• by Wayne Friedman , December 4, 2020

Major market local TV stations -- and their newscasts -- will be getting a boost with TV news content distribution deals on Amazon Fire TV, the streaming OTT and app service with 40 million monthly active users.

Newscasts from 12 local U.S. TV stations -- New York, LA, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, Tampa, Boston, San Francisco and Seattle -- will be added to Amazon's news app. Another 90 will join in 2021.

Amazon Fire TV deals have been made with Walt Disney's ABC owned-and-operated stations, Altice USA, ViacomCBS’ CBSN, the E.W. Scripps Company and Cox.

The app already offers free live and on-demand news from ABC News Live, CBS News, Reuters, Entertainment Weekly, Black News Channel and Cheddar. Amazon Fire TV app already part of smart TV on-screen user interfaces and other streaming players.

Amazon sees growth in news viewership, pointing to 48% higher news consumption this year, according to Nielsen.

Pressure from the shrinking traditional pay TV marketplace -- in addition to difficult retransmission negotiation deals that are ongoing between pay TV providers and TV stations -- are prompting more TV station groups to find ways to extend scale and increase monetization.