Amazon is making its Fire TV internet set-top look more like traditional cable TV.
On Tuesday, the ecommerce giant launched new interfaces showing Amazon Fire TV users what’s currently airing (and what’s coming up) on the linear channels of HBO, Showtime, Starz or Cinemax. The feature works only if users are subscribed to the networks through the Amazon Channels service for Prime members.
At launch, the live TV menus on Fire TV are available only for those four channels. Amazon said it will add more channels in the near future; earlier this month, the company added CBS All Access as a subscription option through Amazon Channels, including CBS live local TV. Overall, Amazon offers more than 140 channels in the U.S., although most of them don’t include live programming.
The Fire TV’s new “On Now” row shows up on the device’s home screen (if a customer subscribes to one of the premium cable networks) showing all of the programming that is live now including a preview of the live channel.
In addition, the Fire TV’s channel guide will display what is coming up in the next two weeks on each of the channels. Users can access the programming guide by pressing the Options button on the Alexa Voice Remote while watching live TV.
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In addition, in the updated Fire TV interface, the “Recent” row now shows the last live channel as well as on-demand titles viewed.
