Amazon Fire TV’s free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) video experience Channels has added more content partners to its refreshed app.
The Fire TV Channels experience – focused on free ad-supported short-form content – was first introduced in May, with a new app launched earlier this month.
Latest additions to the roster include content from Penske Media (including Variety, Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and TV Line), Static Media (GameSpot, Honest Trailers, TV Guide from Fandom, Looper, Slash Film, Nicki Swift), as well as Funny or Die and Outside.
The new providers join video content from over 400 providers including ABC News, CBS Sports, MLB, IMDb, and Martha Stewart, among others.
Fire TV Channels aggregates short-form content into browsable content category hubs along with curated playlists focused on interest. The experience is available on Fire TV devices in the U.S., both through the dedicated app as well as content integrated throughout the Fire TV user interface.
Speaking to StreamTV Insider in June, Charlotte Maines, Fire TV director of Advertising, Monetization, Sales and Engagement, discussed expanding into new categories like cooking, travel and music videos, citing a “secret sauce” of creating an aggregated live channel experience. Key to that is narrowing categories while also surfacing content in multiple places throughout the Fire TV UI beyond an electronic programming guide to help reach consumers where they’re viewing and also combat choice fatigue.
“What we have found is that by helping customers get a little bit more qualified in what they want to watch, basically whatever experience we put in front of them they are engaging with,” Maines told StreamTV Insider, something that also helps for advertiser opportunities.
And there was already an appetite on Fire TV for easy viewing that doesn’t require logins or signups. In the six months leading up to the debut of Fire TV Channels in May, the company saw monthly hours of free content streamed grow 300%.
Fire TV isn’t the only one pursuing deeper integrations of free ad-supported content. Earlier this year Google TV debuted a new free live TV experience, pulling in over 800 channels from partners including leading FASTs Pluto TV and Fox’s Tubi, Plex, and Haystack, as well as built-in free channels powered by Comcast’s Xumo Enterprise. The free live TV experience also extended to Android TV devices.