Amazon is making a play with smaller cable companies, many of which have — or are seriously looking at — exiting the unprofitable TV market while still offering their customers third-party streaming video options.

Amazon has announced a new deal with the National Cable Television Cooperative, an organization with more than 750 member cable operators, providing these companies discounts on Amazon streaming devices including the Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K and Fire TV Cube.

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“As more of our members deploy app-based pay TV offerings, having the option to purchase Amazon Fire TV streaming devices at a discount will help our broadband and cable operator members retain video customers by creating affordable options that do not rely on a traditional set-top box,” NCTC president Rich Fickle said in a statement. “These devices are a great compliment to services like MobiTV or for broadband-only offerings by our members.”

Related: Amazon Extends Fire TV Edition to Verizon, Other Pay TV Operators

Amazon didn’t say just how much of a discount NCTC members will get on its Fire TV devices.

The initiative falls under the recently expanded Fire TV Edition program, which was originally introduced three years ago as a means of integrating its OTT ecosystem into smart TVs. At CES in early January, Amazon announced that Fire TV Edition is now available to device categories ranging from sound bars to cars. And also included in that expansion were the devices pay TV operators lease to their customers.

NCTC Also Carves Out Ad Integration Deal

Separately, NCTC also announced a deal with Imagine Communications on AdKey, a system that will give member operators a path to monetizing IP video.

Costs and infrastructure challenges have traditionally kept smaller, independent cable operators from fully monetizing all the video they deliver. Independent operators typically have to invest in ad-splicing hardware installed on their top 20 to 25 TV channels. And as demand for streaming content grows, the AdKey solution will let operators replicate on digital what they have already have on their QAM-based system as a managed service with fewer upfront costs.

AdKey will allow operators to expand their advanced adverting value chain through ad insertion on all of their IP channels. 

Roku shares dropped almost 12% Wednesday in the wake of an exclusive, multi-year deal between Amazon and Best Buy that will result in a large lineup of 4K and HD smart TVs powered by Fire TV’s platform for the U.S. and Canada.

RELATED: Amazon, Best Buy Strike Exclusive Smart TV Deal

Roku’s smart TV licensing partners include three Funai Electric brands (Sanyo, Philips and Magnavox), RCA, TCL, Element Electronics, Hitachi America, Sharp, and Hisense. Roku’s smart TV partners had also included Insignia (Best Buy’s Brand), up until the Amazon-Best Buy deal was announced.

The deal announced between Amazon and Best Buy today includes Fire TV Edition sets from Best Buy/Insignia as well as Toshiba. Amazon also has a Fire TV Edition agreement with another Roku partner, Element Electronics.

Roku’s fast growing Platforms business includes advertising, subscription revenue sharing as well as licensing fees from TV makers that have integrated Roku’s operating system. That piece of Roku’s business soared 129%, to $85.43 million, in Q4 2017.

Smart TVs integrated with Roku’s platform have become a key way for Roku to attract consumers to its platform. In its Q4 results, Roku said more than half of new accounts came way of licensed sources during the period.

Roku shares closed down $4.26 (11.84%) to $31.72 each Wednesday. 

Roku is scheduled to release Q1 2018 results the afternoon of Wednesday, May 9. 

In a deal that matches two retailing giants, Amazon and Best Buy have struck an exclusive multi-year deal to sell a line of Fire TV Edition smart TVs in the U.S. and Canada.  

Starting this summer, Best Buy plans to introduce more than 10 4K and HD Fire TV Edition models from Insignia (Best Buy’s in-house brand) and Toshiba. All will run the built-in Fire TV user interface/streaming platform that also builds in Amazon’s Alexa-powered voice navigation and smart home technology.  

The companies said Fire TV Edition smart TVs will be available exclusively in Best Buy stores, at BestBuy.com and, for the first time, via Best Buy as a third-party seller on Amazon.com.  

The deal will expand the reach of Amazon’s Fire TV Edition platform for TV makers, augmenting models made by TV making partners that include Westinghouse, Seiki and Element Electronics.  

RELATED: Fire TV Platform Roars Into Smart TV Market (subscription required)  

The Best Buy deal also shores up Fire TV’s positioning against competitors that have built their platforms into smart TVs, including Roku and Android TV, as well as home-grown smart TV platforms from Samsung (Tizen) and LG Electronics (webOS). 

RELATED: Sanyo Joins Roku TV Lineup 

“Amazon and Best Buy have a long history of working together, and today we take our partnership to a new level,” Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and CEO, said in a statement. "These Fire Edition smart TVs by Insignia and Toshiba deliver beautiful visuals and all the movies and TV shows you love, with an experience that gets better every day with Alexa. We could not have a better partner in this endeavor.” 

Hubert Joly, Best Buy’s chair and CEO, added: “Our goal is to enrich the lives of our customers by offering them the very best products and services, whether they come to us online, visit our stores, or invite us into their homes. Our partnership with Amazon is exciting because we believe Fire TV Edition delivers an incredible user experience and further strengthens the growing connection between home theater, home automation and voice control.”