Amazon just began offering some enticing add-ons for its Prime members: on-demand programming from Showtime, Starz and other channels, for as much as $8.99 a month. The goal is to lure more consumers to become Prime members, a $99 a year program that offers unlimited two-day shipping among other benefits, since Prime members spend more money on the site than non-Prime members. The add-on channels can be accessed via Amazon’s apps on mobile devices, streaming boxes and connected TVs. Continue reading Showtime, Starz Now On Tap For Amazon Prime Members

Nielsen and Roku have started working together to measure the audience demographics of ads that play through Roku streaming devices. That means Roku will be the first Internet-connected TV platform that will be able to offer the same audience guarantees as traditional television. Advertisers will already be familiar with the Nielsen audience breakdowns, which will also be integrated into the Roku Ad Framework toolkit. The companies will be testing the new tracking this summer. Continue reading Nielsen to Track Audience Demos of Video Ads on Roku Devices

Sling Media, the company behind multiscreen TV devices including the Slingbox 500 and SlingTV, has added support for YouTube video recommendations in its TV guide. During live TV programming, the user could call up a menu of related YouTube videos on the bottom of the screen. Audible Magic’s audio-fingerprinting technology determines the content of the live TV. The top-trending YouTube videos are also located on a separate tab within the TV guide. Continue reading Slingbox Integrates YouTube Recommendations with Live TV

A company called SkreensTV hopes to reinvent the way families share the living room television with a new approach to split screen technology. With up to five HDMI inputs, the new device enables users to split one TV screen to display content from various sources including pay TV, streaming services, social network sites and gaming consoles. With the use of a tablet or other mobile device, users can adjust for size and rearrange the positioning of the content being projected onto the larger screen. Continue reading SkreensTV Wants to Bring Everyone Together Around One TV

E-commerce giant Amazon reportedly has plans to open its first brick-and-mortar store in the heart of New York City. The company’s new space on 34th Street across from the Empire State Building may likely be used as a mini warehouse that will handle same-day delivery, product returns, and pick-ups of online orders. A physical store is expected to help provide faster service and delivery for New Yorkers in addition to building more brand recognition for the online-based company. Continue reading Amazon May Open its First Physical Store in New York City

According to Cisco’s new Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast, online video is growing faster than any other type of consumer service, and within four years online video services will be more popular than social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. The report predicts that by 2017 there will be 3.6 billion global Internet users and 19 billion global networked devices. Additionally, the average broadband speed will increase by a factor of 3.5 to 39 Mbps. Continue reading Cisco Says Online Video to Outpace Social Networks by 2017