Amazon adds Channel Guide to Fire TV devices for live content from Amazon Channels

Amazon has brought several UI elements found previously only on Fire TV Edition televisions to all Fire TV devices. These new interfaces include an On Now row on the home screen and a new Channel Guide. While they’re used for over-the-air channels on televisions running Fire OS, they’re being made available on Fire TV devices to make it easier to see what is currently streaming live and what will be streaming live through select Amazon Channels.

The On Now row on the Fire TV home screen shows a horizontally scrolling list of what is currently available to stream live from select Amazon Channels. A red bar at the bottom of the content thumbnail indicates how far along the live stream is for each show.

While watching a live stream, a row similar to the On Now row can be brought up to view what else is currently airing on other Amazon Channels that can be viewed live.

Highlighting any content in the On Now row on the home screen, or in the Up Next row while watching a live stream, and pressing the menu button will bring up the option to view a newly added Channel Guide. The guide lists what is currently streaming live as well as what will be streaming live in the future. In the bottom right will be a picture-in-picture live view of the channel you were just watching live.

Currently, only HBO, SHOWTIME, STARZ, and Cinemax are available in the On Now row and the Channel Guide but Amazon says they hope to add more services. You’ll need to be subscribed through Amazon Channels for live programming to be available in this manner. Being subscribed to a service directly, such as through HBO Now, will not cause the new interface to appear.

Lastly, the compatible Amazon Channels will now also work with the recently added Alexa commands for pulling up specific stations. You can say “Alexa, tune to HBO Family” or “Alexa, watch STARZ” to jump directly to the live stream of each channel. You can also say “Alexa, go to the Channel Guide” to go directly to the channel guide.

11 comments
  1. fred says:

    Need Ota Tuner support

  2. James Kirk, CW5(r) says:

    Looks good but I have HBO, Showtime, Max, and Starz through my Direct TV Sat. system, how does this work for Amazon.com????

  3. Charlie says:

    Has anybody actually gotten this update yet?

  4. Vlaves says:

    I hope they will let 3rd Party developers develop their plugins for the guide, so we can get in future a tvheadend Integration, at least for streaming.

    And if this is just a havily customized Live Channels App, then chances might be there.

  5. CrazieBird says:

    I am just checking here, but Live Channels and the Live Channels DVR apps from Google for AndroidTV 7+ is NOT available for FireTV (3rd gen) and there is no way to sideload it that actually works, is this correct?

    I wanted grid guide (and maybe DVR probably not though) and need mpeg2 native so am investigating FireTV (3rd gen) because it is cheaper than shield tv and now plays mpeg2 natively.

  6. Vince Arcuri says:

    I don’t see an On Now section off my Home Screen. I have the newest Amazon Fire TV (2017 version). How do we tell what version number we are running?

  7. CrazieBird says:

    Settings – Device – About shows current version

    I just updated to 6.2.1.2 NS6212/926

  8. Bobbie says:

    I told Alexa to go to the Channel Guide (per your write up above) – Alexa replied, “humm, I don’t know that!”

  9. Joey Begley says:

    I need to know how I can remove the channel guide from my screen?

  10. ChaRon C Williams says:

    I just got delivered 4 Jailbroken fire sticks & very frustrated because it doesn’t have a channel guide!! Do anyone know how to get the channel guide without having to go to each individual app?????

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