Amazon Firesticks Get A ‘Live’ Tab With Easy Access To Sports

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Live TV is becoming a more integral part of Amazon’s Fire TV sticks starting today – with a new, dedicated tab that would consolidate various streaming live TV services, such as Channel 5, Eurosport and others. 

The Amazon Fire TV devices have always focused on streaming on-demand content, and that is still the main focus.

However, with more and more live content being added to the service – a new centralised hub for that content was needed.

Fire TV new interface with remote

This comes a month after Amazon also released a brand new interface for the Amazon Fire TV devices, which is still being rolled out to the various devices in the UK.

In the US, the “Live” section was already added to Fire TV devices last year – and in the UK, the roll-out is starting today, as a new tab in the top navigation menu on all Fire TV devices.

The “Live” tab consolidates existing Fire TV apps and services, giving you faster access to those apps’ live streames. 

Fire TV Live TV tab screen

Inside the new tab, you will now be able to browse through and quickly access content you’re subscribed to, manage Live TV settings, access the integrated channel guide, and more.

The first 3rd party services that will be integrated into the Live tab are Channel 5 (with their My5 app) and TVPlayer, which is an app that lets you stream Freeview channels via broadband.

This would give you an experience that’s somewhat similar to Freeview, with a TV guide and several popular UK channel you can stream live – but over the internet, without the need for a Freeview aerial.

In addition, Amazon’s own Prime Video Channels and Prime Video Live Events are fully integrated into the Live tab, meaning customers can access and browse live content from Prime add-on channels such as Eurosport, Discovery and more, if they have a paid subscription to those channels.

Last year, Amazon started to increase the live sports broadcasts on Prime Video, their subscription-based streaming service – from US Open tennis matches to Premier League games.

The new Live tab would now make these broadcasts more accessible, in one centralised location. 

Amazon is also working to expand the number of integrated third-party apps and services on the Live tab with the integrations designed to bring content out of apps and into the Fire TV user interface.

Amazon Fire TV stick Lite
The Fire TV Stick Lite

The new Live tab will begin rolling out to customers today and will be available on all Fire TV devices in the UK over the next several weeks – including the Fire TV 4K Stick, the Fire TV Stick (HD, 3rd Generation) and the Fire TV Stick Lite.

8 thoughts on “Amazon Firesticks Get A ‘Live’ Tab With Easy Access To Sports”

  1. Does this new “live” feature mean Firestick users are now forced to have a UK TV licence? I, like 1000s of other Firestick users, only use it to catch up on shows or watch movies. However, given that the BBC class even YouTube as a “live” service that requires a TV licence, this new Amazon feature may cause a lot of consternation.

    Reply
    • That’s an interesting question. But it still comes down to what you actually watch, as it was before. If you watch anything live on the Firestick – such as sports, or via ITV Hub or any other live TV app – you need a TV licence. If you don’t watch anything “live”, or BBC iPlayer – then no

      Reply
      • That’s not strictly true. Its not down to what you watch…. Its what you have the capability to watch.
        If you never watch live TV but have an aerial you have to pay for a licence regardless. Therefore it stands to reason that this new feature could cause problems. I’ll personally be cancelling my subscription if so.

        Reply
        • No, that is not the case. It is indeed down to what you watch, and it doesn’t matter whether you have an aerial (or a smartphone for that matter – where you “could” watch BBC iPlayer, for example, but you don’t need a TV Licence unless you actually watch it).

          Reply
    • It would be nice to see that in the UK – but it’ll basically be a Freeview Box (albeit with more streaming options), and there are plenty of those already.

      Reply

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