Amazon FireTV Product Image - H 2014
AmazonOnline video providers are fired up about Amazon’s new streaming video box, the Fire TV.
The device, which Amazon announced at a media event in New York on Wednesday morning, comes preloaded with dozens of apps including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vevo, Vimeo, Crackle, AOL On and Red Bull TV.
A number of cable channel apps are also available, including ESPN and Showtime. One notable absence is HBO Go, which is available on Fire TV competitors Apple TV, Roku and Google’s Chromecast.
Amazon Instant Video is also available through the device and will give users access to its library of more than 200,000 television episodes and movies, available to purchase or rent. Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to watch much of that content for free, including the Seattle e-commerce giant’s upcoming original series Transparent, The After and others.
Amazon gives itself a slight upper hand in offering its own app through Fire TV. Roku is the only other streaming device with the rights to Amazon Instant Video.
Amazon will also soon add music capabilities to Fire TV through its MP3 Library. It also offers music apps such as Pandora, iHeart Radio and TuneIn.
Other Fire TV features include voice search, games and kid-friendly service FreeTime. Amazon has also introduced a feature called ASAP that predicts what a viewer will want to watch.
A list of some apps available on Fire TV:
Amazon Instant Video
Netflix
Hulu Plus
Crackle
YouTube
Showtime Anytime
WatchESPN
Bloomberg TV
Vevo
Pandora
Huffpost Live
iHeart Radio
Vimeo
Crackle
TuneIn
NBA Game Time
Red Bull TV
Plex
Now This News
AOL On
Flixster
ElloConcerts
Frequency
Minecraft Pocket Edition
The Walking Dead: A Telltale Game Series
The Game of Life
Riptide2
SevZero
