Amazon is looking for live TV providers to add these channels to its streaming service Prime Video. It would make the service quite unique.
Streaming video services like Amazon’s basically all work on an on-demand basis. In other words: you choose content from the – often large – online catalogue and just look. But of course there is still something like live television. News channels in particular cannot be replaced by on demand, unless you prefer to only watch a summary at the end of the day. But if something big is happening somewhere, it’s still the CNN’s of this world that let you watch live. Or think of sports events! You just want to watch live… And exactly that kind of thing is missing on the major streaming platforms.
Witness ads from Amazon might change that. According to this message at Protocol, the company is looking for people who want to deal with this for their Prime Video platform.
Negotiations in progress
An ‘insider’ informs the same. Behind the scenes there are negotiations with potentially interested parties. Amazon has been experimenting a bit with broadcasting live events in recent years. And given the still existing popularity of old ‘linear’ TV, the new step towards live broadcasting is not a strange one. It would at least distinguish Prime Video from its competitor Netflix, for example. Add to that the fact that Prime only costs half of most other large streamers and you’ll understand that something beautiful might come out of this.