices, LG smart TVs, and Samsung smart TVs and Blu-ray players produced in 2012 and 2013. Amazon has also launched apps for the Kindkle Fire HD/HDX, iOS devices, and Apple TV (via AirPlay).

Season three of Spartacus, which will conclude the epic series, is slated to debut in early 2015.

Amazon offers a library of about 13,000 titles via Prime Instant Video in Germany.

“We are delighted to extend our partnership with Prime Instant Video, so their German subscribers can enjoy the action-packed and gripping drama of Spartacus whenever they want, at home as well as on the go,” said Mara Winokur, SVP, digital for Starz Digital Media, in a statement.

The deal with Amazon is the latest on the digital from for Starz overseas. Starting June 9, Starz Digital Media began to sell episodes of new original series Power in the U.K. via several electronic outlets, including Amazon Instant Video, blinkbox, Google Play, iTunes, Sony Entertainment Network and Xbox Video, following their Saturday night premieres in the U.S.

The volume of video streams originating from Amazon has tripled in the past year, allowing it to zoom past Hulu and Apple, according to data culled by Qwilt, a provider of “transparent” caching systems that counts Mediacom Communications among its customers. 

According to Qwilt’s study of U.S. MSO broadband data, Amazon Instant Video traffic jumped 278% on “some” operator networks s networks in March versus the year earlier.

The numbers come into play as Amazon looks to juice those numbers further with the launch of  Fire TV, an Android-powered box that is tightly integrated with Amazon's own video streaming and electronic sell-through services but also provides access to other apps, including Netflix, Hulu Plus and Showtime Anytime.

Despite evidence of increased usage, Amazon Instant Video is still dwarfed by traffic from Netflix and YouTube. According to a study from bandwidth management firm Sandvine released last fall, Netflix and YouTube streaming represent more than half of all downstream traffic on North American fixed broadband networks. 

Amazon, meanwhile, attributed its new spot in the Qwilt rankings to a mix of original fare and library fare, and its subscription-based Prime Instant Video offering.

“We’ve invested hundreds of millions of dollars in great TV shows and movies for Prime members and it’s working,” said Bill Carr, VP of Digital Video and Music for Amazon, in a statement. “As part of their membership, Amazon Prime members can watch their favorite movies and television shows on an unlimited basis, and as we add original content like Alpha House,Bosch, The After, Mozart in the Jungle and Transparent, we have no doubt that customers will be even more delighted with the selection available. And now, with Fire TV, customers have the easiest way to access this content.”

In addition to the new Fire TV, Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video are also supported on Kindle Fire tablets, iPads,  Roku boxes, smart TV and Blu-ray models, as well as gaming consoles from Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.