SmartStream

The FAST (free ad-supported TV) trend in streaming shows no signs of letting up. On the heels of Google TV’s recent addition of 800 free channels, Amazon has announced plans to add 400 free Fire TV Channels.

The new Fire TV Channels are not part of Amazon-owned Freevee (formerly IMDb TV) but will be integrated with it and numerous other sources in the Fire TV’s live guide. Amazon says it’s working with “over 400 content publishing partners” and, as of this writing, had already released several new channels.

Fire TV Channels will only be available on Fire TV devices such Samsung TVs with Samsung TV Plus or Vizio TVs with Vizio WatchFree+. Viewers can access live, on-demand, and short-form Fire TV Channels within carousel rows on the Fire TV Home screen, in the “Free” tab, or from category-specific pages.

Category pages include Sports Highlights, Food & Cooking, Trending Trailers, Gaming Videos, Viral Videos, Travel Inspiration, and Celebrity News. Sports Highlights covers hockey (NHL), baseball (MLB), pro football, NASCAR, and pro basketball. Travel Inspiration offers the AWE channel, Tastemade Travel, Rick Steves in Europe on GoTraveler, a section for Travel Hacks from Pack Hacker, and Travel News clips from Bloomberg.

Food & Cooking brings viewers Tastemade, America’s Test Kitchen, the Hungry channel, food series on GoTraveler, and short videos from the Martha Stewart channel. Conde Nast and the PGA channels are expected to join the lineup soon.

“With the launch of Fire TV Channels, we’re doubling down on our free ad-supported TV (FAST) experience — which already includes News, Sports, Food & Cooking, Music Videos, Trailers, Gaming Videos, and Comedy,” said Charlotte Maines, director of Fire TV advertising, monetization, and engagement. “In the past six months alone, monthly hours streamed of this content has grown by 300%. When our customers love something, we invest in creating more ways to surprise and delight them.”

Maines must be referring to the success of Freevee and other FAST services like Paramount+-owned Pluto TV. The Fire TV Channels follow the success of Sling TV’s Freestream and, as noted, Google TV’s release of 800 new channels.

Along with adding 400 new channels, Amazon is beefing up its Freevee service with the addition of Prime TV original programming.

When Amazon acquired IMDb TV, it renamed the service Freevee. The company has since announced plans to add more than 100 Prime Video original titles to Freevee this year. As early as May 26th, the first three episodes of The Summer I Turned Pretty and A League of Their Own will be available to watch for free.

The first episodes of Terminal List and Paper Girls plus all episodes of Goliath and The Tick will also premiere on Freevee this month, and the service plans to add the first full season of Upload, Reacher, and Wheel of Time.

It appears many cord-cutters don’t mind watching commercials. Others, like me, will do or pay what’s necessary to avoid seeing commercials, though, admittedly, ads are easier to tolerate when content is free. Just today, a friend commented on a couple of commercials she had seen. I might be losing touch with popular culture. The proliferation of decent content on FAST channels just might bring me back again.