With news consumption up over 48% this year, according to Nielsen, it’s clear that the need for reliable and up to date news coverage is more important than ever. To help viewers stay connected, Amazon announced that live and on-demand local news is beginning to roll out on the Amazon news app in 12 major cities.
Local news is initially available in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Tampa, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle. Some of the stations available at launch include CBSN Chicago, ABC7/WABC-TV New York, KIRO7 Seattle, and News 12 New York. The service will be expanding over time, with plans to add 90 cities to the list next year.
These channels will be available in addition to the other national news channels already available on Amazon’s news app, which include ABC News Live, CBS News, Reuters, Cheddar, Entertainment Weekly, Black News Channel, and more.
“There have been so many important events and stories in 2020 that have driven the news industry like never before; and we believe it’s more important than ever to provide free access to both local and national news for all our customers,” says Sandeep Gupta, Vice President of Amazon Fire TV, “Adding access to local news is the latest step in our commitment to helping our customers stay informed. We’ve been amazed by the popularity of Amazon’s news app and view local news as the next indispensable piece for our customers.”
Amazon’s news app is a free and customizable news aggregator that is ad-supported. The app is built into the Fire TV interface on Fire TV devices and Fire TV edition smart TVs. Fire TV users can access the app by saying “Alexa, play the news” with the included Alexa Voice Remote or from across the room with Fire TV Cube.