Dish Expands Amazon Alexa Voice Control Support to Hopper ‘Joey’ Clients for Whole-Home, Hands-Free TV
First pay-TV provider to offer whole-home Alexa experience
ENGLEWOOD, Colo.(25 Oct 2017)
Dish today unveiled Hands-Free TV for the entire home by extending its support of Amazon Alexa voice control to all Joey clients. Now, Dish customers can ask Alexa to control all TVs in the Hopper whole-home ecosystem by pairing each set-top box with an Amazon Echo, Echo Show or Echo Dot. In April 2017, Dish became the first pay-TV provider to natively integrate Alexa voice control when it enabled compatibility on its Hopper DVR and Wally single-tuner HD receiver.
When connected to a Hopper, Dish’s Joey clients extend Hopper functionality to other rooms in the home. Hopper 3 supports up to six Joeys simultaneously, while previous Hopper generations support up to three Joeys.
“Dish is again championing TV voice control, this time by extending our Alexa compatibility to create a more fully-integrated experience throughout the home,” said Niraj Desai, Dish vice president of product management. “Our customers now have the freedom to ask Alexa for help finding shows and movies in every room where their families enjoy watching TV.”
With today’s announcement, Dish’s list of Alexa-compatible products includes Hopper (all generations) and its Joey, Wireless Joey, 4K Joey and Super Joey clients, as well as Dishs Wally single-tuner HD receiver. To enable Alexa voice control, each Dish set-top box must be paired with its own Echo device.
Ask Alexa for Hands-Free TV on Dish
Available voice control functions across compatible Dish set-top boxes include the ability to navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search content based on channel, title, actor or genre. Universal search functionality works across Dish’s live, recorded and on-demand titles as well as Netflix’s selection of TV shows and movies. Example commands include:
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• “Alexa, change channel to TNT”
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• “Alexa, search for dramas”
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• “Alexa, tune to channel 120”
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• “Alexa, play This is Us”
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• “Alexa, go to Discovery Channel”
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• “Alexa, skip forward”
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• “Alexa, find The Voice”
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• “Alexa, rewind 15 seconds”
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• “Alexa, search for House Hunters”
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• “Alexa, pause”
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• “Alexa, show me Will Smith movies”
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• “Alexa, resume”
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How to set-up Alexa on Dish
- Enable Dish TV in the Alexa app: Open the Alexa app on a mobile device and select Music, Video & Books → Dish TV → Enable. If the Dish TV skill is already enabled from previous use, select Settings → Manage in TV and Video → Manage and Link Devices from the Alexa app, and proceed to step 3.
- Get receiver code: Turn on internet-connected Hopper or Wally, and go to Menu → Settings → Amazon Alexa → Get Code. Enter the generated code into the Alexa app and select Activate. Click Done in the confirmation message.
- Pair set-top box with Amazon Echo, Echo Show or Echo Dot: In the Alexa app, select desired Hopper, Wally or Joey receiver from list of discoverable devices. Click Continue. Select Echo device to be synced with chosen receiver. Click Link Devices. Repeat this step for all set-top boxes to be paired with Echo devices.
For more information about Alexa on Dish, including possible commands and additional set-up instructions, visit www.dish.com/AmazonAlexaIntegration.
About Dish
Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), through its subsidiaries, provides approximately 13.332 million pay-TV subscribers, as of June 30, 2017, with the highest-quality programming and technology with the most choices at the best value. Dish offers a high definition line-up with more than 200 national HD channels, the most international channels and award-winning HD and DVR technology. Dish Network Corporation is a Fortune 200 company. Visit www.dish.com.