Amazon's New Streaming Move Could Change How You Watch TV

Panasonic Holdings Corp PCRFF PCRFY and Amazon.Com Inc AMZN have teamed up to create smart televisions, integrating Amazon's Fire TV streaming technology. 

The companies revealed the venture at the CES 2024 event in Las Vegas, featuring an OLED model set to launch in Japan and Europe this spring. 

Panasonic Entertainment & Communication, a subsidiary specializing in TVs and cameras, is collaborating with Amazon to develop the software for these TVs, the Nikkei Asia reports.

The Smart TVs will recommend content based on individual viewing habits, considering streaming services, broadcast TV, and previously recorded shows. 

The companies proposed enhancing the personalized approach by creating separate accounts for each family member, analyzing their specific viewing patterns, and searching keywords.

Initial models will require manual account selection, but Panasonic plans to incorporate voice and fingerprint recognition in future versions for automatic user identification. 

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The company also aims to synchronize these TVs with in-vehicle displays, allowing the continuation of content from home to car, and with smartphones to analyze app-based video consumption for more precise content recommendations.

In 2022, global shipments of flat-screen TVs saw a 5% decline, dropping to 203 million units, influenced by reduced pandemic demand and a challenging global economy. 

According to data from the U.K. research company Omdia, this market shift places South Korean and Chinese manufacturers like Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd SSNLF and Hisense at the forefront, collectively holding over 60% of the global market share, Nikkei Asia writes. 

Despite this competitive landscape, Panasonic has a modest 1% share in the worldwide TV market.

Also this week, Amazon launched Matter Casting. This new feature competes with Apple Inc's AAPL AirPlay, enabling iPhone and Android users to wirelessly stream videos to Amazon's TV devices like Fire TV units and Echo Show 15. 

This innovation is part of Amazon's push for interoperable services. Initially, Matter Casting will focus on streaming content from Amazon's Prime Video app to Echo Show devices.

Price Action: AMZN shares traded higher by 1.32% at $153.37 on the last check Wednesday.

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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