President Obama's decision to begin normalizing relations with Cuba surprised everybody on Wednesday but for viewers of Amazon Fire's "Alpha House" it sounded kind of familiar

Amazon FireTV today added HBO Go to its list of content providers that the service offers, and like other HBO Go arrangements, users first have to get HBO through their cable or satellite provider. But if you subscribe to Comcast cable, don't waste your time at this point. The nation's largest cable provider is missing from the list, although it appears that is just a technical or contractual snag that will be cleared up within days. Charter Communications also is not offering HBO Go via Fire TV to its subscribers at this point.

With user-generated content exploding, especially a prosumer market of high-quality video programming, a new platform is launching today to give those creators control -- and profits -- of every video they upload to the world. The platform, dubbed 8 (like the number, but representing the scientific symbol for infinity), is the brainchild of Sue Fennessy, the former Australian ad exec who successfully launched ad spending data cooperative Standard Media Index.

Fox Television Stations has tapped LiveRail, the video ad supply-side platform (SSP) recently acquired by Facebook, to help its local stations monetize their respective sites. Per the deal, LiveRail will help Fox run video ads across local sites for 28 stations in 17 markets, including New York, Los Angles, Dallas, San Francisco, and Houston.

At least for the moment, Google appears to be besting Apple in terms of streaming media sales. New data shows that Google's Chromecast service accounted for 20% of streaming media sales during the first three quarters of the year, which outdid Apple TV and its 17% market share.

Expanding its automated video advertising efforts, AOL on Monday announced the acquisition of content exchange Vidible. Vidible markets itself as a cross-screen video management and exchange platform for both buyers and sellers. Unconfirmed reports put the sale at around $50 million.