Amazon has introduced a new infrared device, designed to extend Alexa voice control to TVs, sound bars, cable boxes and A/V receivers.

Retailing for $34.99 when it ships Dec. 11, the Fire TV Blaster is designed to work with an Amazon Echo smart speaker and a compatible Fire TV streaming device, such as a Fire TV Stick with Alexa Voice Control, Fire TV Stick 4K or third-generation Fire TV.

Using the Fire TV Blaster, users can use Alexa voice to, among other things, turn on their TV, adjust volume and switch inputs. They can also select what channel they want to tune into.

As Amazon explained it, a user with the right three-Amazon-device configuration can tell their Echo, “Amazon, play Jack Ryan on Fire TV,” and the system will turn on the TV and fire up the Amazon Prime original show.

“The complexity of television right now is hard for people to manage. The best way to get at that is with voice,” said Sandeep Gupta, vice president of Fire TV devices experiences, speaking Tuesday at the Streaming Media West Conference in Downtown Los Angeles. “Just being able to say the title of a show is much easier way to do that. Voice just kind of resonates with customers.” 

Amazon announced the global launch of the Fire TV Stick Basic Edition, a low-end model that’s now available in more than 100 countries and territories.

Selling for $49.99, the Basic edition comes with a quad-core processor, 1 GB of memory, 8GB of storage for apps and games, and integrated 802.11ac WiFi, HEVC, support for Dolby Audio surround sound, and streaming at up to 1080p resolution.

The device, which follows Amazon’s international launch of Prime Video last year, can be set to several supported default languages, including Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian, German and English.

While the Basic edition does come with a remote control, it does not support voice navigation. 

It arrives ahead of the holiday buying season, and gives Amazon a low-end, low-cost option as it grapples with rivals such as Roku, which recently introduced a baseline, HD-capable Roku Streaming Stick that fetches $49.99 (and supports voice navigation) and complements a higher-end 4K/HDR-capable model that goes for $69.99.

RELATED: Roku Freshens Up Streaming Device Lineup, Bows New OS

Starz has added another platform to its streaming mix with the launch of an app for the Amazon Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick.

The debut follows last April’s launch of a new Starz app that supports its standalone OTT service, which sells for $8.99 per month, as well as its TV Everywhere offer for MVPD partners. Comcast has yet to allow its subs to authenticate to the app, but does offer Starz content via the MSO's own apps. 

RELATED: Starz Launches OTT Subscription App

The Starz app, which offers licensed movies as well as original series such as Black Sails, Outlander and Power, is also supported by several other platforms, including Web browsers, Xbox One consoles, Apple TV (fourth-gen and newer), Android and iOS mobile devices, Roku players, and Android TVs from Sony.

Fusion has extended its streaming reach with the launch of its Watch Fusion app for the Amazon Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick.

In addition to a mix of long- and short-form fare, including highlights from programs such as AMERICA with Jorge Ramos and Real Future, the app also provides an authenticated live stream of the millennials-focused network and on-demand access to digital series including This Shouldn’t Be News, The Curls Room and Sex+Life.  

"Our aim is to deliver a FUSION-branded experience everywhere our young, connected audience is consuming content,” Fusion CEO Isaac Lee said, in a statement. “We’re thrilled that with the launch of WATCH FUSION on Amazon Fire TV and Fire Stick, millions of multicultural millennials will have a new way to access our content.

Other OTT platforms supported by Fusion include the Apple TV, Roku players and Roku TVs, PlayStation consoles, and Android TV-powered devices, among others.

Fusion, a joint venture of Univision Communications and Disney/ABC Television Network, launched in October 2013. MVPD partners include DirecTV/AT&T U-verse, Dish Network, Cablevision Systems, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Verizon FiOS and Google Fiber. 

Taking a page from the Sling TV playbook, Sony has been offering a free Amazon Fire TV Stick to subs who sign up for one of two PlayStation Vue multichannel packages – “Core” and “Elite.”

PS Vue extended access to the  Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick last month, and began to pitch the Fire TV Stick bundle on November 15, according to the service’s web site.

Per the fine print, new Core and Elite subs are in line for one Fire TV Stick per PS Vue account so long as they convert their free trials to paid subscriptions. Eligible subs receive a code that can be redeemed at Amazon.com for the streaming device through Jan. 15, 2016. Of course, they’ll also need have an account with Amazon.

Sony, which has not released PS Vue subscriber figures, also recently cut the price of its Core and Elite packages by $5 per month. Core currently sells for $54.99 per month, while Elite fetches $64.99 per month. PS Vue’s entry-level Access tier (steady at $49.99 per month) is not part of the Fire TV Stick promo.

But the Fire TV Stick tie-in is another example of how a new class of virtual MVPDs are bundling their services with streaming devices.

Sling TV, Dish Network’s OTT-TV service, is currently offering $50 off an Amazon Fire TV box or a Roku 3 player or a free Roku Streaming Stick to new subs who prepay for three months of service, which starts at $20 per month.

PlayStation Vue, Sony's subscription over-the-top video service for its gaming platform, is set to begin streaming on Amazon's Fire TV box and Fire TV Stick, with support for the Google Chromecast coming soon, the company said Wednesday (Nov. 12).

The deal with Amazon marks the first time the cloud-based service has been available on connected-TV devices other than Sony's PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles. Sony had previously released a mobile iOS app-based version of the service for the iPhone and iPad. 

Expanding the service to the Fire platform opens it up to an even broader consumer audience, Sony said. Using Amazon's streaming devices enables PlayStation owners with an existing Vue subscription to access the service on additional TVs in the household without purchasing additional gaming consoles. 

The expansion closely follows a carriage deal Sony struck with Disney earlier this month that brings the full complement of Disney and ESPN Media networks to the service, including ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC Family, as well as ABC-owned local stations, filling what had been a sizeable gap in the Vue lineup

Both Vue's lineup of standalone channels available nationwide, such as Showtime, Epix Hits and Fox Soccer Plus, and its multichannel packages available in select markets, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco and Miami, will be available on the Fire devices.

In a limited-time holiday promotion starting on Nov. 15, new Vue customers in those markets who sign up for a free trial of PlayStation Vue's "Core" or "Elite" programming tiers will receive a free Amazon Fire TV Stick with their first month's paid subscription; Core is a package of sports channels, and Elite is an entertainment package.

Sony also has reduced the prices of those two tiers, another marketing move timed to the holidays; the new rates are available now to new subscribers, while current subscribers will receive the new pricing in their next billing cycle, the company said. The basic "Access" package of some 50 broadcast TV, movie and sports channels remains unchanged.

Later this year Sony will extend the service to the Google Chromecast via its PlayStation Vue Mobile app for iOS devices, which will bring the number of devices that can stream the service to seven (PS4, PS3, Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, iPhone, iPad and Chromecast).

"Adding PlayStation Vue to these popular streaming devices is a great way to extend our pioneering cloud-based TV service to other TVs in the household and to reach new consumers who don't own PlayStation consoles," said Dan Myers, head of product for PlayStation Vue. "With the holiday season around the corner, now is the ideal time for us to expand PlayStation Vue access."

TiVo, as it promised, has introduced an app for the Fire TV that lets its users watch shows and movies recorded to the DVR on the Amazon-made OTT device.  

Ira Bahr, TiVo’s chief marketing officer, told the TiVo Community Forum last week that the app, currently carrying the beta label, would arrive sometime this week.

Dave Zatz of the ZatzNotFunny blog has already fired it up (the image above is courtesy of Zatz) and has shared his initial observations in this post, and discovered some issues with it.

“Having only played with it about five minutes, my initial observation is that this was clearly designed for or tested against something other than a television given little thought to overscan,” he wrote. “Without adjusting my Fire TV’s settings, elements in the lower left, upper left, and upper right were clipped on my television.”

But he still called the effort a “good start in simplifying interaction for a lean back experience… as the bulk of the app is simply an easily navigated listing of recordings from your linked DVR.”

TiVo has not announced when its app for the Fire TV will support live TV, a  capability that is currently  supported in the TiVo Mini client.

And time will tell if TiVo decides to push harder on a “TiVo Anywhere “ strategy that could help the company brings its platform to more retail platforms, including gaming consoles and smart TVs, following its decision to convert to the open-source Haxe multiplatform programming language.

Zatz also notes that the new function will require that the primary TiVo device is outfitted with video transcoding – either on board the DVR or via the  TiVo Stream sidecar.

Timed with the start of the US Open, Tennis Channel said its TV Everywhere app and standalone, digital offering, Tennis Channel Plus, are now available on the Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick and Fire tablets.

That expands on Tennis Channel’s streaming reach on Web browsers, iOS and Android tablets and smartphones, Roku players and Roku TVs, and the Apple TV.

Tennis Channel Plus runs $79.99 per year, or $11.99 per month, and delivers OTT access to more than 650 live events. MVPDs with rights for Tennis Channel’s TVE app include AT&T U-verse/DirecTV, Cox Communications, Dish Network, Verizon FiOS, Armstrong, Frontier Communications, RCN, and Vyve Broadband, among others.

Among its offerings during the US Open tourney, Tennis Channel is producing a three-hour morning show, Tennis Channel Live, and an eight-hour evening encore program called US Open Tonight. Tennis Channel said it will provide more than 250 hours of coverage during the event. Tennis Channel Plus is also providing several archived matches from the tournament. For Serena Williams, who is poised to achieve a "Calendar Slam,” Tennis Channel Plus is giving viewers on-demand access to semifinal and championship wins at this year's Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon competitions.

“Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets is helping us bring Tennis Channel's unsurpassed tennis programming to customers through a variety of platforms, and continues our mission to give as much tennis to people as possible, on as many devices as possible," Patrick Wilson, senior vice president of distribution, Tennis Channel, said in a statement. “When you combine Tennis Channel's linear feed with the live coverage and archived matches carried on Tennis Channel Plus, Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablet users have the ultimate tennis viewing experience, whether at home or on the go."

"We're thrilled to offer Tennis Channel and Tennis Channel Plus to Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick and Fire tablet customers," added Steve Rabuchin, vice president, Amazon Appstore. "Now our customers can have a front row seat for all the action at many of the biggest tournaments of the year - even those without a cable subscription."

Amazon wasted little time pitching HBO Now to customers after extending support for the standalone OTT offering to Fire TV boxes and the Fire TV Stick.

Amazon, which also supports HBO Now on its Fire tablets, emailed a promo on Sunday to customers with the subject line: “Get HBO Without a Cable Subscription” –  a message that is obviously targeted to cord-cutters and consumers who have never taken a pay TV subscription, but might be inclined to tap into the OTT offering to gain access to Game of Thrones, True Detective, Ballers and other HBO originals.

“Big premieres are available at the same time they air on TV,” Amazon’s promo notes, adding that new customers can jump on a 30-day free trial of HBO Now.

HBO Now, which runs $14.99 per month, is also supported on the Google Chromecast, the Apple TV, Android and iOS mobile devices, and Web browsers, and will be coming to Android TV-powered devices.  HBO Now distribution partners include Apple, Cablevision Systems and Verizon Communications.

The latest Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick integration will give HBO Now the ability to ride the promotional power of Amazon.  HBO hasn’t announced sub figures for HBO Now, though one analyst puts it at as high as 1.9 million.

Roku streaming devices are the hottest seller and the most used OTT video product in U.S. broadband homes, Parks Associates found in a new report that examines the adoption and purchase trends for CE OTT devices.

Roku led with 34% of units sold in 2014, followed by the Google Chromecast (23%), Amazon Fire TV, and Apple TV. Together those companies/products dominate the streaming media device market, accounting for 86% of sales, the research firm said.

Roku devices are also the most used among U.S. broadband homes that own at least one such product, at 37%, followed by the Chromecast adapter (19%), Apple TV (17%), and Amazon Fire TV (14%), Parks Associates found in the study, titled The Streaming Media Device Landscape.

“Device shipments and sales receipts are important performance measures, but an equally critical metric for device makers is ongoing usage,” Barbara Kraus, director of research at Parks Associates, said in a statement. “Usage will drive alternate revenue streams such as content sales and advertising.”

Parks Associates, which expects global sales of streaming media devices to reach 86 million in 2019.

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.”

Tuesday was Parks Associates’ turn to size up the streaming media device market, revealing a study showing that 10% of U.S. broadband homes bought such a product – either in player or stick form – during the first three quarters of 2014.

Parks Associates said Roku remained the sector’s lead brand, with 29% of sales, followed by the Google Chromecast (20%), which supplanted the spot last held by the Apple TV (17%).

The Amazon Fire TV box, launched in April, held the fourth spot, with a 10% share, according to Parks Associates. Amazon started to ship its newer (and cheaper) Fire TV Stick last month, and has since labeled it as the fastest-selling Amazon device ever, though the company has yet to release any specific sales figures on it.    

The Chromecast and Amazon’s new entries have successfully siphoned share away from the market leaders. According to Parks Associates, Roku accounted for about 46% of streaming media players purchased in the U.S. in 2013, followed by Apple (26%).

On a broader basis, demand for these devices continues to shift TV viewing behavior.

"Nearly 50% of video content that U.S. consumers watch on a TV set is non-linear, up from 38% in 2010, and it is already the majority for people 18-44," said Barbara Kraus, director, research at Parks Associates, in a statement. "The market is changing rapidly to account for these new digital media habits. Roku now offers a streaming stick, and Amazon’s Fire TV streaming stick leaves Apple as the only top player without a stick product in the streaming media device category."

Parks Associates predicts that more than 25% of U.S. broadband homes will have a streaming media player by 2015, and by 2017, global sales of streaming media players will reach nearly 50 million.

The study from Parks Associates follows one from GfK, which found that 19% of TV viewers now own at least one digital media player from the trio of Roku, Apple and Google.

Watchup, a Stanford-based startup that came out of the StartX incubator, said its video aggregator news app will be offered exclusively on TVs via the new Amazon Fire TV Stick when the product starts shipping on November 19.

Watchup, currently offered on Android and iOS mobile devices, lets users create personalized, curated video newscasts from sources such as The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Fox News, Fox Business, Sky News, Associated Press, PBS NewsHour and Univision.The version for the Fire TV Stick is modified to support a new “lean back mode” that features less text and larger buttons that can be navigated with the remote control.

Amazon introduced the $39 Fire TV Stick on Monday (October 27), bringing to market a streaming media adapter that will compete with the Google Chromecast and the Roku Streaming Stick. Amazon hasn’t announced sales figures on the new device, but it appears to be off to a good start. On Tuesday, Amazon was telling site visitors that pre-orders placed for the product that day would not be shipped until after Jan. 1, 2015, citing “popular demand.”

I already have more TV streaming devices than televisions in my household, but I couldn’t resist taking the bait just hours after Amazon presented its two-day special offer on the new Fire TV Stick – just $19 for Prime members. 

Google turned the Chromecast into an impulse buy using a $35 price tag when it launched its adapter last July, and Amazon is doing much of the same here with its new HDMI-connected device, but it’s also offering a sizable discount to its loyal base of Prime subs (the regular price on the Fire TV Stick is $39).  

Amazon hasn’t released any sales figures for the original Fire TV box (other than to say it’s “very happy with the success of Fire TV”), and it likely won’t be offering any on the new Fire TV Stick (but I went ahead and at least asked).

Still, it appears that sales of the Fire TV Stick are off to a good start. When I placed my order this morning (at about 1:20 p.m. ET today), Amazon noted that “orders placed today are expected to ship after the release date” of November 19, citing “popular demand.” As a side note, Amazon is limiting those orders to two per customer.

For me, that means the delivery date for my order is expected to be Dec. 4, 2014, so it'll be a little while before I get to see how well this new product performs. In the meantime, our household has been pretty happy with our little batch of speciality streaming gizmos, which includes the Chromecast, the Fire TV box, and the Roku Streaming Stick.

While it’s still too early to call the Amazon Fire TV Stick a hit, the new product appears to be off to a blazing start.

Update: As the deadline approached for Prime members to get in on the $19 deal on Tuesday (October 28), Amazon was telling site visitors that pre-orders placed today won't show up until sometime after Christmas. It has also placed an even stricter limit on the number of Fire TV Sticks that customers can put on order. "Due to popular demand, orders placed today are expected to arrive after January 1, 2015. See delivery date at checkout. Limit one per customer," Amazon notes.

Small, inexpensive streaming devices apparently carry big demand. As a reminder, Google underestimated the initial demand for the Chromecast, which caused retailers such as Amazon to quickly run out of stock and for Google to nix a promotion that offered three free months of Netflix with each Chromecast purchase.