
For now, support for local news is limited to some of the most recent entries in the Fire TV line-up, like the Amazon Fire TV Stick, Fire TV Stick 4K and Amazon Fire TV Cube.
Better yet, Alexa voice controls work with these new additions – so you can use the remote control to ask Alexa to “play local news” rather than hunt through the tiles, or start typing out a search with the directional pad. Amazon’s news aggregate service is completely free to watch (although you will need to sit through some adverts) so you don’t need to be a Prime member to tune-in.
“Local news helps our customers stay connected to important issues and updates within their communities,” said Charlotte Maines, Director of Amazon Fire TV, told the brilliant team at TechRadar. “In the last year especially, local news has been incredibly helpful in an uncertain environment and our viewers continue to ask for more news options. This expansion will bring a truly local experience to both Fire TV and the streaming industry.”
Amazon recently redesigned its Fire TV interface to streamline the entire experience. As part of that overhaul, it added a Live tab at the top of the homepage to allow viewers to quickly jump into live sporting fixtures, news, terrestrial channels, and more. The Live tab has been added in the UK too, but it’s mainly used for sport right now. Whether we’ll see smaller local broadcasts, like regional ITV listings, brought to this tab in the future remains to be seen.
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