Amazon.com Inc. is reportedly developing a Live TV recorder dubbed as “Frank” internally. The new digital video recording device would connect to Amazon Fire TV boxes and record Live TV content on a physical storage. The users could then stream the recorded videos on their smartphones, reports Bloomberg.
The San-Francisco-based Lab126, Amazon’s research and development arm is supposedly working on a Live TV recorder. It is the same center from where Echo smart speaker rolled out and is presently creating a domestic robot known as Project Vesta.
Amazon Live TV Recorder
Amazon’s engineer team is working around TV cable operators to develop a Live TVrecorder and extract the potential of the streaming content era. Eventually, the company plans to encroach upon the territory of TiVo, the leading player in Live TV streaming device market and Slingbox from Dish Network Corp.
The TiVo market shares took a sharp downturn on Friday afternoon following the rumors citing the e-commerce giant’s entrance into Live TV recorder market. TiVo’s stock dropped nearly 4 percent to $12.25 per share after trading at $12.85 and finally closed at $12.20 per share, a 4.31 percent slump.
The plans for unannounced Amazon DVR (digital video recorder) are strictly kept under wraps, indicating the device may not see the light of the day anytime soon.
Amazon Filling Up Entertainment Room
Amazon is gradually spreading its wings to cover the entire living room space through devices and services. It has launched an array of smart home devices including Echo speakers and Fire TV streaming devices.
Founder Jeff Bezos’ company is competing at the streaming services frontier via Prime membership. Amazon is heavily investing in creating Original video content, TV shows and streaming Live Sports shows.
Furthermore, Amazon embeds Fire TV software directly onto the smart TVs, a feature offered by Roku Inc. in many television sets. Presently, Amazon markets Fire TV edition smart TV models manufactured by Japan’s Toshiba Corporation, Best Buy’s in-house brand, Insignia, and US-based Element Electronics.
The leading online shopping player is also apparently planning to upgrade its Fire TV sticks and associate with more manufacturers for Fire TV edition televisions, informed sources known to Bloomberg.
However, though Fire TV device family streams live content via the Amazon Channels service, it lacks live video recording support.
Upsurge in Video Recording Market
According to IBIS World report, the television viewership has seen a tremendous change in the past five years. The competition for broadcasting world-class video content has contributed to what is called the golden era of TV. But even if there is a rise in video consumption, the cable and satellite TV subscription rate has declined.
The drop in Live TV viewing is because of the emergence of large online video alternatives such as Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hulu. Moreover, the next-generation audience has a greater preference to record Live TV shows so that they can watch them at their comfortable timings.
The market for Live TV recorders will grow at 27 percent by 2022. Amazon is all set to explore this smart home device segment and dominate each corner of media and entertainment industry.