The Broadband Forum, which represents broadband service providers and technology suppliers, has thrown its support behind the new ITU-T ultra broadband access standard, G.fast, as a new way to deliver "bandwidth intensive" consumer applications such as Ultra HD, the group said Monday. G.fast "makes it possible for telcos to deploy 4K UHD services faster and more affordably than they could with Fiber to the Home," the forum said. Its announcement quoted CEA President Gary Shapiro as saying that with Ultra HD the "hot new product" this holiday selling season and beyond, "consumers need confidence" that bandwidth-constrained 4K online content distribution services "are feasible," Shapiro said. "G.fast offers a promising way to overcome this challenge."

Kaleidescape bowed the Alto movie player, which it called the first movie player to import all of its locally stored content from the cloud, by way of the Kaleidescape Store. The Alto brings the entry point of a Kaleidescape system down to $2,495, available through the company’s integrator dealer network. The Alto stores up to 100 movies in Blu-ray quality or 600 movies in DVD quality and can be combined with other Alto players to create up to four viewing zones, the company said. In a Thursday news release, Kaleidescape dealer Franklin Karp, COO of Audio Video Systems, Plainview, New York, said with Alto, the Kaleidescape Store delivers high-quality Blu-ray and DVD movies with support for Dolby TrueHD, Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio multichannel soundtracks, something that “streaming devices and services fall well short of.” Kaleidescape’s content library -- numbering 8,500 movies and 1,600 TV shows -- includes titles from Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Sony and Warner, and is compatible with the UltraViolet solution that enables consumers to stream their purchased video libraries to mobile devices. Kaleidescape didn’t comment about content additions to the Store or the possibility of a direct-to-consumer retail model.

The United Airlines app for accessing in-flight movies and TV shows for free on the airline’s personal device entertainment servers is now available on Android devices, the airline said Friday. United launched a beta version of the app earlier this year for laptops and Apple devices. Content stored on on-board servers is available on nearly 200 United aircraft, the company said. In 2015, United will expand the service to "hundreds" of additional aircraft, it said.

T-Mobile is adding 14 streaming services to its Music Freedom program, including Google Play Music, SoundCloud and Xbox Music, the carrier said Monday. Other services will serve specific music genres, including Bollywood, Caribbean and jazz, it said. The carrier already supported 13 streaming services through the Music Freedom program, including Pandora and Rhapsody. T-Mobile subscribers can stream music through the Music Freedom program without incurring data charges, the carrier said. The number of T-Mobile customers who are streaming music has risen almost 300 percent since the Music Freedom program began over the summer, the carrier said.

Amazon began shipping the Fire TV Stick Wednesday, calling it the “fastest-selling Amazon device ever,” but shoppers who didn’t take advantage of the $19 pre-sale at the end of October can’t get a device before Christmas, according to the Fire TV Stick order page. The pre-sale was offered exclusively to Amazon Prime members. Sales were fueled by a two-day cut-rate deal in late October in which Prime customers who bought the media player early could get it for half the list price (see 1410270040). Amazon said customer demand for Fire TV Stick “outpaced our supply” and the company is working to build more “as quickly as possible.” The item didn’t appear on the Amazon landing page Wednesday, but in a news release the company said customers can order the Stick for $39 “to reserve their place in line” for the next round of shipments scheduled for Jan. 15. Fire TV Stick delivers content including A&E, Hulu Plus, NBA Game Time, Netflix, Pandora, PBS, PBS Kids, Plex, Prime Instant Video, Prime Music, Showtime Anytime, Spotify, Twitch, Vevo, WatchDisney Channel, WatchESPN and YouTube.com. With Fire TV Stick, which connects to a TV's HDMI port, users can fling apps or mirror a phone or tablet to a TV, Amazon said. The device allows users to search for content by voice.

The 17 largest U.S. cable and phone providers added more than 700,000 net additional broadband subscribers in Q3, said a research firm Tuesday. Top cable companies have more than 51.2 million broadband subscribers, and top phone companies have nearly 35.4 million subscribers, Leichtman Research Group said Tuesday in a news release. Over the past year, there were more than 2.9 million net broadband adds, up from 2.54 million the previous year, it said. Comcast added 315,000 subscribers in Q3, and Time Warner Cable, which plans to sell itself to Comcast, added 108,000 subscribers, Leichtman Research said. Verizon added 69,000 subscribers, and CenturyLink added 8,000, it said.

Disney Movies Anywhere partnered with Vudu to give movie watchers more access to Disney, Marvel and Pixar movies. Users can unlock the digital copy from Disney DVDs and Blu-rays purchased at Walmart, Vudu said Monday in a blog post. Connecting Disney Movies Anywhere with Vudu accounts is free, it said.

Kaleidescape signed a license agreement with NBCUniversal that will add 1,000 movie titles and 210 seasons of TV shows from NBCU to the Kaleidescape Store. The deal brings the total of titles available for download in the Kaleidescape Store to 8,500 movies and 1,600 TV seasons, Kaleidescape said. Titles included under the agreement include Bridesmaids, films from the Bourne Identity, Jurassic Park and The Mummy franchises; Despicable Me; and TV shows The Office, 30 Rock and House.

Wireless carriers will deploy more than 4 million public Wi-Fi hot spots and 20 million home spots in 2015, consultant Mobile Experts said in a report. "Even if we exclude homespot deployments, the number of Wi-Fi access points will reach the level of millions for cable operators and public venues during 2015, outstripping the capacity of new LTE base stations,” said Joe Madden, principal analyst, in a news release. “Several large mobile operators have made a gigantic blunder, by ignoring the opportunity to deploy Wi-Fi or utilize Hotspot 2.0 -- so cable operators and other service providers are jumping on the opportunity.”

Lionsgate plans by the end of 2014 to launch its Lionsgate Entertainment World streaming service in China with Alibaba, CEO Jon Feltheimer said Friday on an earnings call. Lionsgate also is in talks with "several other prospective partners for additional online branded platforms," Feltheimer said. "These initiatives all capitalize on our ability to innovate in the digital space as well as to reach niche audiences with branded quality content and targeted marketing." Lionsgate has "a lot of content available in China," including "premium series" like Mad Men and movies like Divergent, Feltheimer said in Q&A. "But I want to be clear that it's not only going to be our content" that will reside on the streaming service being launched with Alibaba, he said. "We're going to be curating other content for that platform." Lionsgate also has started shooting movie content with 360-degree cameras to "take advantage" of Oculus Rift and other virtual-reality 3D headset technologies, he said. "We're actually pretty excited about it." Lionsgate views it as "the kind of enhancement that will make our home entertainment product significantly more valuable," he said.