WEBVTT - Fire TV More Than Just An Entertainment Strategy for Amazon's Daniel Rausch 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.640 Welcome to another episode of Strictly Business, the podcast in 0:00:11.680 --> 0:00:14.080 which we speak with some of the brightest minds working 0:00:14.120 --> 0:00:18.079 in the media business today. I'm Andrew Wallenstein with Variety. 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:22.279 You know you could buy a TV on Amazon, but 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.280 did you know you could buy a TV from Amazon? 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:29.040 What began about eight years ago as fire TV, the 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:34.360 tech Giants connected TV operating system, has morphed from devices 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:37.120 that bring streaming to the living room into a line 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:41.120 of TV sets themselves. And our next guest, Daniel Rausch, 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:45.159 VP of Entertainment Devices and Services at Amazon, has the 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.640 very latest on fire TV and what it means for 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:59.640 the company. More with him in just a moment. We 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:02.720 are back with Daniel Rausch, who oversees the fire TV 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:06.880 business at Amazon. Thanks for taking the time today, Daniel, Hey, Andrew, 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:08.800 great to be here. Thanks a lot for having me cool. 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.000 I want to start with you explaining what the fire 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:16.040 TV brand entails, because it's a bit like and maybe 0:01:16.120 --> 0:01:17.920 I just have Easter on the brain here. It's a 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:20.480 bit like the Trinity doctrine with the Father and the 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:23.680 Son and the Holy Ghost. It's it's fire TV is 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.039 a stick, it's a cube, it's its own line of TVs, 0:01:27.120 --> 0:01:29.600 it powers other TVs. I just want to make sure 0:01:29.640 --> 0:01:33.160 we get it all straight. So tell us what exactly 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:37.000 the brand is all about. That's that's that's a great question, um, 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:39.320 and I get that there are many different products to 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:42.760 account for. I think the easiest way to understand fire 0:01:42.760 --> 0:01:44.480 TV is really think about what we're trying to do 0:01:44.520 --> 0:01:48.160 for customers. It's it's about delivering the fire TV experience, 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:52.240 and that's all about making streaming, you know, really straightforward 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:56.240 and simple and possible across any screen customers want. And 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:58.720 that might be you know, an older TV that you're 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:00.920 trying to upgrade. You might use to fire TV stick 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:04.400 or a fire TVQ that's a dedicated streaming media device. 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.720 And that's how we started the business. As you said, 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:09.680 you know, I think about eight years ago, and you know, 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:14.560 more recently, we take that same content experience, that platform 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:17.400 that helps us stream and put it into our partner 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:20.440 TVs and those are names like Tcttle and High Sense 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:23.760 and other sort of household familiars. And we've also most 0:02:23.800 --> 0:02:27.640 recently launched our own lineup of Amazon built TVs so 0:02:27.680 --> 0:02:30.480 we can invent even faster. So I think for customers, 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.040 what really matters is they can get access to that 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:35.360 fire TV experience all the way from a you know, 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.000 twenty nine dollars sticks say, if they're looking to upgrade 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.720 you know, the TV in the den, or they can 0:02:40.800 --> 0:02:42.920 you know, grab one of our new Omnique laed TVs 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.480 for the very best of the fire TV experience. But 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:50.680 what I also want people to understand is how important 0:02:50.680 --> 0:02:54.040 a business this is to Amazon and just what a 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:58.040 big business this is in general. Because you're talking about 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.760 sort of like the central nervous system for TVs which 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.520 allows you to be in a position to drive advertising revenue, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:11.120 You're collecting user data. How important is it, How valuable 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:13.799 is it to sort of be the brain of the 0:03:13.800 --> 0:03:18.120 TV experience? From a business perspective, Well, I think you 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:20.000 know again, I think the way we think about the 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:22.799 business is really just rooting it in how successful we 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.440 can be for customers. That is how we think about 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:28.160 any of our businesses at Amazon, and we are humbled 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:31.880 with that success. We recently crossed the point with our 0:03:31.919 --> 0:03:34.640 most recent announcements. We talked about crossing two hundred million 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.520 device sales, and that's a big global business. We sell 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.680 fire TV in over eighty countries, worldwide, and so I think, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.480 you know, we're making a meaningful impact bringing streaming to 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:48.920 living rooms and elsewhere in the house for customers globally. 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:51.440 We're humbled with that success again and we'll just keep 0:03:51.480 --> 0:03:54.760 growing from there. And that device count I assume means 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.320 fire TV not just Amazon's own sets, but the other 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:01.600 OEMs and the sticks, the cubes all together, that's two 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.800 hundred million. That's right. Yeah, that's right, so across that 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:06.800 full surface area. But to give you a sense of, 0:04:07.080 --> 0:04:09.440 you know, where the growth the engines of growth, I 0:04:09.480 --> 0:04:13.480 guess TV's most recently became the fastest growing part of 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:16.680 the fire TV portfolio overall. So you know, we're seeing 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:20.480 customers buy or streaming media player products. They love the sticks, 0:04:20.560 --> 0:04:22.960 you know, the cube is a beloved products you can 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.640 speak to from across the room. Customers love that. But 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.640 TVs are now the fastest growing part of the fire 0:04:29.640 --> 0:04:32.920 TV portfolio overall, whether that's products that we're building with 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:37.520 partners like TCL, High Sense, Shall Meet others, or the 0:04:37.560 --> 0:04:42.000 Amazon built TVs, which we most recently updated the product lineup. Now, 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.239 to some degree, the stats that you're putting out there 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.840 don't strike me as surprising. Considering and correct me if 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:51.320 I'm wrong. But even when you look beyond Amazon other 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:53.279 brands in this space, and there are a lot of 0:04:53.320 --> 0:04:57.919 big companies in this space, the dongles, to use my 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:01.159 favorite word of the world, the dicks, the cubes, whatever 0:05:01.240 --> 0:05:04.760 form factors that seems to have served in the past 0:05:04.800 --> 0:05:08.040 several years, those seems to be going out of style. 0:05:08.120 --> 0:05:11.200 And it is sort of the embedded experience, whether it's 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:15.159 your own brand or somewhere else, is that that's really 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:20.159 where the streaming TV business is going. Correct, Well, I 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.880 think you know, customers want they always want a simpler experience, 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.159 and you know, no one wants a you know, a 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:28.800 TV that has tons of different things attached to it 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.960 to get the experience they want. The good news about 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:34.280 fire TV product line is again we haven't a way 0:05:34.279 --> 0:05:36.920 to upgrade that old TV simply with a stick or 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:40.160 a cube or to get the OS you know, directly 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.280 embedded out of the box. There's incredible staying power in 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.479 the streaming media player part of the business. And I 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.280 think that's because if you have a TV that you know, 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:52.960 you still you're fine with the picture quality of it's fine, 0:05:53.000 --> 0:05:54.880 You're fine on the brightness and you just want it 0:05:54.920 --> 0:05:58.000 to be a better actually smart TV. There's a great 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.000 fire TV option for you, and so there's you know, 0:06:01.080 --> 0:06:03.640 if you ask me five years ago where I thought 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:06.039 the streaming media player business would be, I would not 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:09.320 think it is as resilient as it actually is today 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:15.160 with customers updating their TVs. Sure, and you know, you're also, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:17.760 as I mentioned, you're in a pretty crowded space with 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.760 some big players. And so when you throw a number 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.920 out there, like two hundred million devices, I'm curious how 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:28.440 that translates to something like market share because as big 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:31.840 as the fire TV business is, I've seen data recently 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.440 suggesting that your share is moving up. But in the 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:39.680 US this is still a Roku dominated business. Overseas, it's 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:44.040 still an Android or Google dominated business. So how are 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.840 you doing in terms of advancing in terms of market share? Well, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:50.400 if you look at if you look at how we 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:52.720 think about the business, we're just trying to be successful 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:56.279 for customers. But we are the world's most popular streaming 0:06:56.279 --> 0:06:59.840 media player. You know, I was for the Product News. 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:02.200 I'm sure we'll end up talking about here shortly. I 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:05.159 was in London, and you know, we were talking about 0:07:05.320 --> 0:07:08.440 expansions to Europe, where the most popular streaming media player 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.520 in the UK and in Germany, which were the two 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:14.280 countries that were focused on our announcements. So I think 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.600 if you look across the globe, Japan is certainly a 0:07:17.600 --> 0:07:20.320 place for the most popular streaming media player. I think 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.720 it's something where you have to piece together how customers 0:07:22.760 --> 0:07:25.480 are accessing their content. And Fire TV, having sold two 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:28.440 hundred million devices is certainly, you know, one of the 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.440 most important streaming media players that there is, got it. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.200 So with your latest announcement, as you mentioned, we're at 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:39.480 two hundred million, there's been an international expansion and also 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:45.240 there's now new iterations of the Fire branded TVs, including 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:49.000 a new more affordable line of those TVs. So talk 0:07:49.040 --> 0:07:51.840 to me about this evolution here in terms of the 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.400 TV piece of this business. Yeah, So with our Amazon 0:07:56.440 --> 0:07:59.920 built TVs, we recently expanded the lineup of our omni 0:08:00.080 --> 0:08:03.640 q led TVs and that's really just about resetting customers 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.720 expectations for what TVs should be able to do. Your 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.560 TV is off over twenty hours a day. It's probably 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:13.320 also the biggest technology investment you make in your home 0:08:13.440 --> 0:08:15.560 is the one or more TVs that you have when 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.200 you add up the math in terms of sort of 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:20.720 smart devices that should be actually smart in your home, 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.640 and our Omnique LED TVs are all about being actually smart, 0:08:24.840 --> 0:08:27.680 useful and beautiful for you all throughout the day. We 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.320 had those in sixty five and seventy five inch models. 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:32.800 We extended the lineup so that customers can get those 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:35.160 into more places in their home. That was the first 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:37.200 bit of product news. It's sort of our very best 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:41.280 TVs and expanding that lineup. The second part of the 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.240 product news and our TVs was extending on the value end, 0:08:44.520 --> 0:08:46.800 So we actually released a new series of TVs, the 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:50.319 two series, that's all about bringing that great, high quality 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:53.640 fire TV streaming experience to new price points and new sizes. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.440 Those started just one hundred and ninety nine dollars, So 0:08:56.880 --> 0:08:58.960 now we have this sort of range of prices and 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:02.240 size options thirty two inch TV all the way up 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:04.560 to a seventy five inch Omnique LED, so a full 0:09:04.640 --> 0:09:08.319 range of Amazon Built TV options for any customer in 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.240 any home. And then I think lastly we expanded that 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.000 the footprint of the Amazon Built TV business, so we 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.600 added you know, we've been selling those in the US 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:19.480 and Canada. We're now selling those in Mexico, the UK, 0:09:19.640 --> 0:09:22.680 and Germany as well, bringing those to those customer bases 0:09:22.720 --> 0:09:26.360 that have been anticipating this for some time. Why be 0:09:26.520 --> 0:09:29.440 in the Amazon built TV business at all? I know 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.679 you've been there, i'd say at least a year now, 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:35.640 and I'm just curious. You know, you certainly seem to 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:42.040 have had many partners of existing original equipment manufacturers. Why 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:44.520 could that not have just continued to have been the 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.960 Amazon TV business? Why be there with your own brand 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.200 building it yourself. That's a great question, I think, you know, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.760 really it's just to be an engine for invention. We 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:58.040 want to you know, develop technology as fast as possible. 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:59.920 We'd give it to partners as fast as we're in 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:02.360 venting it. And there are a lot of examples of 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:06.880 where we're accelerating our partner's ability to deliver new experiences. 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.280 So I think if you look at, for example, we 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:13.160 launched our first Barfield televisions. By that, I mean it's 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:16.199 a TV you can just ask Alexa to do anything 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:18.720 on from across the room, sort of imagine, you know, 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:22.160 putting an echo right in the TV. That's a very 0:10:22.280 --> 0:10:25.880 complex problem, involves a lot of science and computer science 0:10:26.280 --> 0:10:29.240 to figure out how to noise, cancel, and beam form 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:32.080 and actually build a far field television's a pretty complex 0:10:32.160 --> 0:10:35.000 engineering problem. Within a few months of when we launched 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:38.320 our first farfield TV, Toshiba was already shipping their own 0:10:38.440 --> 0:10:41.440 high quality TVs. So and that's because we're inventing it 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.720 and giving it to those partners as fast as possible. 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:45.640 So I think a lot of what you see us 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.880 doing with the Amazon built TVs is delivering a great 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:54.160 customer experience, accelerating our partner set as well right alongside that, 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.880 and I could certainly see the appeal of an Alexa 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:04.040 driven TV experience. And I'm curious what it means when 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.720 you think about what Amazon brings to the table, all 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:10.320 the different pieces of its business, the ring business. You know, 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:12.640 you start to think of a TV as more than 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.440 just a place for entertainment, but is the hub for 0:11:15.520 --> 0:11:20.880 controlling the whole smart home? Is that what this TV 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.360 is about? Is or the future of this TV? Yeah, 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.199 I think you know, we've said we've had this term 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.960 smart TV for so long, and really all that it 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.280 ever got to for customers with sort of a TV 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.880 that connects to the internet has a socio user interface, 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:40.560 not really organizing your content for you, and that came 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.880 to sort of set customers expectations for a smart TV. 0:11:44.440 --> 0:11:47.240 We're in the golden age of the smart home. We're 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:51.400 surrounded by different devices that help us in different ways 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.920 make life simpler around the home, and the TV's an 0:11:54.920 --> 0:11:57.920 opportunity to bring all of that together better for customers, 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:00.240 not just on the content side. Our mission with Fire 0:12:00.320 --> 0:12:02.280 TV on the content side is to get content out 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:04.400 of the apps, get it in front of customers. You 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.920 don't have to think about diving in and out of 0:12:06.960 --> 0:12:10.160 which app has what for you. You're delighted by recommendations 0:12:10.160 --> 0:12:12.760 across all your sources, etc. Well, the same should be 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:15.600 true for the smart home. Your TV as this big 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:18.760 technology investment, it should be helpful throughout the day. For example, 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:20.679 you should be able to see your calendar on it. 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.280 Why wouldn't you get suggestions about new content, recommendations or 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:27.800 even recipes from your TV. Also, it should beautiful for 0:12:27.880 --> 0:12:30.800 you throughout the day. So Omnique lads come with seventeen 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.040 hundred pieces of gallery quality art. It's basically an art 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:37.319 gallery in your home. So we think that's what actually 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.360 smart looks like. It's a TV that's beautiful, it's useful, 0:12:40.400 --> 0:12:42.640 and it's pulling together the world of the smart home 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.679 around your home for you. The art piece of it 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:49.080 sound particularly interesting because I believe you guys have some 0:12:49.120 --> 0:12:52.240 functionality where you could actually sort of create your own 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:56.280 art just by speaking to Alexa. That's right. I did 0:12:56.320 --> 0:12:59.239 sort of when we did this set of product announcements, 0:12:59.679 --> 0:13:03.880 and we did do a sneak peak of Generative AI 0:13:03.880 --> 0:13:07.320 functionality that we will be launching later this year for customers. 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:10.760 So that the classic piece that I did there was 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:13.920 showing how the northern lights could be generated over Big Ben. 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:16.720 So it was as simple as saying, Alexa, create a 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.960 painting of the northern lights over Big Ben. Then you 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.600 could get this beautiful, high high quality render of that 0:13:23.600 --> 0:13:26.520 that looks photographic. You can change the style, say to 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:31.400 something like van Go style or Pointillism or a graphical style. 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:33.760 And so we're going to be really excited to launch 0:13:33.840 --> 0:13:36.600 something I think so useful for customers. There's a lot 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.319 of interesting discussion about generative AI and what it can 0:13:40.360 --> 0:13:42.840 do in a browser, say, but bringing it, I think 0:13:42.880 --> 0:13:45.560 into customers living rooms and letting them take control of 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.480 that creative process is going to be really fun. That 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:51.319 does sound really cool, But when we're talking about something 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:56.400 that's a little more utilitarian in terms of this smart 0:13:56.480 --> 0:14:00.079 home functionality, you know, what does this future look like? 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.880 Am I control? You know, I'm controlling the lights, I'm 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.800 opening my garage? I mean is it? How ambitious are 0:14:06.800 --> 0:14:10.040 we thinking here? Yeah? You can do many of these 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.240 things with your TV today. So if you ask fire TV, 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:15.520 it could be a stick, it could be a new 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.199 omnique lid to show you your smart home devices, or 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.160 your smart home dashboard. Up it comes, and there are 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:24.000 many ways that that's really useful for customers and some 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.080 of the things you talked about blinds and lights and 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.120 the other kinds of things that customers are bringing into 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:31.000 their homes. All that's available, but it really gets useful 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.160 when you think about things like cameras. So you know 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.200 my ring cameras, they pop right up as soon as 0:14:36.200 --> 0:14:39.680 you ask for that dashboard. Or you know when someone 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.000 rings my ring doorbell during a movie, it just pauses, 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.360 the movie, brings up the ring doorbell feed and we 0:14:45.440 --> 0:14:48.000 talk to whoever's at the door. It's usually for the 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:50.920 pizza delivery for family movie night. We have them leave 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.720 the pizzas and pop upstairs and continue our movie. So 0:14:55.160 --> 0:14:57.560 I think what customers really want is all of that 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.360 to come together simply and elegantly and not seem like 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:02.640 it's a more complicated world. They want the smart home 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.240 to be simple and easy to use, and we're glad 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:11.520 to be doing that with Alexa and fire TV. We'll 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.240 be back in just a moment with more with Daniel Rausch, 0:15:14.400 --> 0:15:25.120 VP of Entertainment Devices and Services at Amazon. And we're 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:29.280 back with Daniel Rausch, who oversees the fire TV business 0:15:29.280 --> 0:15:33.080 and Amazon also the Luna cloud gaming service, which we 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:35.200 will get to in just a minute. But I still 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.920 want to ask a few more things about fire TV. 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.640 I'm so interested in this notion of this smart home hub, 0:15:42.000 --> 0:15:46.960 but part of my skepticism doesn't the smartphone become the 0:15:47.000 --> 0:15:51.920 more logical place where this hub experience should be emanating from. 0:15:52.200 --> 0:15:55.280 Why do we see the TV? As I know this 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:57.000 has been you know, I've been covering this business for 0:15:57.040 --> 0:15:59.600 a while and there's been this fantasy for decades about 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.680 the TV, But I think that originated before the smartphone 0:16:03.840 --> 0:16:07.040 was there. So what am I missing? Yeah? I think 0:16:07.200 --> 0:16:11.120 I think there's some important, important distinctions. The your phone 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:12.880 is so useful, and we all, you know, we all 0:16:12.880 --> 0:16:16.000 rely on it so much. It's also your device, and 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.480 it's often our most personal device. And customers really don't 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.880 actually want a personal remote control for the home. You know, 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:25.160 my family, I've got three kids and my wife and 0:16:25.200 --> 0:16:28.000 we all live together here. We all need access to 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:30.280 our smart locks. We all want to be able to 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.760 bring up the cameras, we all want to turn on 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:35.000 and off the lights right. And there are so many 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.880 homes for which customers are trying to coordinate all that 0:16:37.960 --> 0:16:42.520 through a person's phone with a account. It gets very complicated. 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:45.640 Actually have to fish out your phone, unlock it, find 0:16:45.640 --> 0:16:48.160 the right app among all the different apps, find the 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:50.800 right device within the app, app the device. And that's 0:16:50.800 --> 0:16:53.360 just to turn on a light bulb. So I think 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:55.800 what customers love is the simplicity of voice. You know, 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:59.240 Alexa's incredibly popular in the smart home. The deep integration 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:01.920 of Alexa with br TV makes it possible to pick 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.720 off your movie night routine, adjust the lights, and brings 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.359 up your content and just gets everything going all at once. 0:17:09.359 --> 0:17:12.040 You know, I just mentioned things like the ring doorbell, 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.160 deep integration, those things are elegant and simple. They're available 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.240 to everyone in the house. You don't have to learn 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:19.840 how to use any of it. So we see customers 0:17:19.840 --> 0:17:22.320 really using Alexa and fire TV to bring together a 0:17:22.320 --> 0:17:26.320 lot of that smartphone capability. And what about the Echo, 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.199 because the Echo being the speaker device that Alexa is 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.439 typically stored in in a world where we're filled with 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:37.760 fire TVs, what do I need an Echo for if 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.400 alexas in my because I would assume you don't need 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:43.800 more than one device with Alexa in your home. Maybe 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:46.879 I'm wrong, Yeah, you I mean there are customers that 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:50.920 will put an Alexa device into any given room so 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.200 that they have access. And we do see that customers 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:55.120 in the living room, if they have a far field TV, 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.520 say they bought one of our new Omnique led TVs 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.520 with Alexa built in and it has that our field 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.280 capability where they can just say Alexa and Alexa is 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.040 always ready to respond. We do see that that that 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:09.080 will be the Alexa device for the living room at 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.919 this point, because that's a great way to access Alexa. 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:14.679 And they might put an Echo dot in there on 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.840 their bedstand table. My kids have Echo dots in their 0:18:17.920 --> 0:18:20.200 room that's the device that they that they use there. 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:22.679 So I think it's sort of a room by room question. 0:18:23.040 --> 0:18:25.840 Our job is to have enough selection for customers, so 0:18:26.480 --> 0:18:29.560 we want to make sure all that's available. Now, when 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:32.840 you start talking about all these these speakers and TVs, 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:36.840 I wonder about the privacy issue. Obviously that's important to 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:42.040 some consumers. What protections did the fire TV device provide 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:46.000 for those who are you know, very security conscious? Sure? 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.680 I mean, I mean at an Amazon, you know, everything 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:51.200 we do has privacy and security built in from the core. 0:18:51.920 --> 0:18:54.160 That's from the moment we start to conceive of a product. 0:18:54.480 --> 0:18:57.879 And just like any of our Alexa you know, endpoints 0:18:57.920 --> 0:19:02.640 or devices, privacies built in foundationally. So there's a switch 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:06.400 on the TVs for example, that electronically disconnects the microphones. 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.359 It's a complete mute and you see with a little 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.800 LED indicator that the microphones are off. There are all 0:19:12.880 --> 0:19:16.879 kinds of settings around, you know, your voice utterances and 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:19.679 your data and privacy settings can be accessed in the 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.920 fireTV menus so that you can toggle any of that 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.800 on and off simply for customers. So we present, you know, 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:29.280 the key things customers want is transparency and then control 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:32.040 over how that data works, and all of that's available 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.000 right in the fire TV menu. Let's get back to 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.320 the core of the TV experience. In terms of entertainment, 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:44.120 content discovery can be a nightmare. And frankly, I've encountered 0:19:44.119 --> 0:19:49.000 TVs where the UX isn't necessarily an improvement. So when 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:52.520 you've got you know, thousands of different apps and channels, 0:19:52.760 --> 0:19:56.120 what is it about the fire TVUX that you think 0:19:56.160 --> 0:20:01.200 solves for this problem? The key thing the customers actually want, 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:04.359 They really want two things. First, if they know what 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:06.000 they want to watch, they want to be able to 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:09.280 get to it simply, elegantly, and they're in right. I mean, 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:14.120 entertainment is all about stepping back, relaxing, enjoying something, stepping 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:16.800 out of the rest of your day, and so you know, 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:20.080 putting that content right in front of customers, they don't 0:20:20.080 --> 0:20:21.919 have to think about where it is and how to 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.520 find it, whether that's through the fire to VUX and 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:26.840 things like are continue watching row you just dive right 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.400 into it, or through voice where you just you don't 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:31.440 have to think about where it is. You just want 0:20:31.440 --> 0:20:36.280 to watch, you know, the latest episode of Stranger Things Say, 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:39.520 or you want to catch up where all watching succession 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.520 right now with voice you say it, you're in. You 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.680 don't have to think about the source. The second thing 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.320 is to be delighted, you know, with discovery, and I 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.439 think that's an even more complex problem for customers as 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:54.320 streaming sources have gone up. There's so many choices and 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:59.240 so having one central sort of recommendation, set of recommendations 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.520 for customers is key the customers a lot of things 0:21:01.520 --> 0:21:03.800 like our next up for you row that's not pointing 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.520 you to a particular application, that's pointing you to a 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:10.040 show that we know you'll love based on your preferences, 0:21:10.080 --> 0:21:13.480 and pulling it all together. So I think getting content 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:17.200 out of the apps really is what customers love most 0:21:17.240 --> 0:21:21.080 about the fire TV experience. It's not just some app 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.920 tray like your phone. That's not the future of streaming. 0:21:24.200 --> 0:21:27.200 The future of streaming is, you know, understanding what you'll 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:29.399 be delighted by and putting it in front of you. 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:34.280 Let's switch gears to the Luna business, which you over oversee. 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.880 Did you also oversee a cloud gaming service? That is 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:42.280 how old now? Would you say? It's been in general 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:46.399 availability for just over a year and we just expanded 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:50.680 the reach of Luna to include the UK, Germany, and Canada, 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:53.120 so we're expanding that footprint as well. So it's it's 0:21:53.359 --> 0:21:56.480