DISH And Amazon Finding More Ways To Work Together

DISH Network Corporation DISH and Amazon.com, Inc AMZN on Wednesday announced an expanded relationship between Amazon's Alexa voice control and the cable company's Hopper DVR with Joey add-on receivers.

Now DISH's customers with Joey can voice-control all their enabled televisions with the aid of Alexa, by pairing their set-top boxes with an Amazon Echo.

The cable service provider and ubiquitous e-retailer have been linked since 2015, when DISH first started selling in-home installations for televisions, wifi, and more through Amazon Home Services. Back in May of this year, the companies revealed the application of Amazon's Alexa technology to control DISH's cable receivers.

Then in June, Benzinga reported that Amazon and DISH may be seeking to deepen their relationship. From integration of Amazon Prime into DISH boxes, to the use of DISH's coveted 5G spectrum to support Amazon's delivery drones, a merger could potentially be in the works, sources familiar with the matter told Benzinga at the time.

Wednesday's announcement, along with reports that potential rival suitor Verizon Communications Inc VZ has stopped circling the cable space, lends credence to the notion the alliance between these two is just getting started.

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Image Credit: TechNev16 - This photo was taken in my backyard, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons