DIRECTV is the latest streaming service to join the list of services compatible with Fire TV’s Live TV Experience. This means customers in the U.S. with the DIRECTV app installed, and a subscription to the service, will now see their DIRECTV channels appear in the Fire TV’s built-in program guide. Channels will also appear in the Live tab. Read more ›
The Amazon Fire TV’s Live Experience, which makes accessing live linear content easier through various interfaces including a Live Tab, traditional Program Guide, and Home screen rows, has continuously evolved over the years. It started with the first Fire TV Smart TVs as the way to access antenna channels through the TV’s built-in OTA tuner and then expanded to all Fire TV devices with the inclusion of Prime Video Channels, streaming services, and apps. Here’s the full list of streaming services, apps, channels, and devices that integrate into the Fire TV’s Live TV interfaces. This list is regularly updated as more services integrate channels. Read more ›
The “Live” tab first debuted on Fire TV devices in the US in 2019 and it has been steadily growing in both content and popularity ever since. Despite it being a key feature of the Fire TV interface, its expansion into new areas has been relatively slow, no doubt due to the complexity of integrating local live channels and services in new countries. Amazon has now announced that Italy is the latest region to see the availability of the Fire TV’s Live tab. If I’m not mistaken, that makes the Live tab available in 9 different regions. After debuting in the US in 2019, it quickly appeared on devices in Canada and Germany later that year. Then Japan and India saw the arrival of the Live tab in 2020, followed by the UK last year. Most recently, France and Spain received the Live tab a little while ago and no it is Italy’s turn. The services that support the Live tab in Italy at launch are RaiPlay, Pluto TV, RedBull TV, and Amazon’s own Twitch.
Amazon has added several new FOX channels to the News app on Fire TV devices. You can now add FOX News, FOX Sports, FOX Business, FOX SOUL, and FOX’s LiveNOW channels to your selection of news sources within the app. This is the first time that FOX has made an arrangement like this to bring all of its news apps to a single platform. The FOX News, Business, and Sports channel integration is just for short on-demand segments that can be watched and does not provide access to the live feeds of those channels. The LiveNOW and FOX SOUL channels, however, do offer a live feed. According to FOX, LiveNOW is a general news service covering all news across the country, while FOX SOUL is a news platform focused on the black community. The addition of these FOX channels to the News app on Fire TVs comes a month after FOX debuted its new FOX Weather channel in the News app.
Amazon has updated how live TV channels get added to the built-in channel guide on Fire TV devices. When you’re in the channel guide, if you press the menu button you’ll find a new “Add Channels” option in the menu that appears in the lower right corner of the screen. Selecting the new option takes you to a new screen with a list of all available live channel sources, both those that are already installed on the device and ones that can be added. Read more ›
The Fire TV’s live TV interface, which consists of the “Live” tab and the built-in channel guide, has expanded once again with new services that have integrated their live channels. The Fox app has integrated its live local channels, various Fox Sports channels, Fox News, Fox Business, and Big Ten network. The ESPN app has integrated its live cable network channels, for those with a TV provider subscription, as well as its ESPN+ live streams. The Haystack News app has integrated dozens of live news channels. These new additions bring the number of integrated apps and services to 30, which you can find listed here. Read more ›
Amazon has significantly increased the number of local news channels and cities in its News app for Fire TV devices. The app first launched its local news coverage with 12 cities and then expanded that to 88 cities earlier this year. Now the app takes another significant jump in coverage to include 158 cities where local news is available within the app. That takes the total channels available in the app from 126 to 259 and Amazon says more than 90% of U.S. households should find at least 1 local channel in the app, while 50 metros have 2 or more options to choose from. Follow this guide to learn how to select your local news channels within the Fire TV News app.
During the reveal of the Echo Show 15 yesterday, Amazon announced that subscribers to Sling TV would soon be able to watch the streaming service on Echo Show devices. Amazon confirmed that all Echo Show models would be able to access the streaming service but has not provided a timeframe for when support would arrive. Read more ›
Discovery+ is now integrating 11 live linear channels into the Fire TV’s channel guide and Live tab, but there’s a catch. You can currently only get this integration if you subscribe to the service through the Discovery+ Prime Video Channel. Also, these live channels aren’t what you think they are, which is probably a live feed of their traditional cable channels. Instead, they are channels playing nothing but an individual show, or two, all day 24/7. Read more ›
The Fire TV’s integration with live channels and services, colloquially called the live experience, has continuously evolved and expanded over the years. Amazon has now highlighted that there are over 400 channels from nearly 20 providers integrated together into the Fire TV’s various interfaces. Over 200 of those channels are available free with ads and, in most cases, without needing to sign up or log in to any app or service. Read more ›
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