DISH (NASDAQ:DISH) plans to integrate voice control of several of its set-top boxes via Google Assistant in the coming months. "Hands-Free TV" will be available on DISH's Hopper, Joey or Wally set-tops in both English and Spanish.
"Throughout 2017, DISH took major strides toward building a suite of voice control options for our customers, including a new DISH voice remote," said Niraj Desai, DISH vice president of product management. "We're pleased to be working with the Google Assistant to offer our customers the ability to control Hopper's video experiences through the Assistant on speakers and phones."
Starting in the first half of this year, DISH customers with a broadband-connected Hopper DVR (all generations), Joey client (all models) or Wally single-tuner HD receiver can use the Google Assistant to control their TV when paired with the Assistant on speakers like Google Home, Android phones or iPhones.
The integration with Google Assistant is intended to able to help DISH customers navigate, play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and search TV content based on channel, title, actor and genre.
DISH also recently released a voice remote control for its Hopper DVRs. Technology for the voice remote is from Universal Electronics (NASDAQ:UEIC), which also provides voice remotes for TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) and Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA), among others.