Fire TV and Netflix have set aside their rivalry to bring Amazon Fire TV customers a way to end the “channel surfing” (or streaming service surfing) dilemma that we can all relate to. Users in the U.S. and Canada can ask their Alexa remote, “Alexa, Play Something on Netflix,” and the popular video streaming service will launch on the screen, instantly playing a personalized recommended title.
Alexa is the big selling point of the Fire TV experience. This “Alexa, Play Something on Netflix” feature is also available on the newly launched Fire TV Omni Series, where customers can speak across the room without lifting a finger (sort of like an advanced robot butler).
“Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen that Fire TV customers that used voice engaged with content almost twice as much as those who didn’t,” said Charlotte Maines, Director of Fire TV.
Magno Herran, Director, Marketing Partnerships, Netflix, said, “Deciding what to watch isn’t easy when you have a lot of great options to choose from. So, we are excited to partner with Fire TV to bring the Alexa voice technology to the Netflix Play Something feature. Now you can instantly discover a show or film we know you’ll love based on what you’ve watched before.”
The two tech companies are using a very smart and successful strategy; customer-centricity. According to analysis from PwC, “When asked what [consumers] liked about their favorite services, ‘ease of use’ was the most influential factor, and ‘I know I’ll always be able to find something to watch,’ outranked the quality of content. This speaks to the importance of a clean, intuitive user interface (UI) that understands consumers even better than they know themselves…Nearly one-third (31%) of survey respondents, for example, said that easy, personalized content recommendations would be a reason for staying with a streaming service.”
The ability to recommend titles that individuals want to see is going to be a “crucial differentiating factor” and will be a major reason for driving subscriber growth. Other obvious factors are a larger library of content, lower subscription prices, and fewer ads. Netflix has really honed their audience over the years, releasing endless amounts of content that cater to a wide variety of genres and interests.
Now that Netflix subscribers can engage with their voice to watch something unheard of or brand new, without even having to search anything, will be a big step in improving the customer experience.
Netflix
Netflix is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 3,000+ movies, 2,000+ TV Shows, and Netflix Originals like Stranger Things, Squid Game, The Crown, Tiger King, and Bridgerton. They are constantly adding new shows and movies. Some of their Academy Award-winning exclusives include Roma, Marriage Story, Mank, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.