Continental and Elektrobit announced Tuesday the first in-vehicle integration of Alexa Custom Assistant, enabling automakers to create their own branded intelligent assistants using Alexa AI. The debut is at the virtual Alexa Live 2021 developer event July 21 at 1:15 p.m. EDT. The implementation combines Alexa Custom Assistant with Continental’s Cockpit computer and EB's software and integration services. The automotive cockpit is becoming more complex with more displays, cameras, sensors and advanced features, said Jens Brandt, head-human machine interface, Continental North America. Consumers expect a seamless experience, and user experience is becoming a top differentiator for carmakers, he said. “Advances in AI are making voice experiences in the car more natural, conversational and user-friendly,” said Ned Curic, vice president-Alexa Auto. Carmakers can join the session live by registering here.
Graham, parent of broadcaster Graham Media, finalized its $323 million purchase of internet lifestyle content company Leaf Group, Graham said Monday. Leaf properties include Livestrong.com and Saatchi Art.
The husband of a former Amazon finance employee was sentenced to 26 months in federal prison for insider trading of Amazon stock, said DOJ Thursday. Viky Bohra, 37, of Bothell, Washington, pleaded guilty to using inside information he got from his wife to place trades in Amazon stock, netting himself a $1.43 million profit, said prosecutors. By relying on “material, nonpublic information provided” by his wife, Bohra “misappropriated the confidential information of Amazon relating to its internal financial condition” and converted it to his “own use and benefit,” says his Nov. 5 plea agreement (in Pacer, case 2:20-cr-00165). He illegally traded during the "blackout" period before each of Amazon’s quarterly earnings announcements for Q4 in 2015 through Q2 in 2018, it said. DOJ under terms of the plea deal agreed not to prosecute Bohra’s wife, identified in court papers only as "R," his “immediate relative.” Prosecutors didn't identify her Thursday, saying only she no longer works for Amazon. Efforts to reach Bohra’s lawyers Friday were unsuccessful. Amazon didn’t comment.
AT&T in hindsight likely wouldn't have bought DirecTV because pay-TV universe subscriber losses were steeper than expected when the carrier started pursuing the deal, CEO John Stankey said Thursday during an Economic Club talk. He said DirecTV didn't generate the value long term that was expected. He said it's "entirely possible" the spinoff of the company's video business (see our report here]) could recapture some lost value, and said the WarnerMedia/Discovery spinoff and combination (see 2105160003) should generate big returns for shareholders, including him. "I intend to leave all my equity in that new business," Stankey said. While the deal goes through regulatory review, WarnerMedia is "full steam ahead" with initiatives such as launch of an ad-supported HBO Max tier this month and work on a CNN streaming product, Stankey said. The $65 billion for broadband the administration and Senate Republicans agreed on (see 2105270072) before talks collapsed potentially "knocks ... out" the rural digital divide problem, though that access likely will use a mix of technologies including wireless and satellite, along with fiber, and won't be as robust as will be found in less-rural areas, Stankey said. Left unaddressed is the affordability issue, which will require about $4 billion annually in subsidies, he said. That money could come from congressional appropriations or from excise or use taxes, he said. Asked about AT&T's $23 billion in 2021 C-band payments, he said it "will not be the last investment we make in spectrum" to meet increasing wireless data demands. Stankey said occupancy at AT&T's Dallas headquarters was about 20% a month ago, and is growing. He said the company will be in its "new hybrid mode" by summer's end, with all employees in one of three categories: in the office a couple of days a month, in the office a couple of days a week, and daily. He said a high percentage of AT&T workers would be hybrid: So far, the company is urging but not requiring worker vaccinations.
Airline broadband connectivity via geostationary orbit (GSO) satellite is on its way out, with low earth orbit (LEO) constellations likely to claim most if not all that market by decade's end, satellite executives said Wednesday during the annual Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit. OneWeb Vice President-Mobility Ben Griffin said many airlines he has spoken with in the past year are "positively anxious" about LEO and its promised capacity, coverage and low latency benefits over GSO. Vice President-Starlink and Commercial Sales Jonathan Hofeller said SpaceX similarly is in talks with several airlines and has its own aviation service in development. He said the company has done some demos and plans to get it finalized for aircraft deployment "in the very near future." Griffin said aviation is "a fairly risk-averse" industry and won't adopt LEO connectivity quickly, as it waits instead to see that networks and constellations are established with a level of credibility. He said LEO connectivity deals likely will start ramping up in the back half of the decade. Hofeller said by the end of the decade, a good number of GSO satellites in orbit will be decommissioned and it's unclear if all will be replaced. He said within 10 years, LEO will be the norm for inflight connectivity. Hofeller said SpaceX has spent considerable time trying to estimate what bandwidth will be needed to serve a particular flight. He said one challenge is that usage will change over time, since usage now on airlines reflects the relatively meager service that's available. Telesat Director-Commercial and Product Development Manik Vinnakota said flights get perhaps 10 to 30 Mbps downlink service, while 50-100 Mbps could easily be needed, and perhaps more for widebody jets. He said links to aircraft also will get more symmetrical as people increasingly send as well as download files. Uplinks of 30-40 Mbps might be needed, he said.
Kepler Communications received $60 million in Series B financing, to be used toward building out its low earth orbit satellite communications and broadband network with the introduction of second-generation satellites, it said Wednesday: Tribe Capital led the fundraising round, which brings the total raised by Kepler to date to $90 million.
About 46% of U.S. broadband households subscribe to four or more over-the-top video services, and 82% have at least one, up from 76% in the year-ago quarter, said a Q1 Parks Associates survey. Services are using different growth strategies, including external partnerships, to expand their reach and improve retention, said President Elizabeth Parks Wednesday.
WarnerMedia is the first national programmer to pilot Comscore’s TV program that measures linear advertising inventory across MVPDs and connected TVs, said Comscore Wednesday. AT&T's WarnerMedia is combining with Discovery.
E-commerce fulfillment provider Ruby Has is forming the DTC Consortium as an “industry alliance and think tank” dedicated to the direct-to-consumer space, said the company Tuesday. More than 100 companies “from every corner of the industry have joined pre-launch as founding members,” it said, listing e-commerce companies Avalara and Nanoleaf. The consortium’s website says a partial list of founding members will be announced by month's end. Consortium representatives didn’t respond to questions about whether the new group intends to compete with the D2C Alliance, the Digital Entertainment Group affiliate that’s geared more to over-the-top streaming than e-commerce.
ATSC will return its Next Gen Broadcast Conference and annual member meeting to an in-person event Aug. 25-26 at the Reagan Building in Washington, blogged President Madeleine Noland Tuesday. “We’ll be moving to a different room in the vast complex and will also plan to livestream the event.” Doing the conference as a physical event with a virtual component cleared a big hurdle when Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser's (D) May 17 order lifted COVID-19 capacity restrictions on large business gatherings (see 2105240054).