Amazon is finally giving customers the chance to cast content to their home TVs and smart display devices via a new streaming tool which promises to pit the tech giant against other prominent players in the streaming space.
Announcing the tool at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas (CES 2024) Amazon said Matter Casting enables customers to watch video content directly from Prime Video on their phone and cast to compatible Fire TVs and Echo Show 15 devices directly from supported streaming apps on iOS and Android
It is a move that is set to give the firm increased influence in the streaming space, removing the reliance on other established tools such as Apple’s AirPlay and Google’s Chromecast.
Tapping a surging market
Today’s top tech companies are looking to tap into a global video streaming market market that will surge over the next decade according to recent research from the Brainy Insights. It estimated that global video streaming will rise from $91.53 billion in 2022 to $554.11 billion by 2032 driven with several key drivers behind the rise. Most notaby, these include the widespread adoption of mobile phones, the increasing popularity of social media and over-the-top (OTT) platforms, particularly in developing economies, as well as the rising affinity for online video games.
Additionally, growth is expected to be further boosted by the ongoing digitisation of economies and the expanding use of video streaming in the education. Amazon said that Matter Casting will be coming to compatible Fire TV devices in the coming months while it is working with Plex, Pluto TV, Sling TV, STARZ, and ZDF to add Matter Casting support later this year.
Key innovations announced at CES
Matter Master was unveiled by Amazon this week at CES along with several other innovations. This includes a large language model Alexa (LLM)-powered car expert which Amazon and BMW have introduced so the car can take select actions on a driver’s behalf.
For instance, a driver can ask BMW’s assistant for things like recommendations on different BMW drive modes and then have the assistant activate their chosen mode. Or it can also ask the voice assistant for instructions on how car features work such as the parking assistance system and hear the explanation, Amazon said.
Additional announcements at CES included a new global partnership with Panasonic, the latest generation of the Zoox robotaxi, and Siemens’ integration of AWS generative AI technology, Amazon Bedrock.
