Amazon announced yesterday that Fire TV users in the U.S. can now watch thousands of hours of free, ad-supported content across sports news, cooking and travel, as well as movie and TV trailers from IMDb. No downloads, fees or subscriptions are required to watch the videos.
The new free content can be found in three new dedicated rows on the “Home” tabs for users to browse at no extra cost. The rows are titled “Sports News & Highlights,” “Trending Trailers” and “Food & Cooking.” Users can also select the “Search” bar to find a “Free” tile with access to the rows or the “Sports” tile, which has the “Sports News & Highlights” row.
In the “Sports News & Highlights” row, viewers can enjoy free sports coverage from NBC Sports, FOX Sports, MLB, CBS Sports HQ, Sports Illustrated, NASCAR, Sportswire, Stadium, ACC Digital Network and PAC-12 Networks. While users have to subscribe to Prime Video to see the full live sports events, viewers can watch short clips, news and highlights of their favorite teams.
Also, beginning on October 7, Fire TV will give Major League Baseball (MLB) fans World Series highlights, such as MLB game recaps, highlight compilations, must-see plays and more.
Fire TV’s new “Trending Trailers” row includes free IMDb trailers of the most popular TV series and films. For those who don’t know, IMDb is the Amazon-owned entertainment source.
Food buffs can go to the “Food & Cooking” row to stream free cooking shows and food travel series from channels like America’s Test Kitchen, GoTraveler and 5-Minute Recipes.
Charlotte Maines, Director of Fire TV Advertising, Monetization and Engagement, said in a statement, “Since launching the Amazon News App on Fire TV in 2019, we’ve heard from our customers how important free, easily accessible content is to them. In fact, thanks in part to content like this, engagement with free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) content on Fire TV is up over 50% this year compared to last.”
As streaming subscription prices continue to increase, more viewers are gravitating to free and ad-supported content. Fire TV’s new update will likely be a hit with consumers.
In 2020, Amazon Fire TV introduced a Free tab to the interface, which made it easier for users to discover 20,000 free movies and TV shows.