Amazon is unveiling a Prime
Video redesign that better spotlights its original and live content and its most-watched titles.
The redesign — considered overdue by some streaming business watchers, given the
sector’s heightened competition — will roll out worldwide over the next few weeks on connected living room devices including smart TVs, Fire TV streaming hardware, Roku, Apple TV, game
consoles and the Android app, with iOS and web to follow in coming months.
Hardware that is not compatible with the new design, such as PlayStation 3 and the third-generation Apple TV, will be
able to continue to run the old program.
Prime Video’s new home page, which closely resembles Netflix’s, was designed to be “less busy and overwhelming,” according to
Amazon.
It now features a top-10 most-watched carousel, as well as carousels highlighting original Amazon series and movies.
The navigation menu has been moved to the left of the
screen, and includes easier access to live programming, including sports — the latter particularly critical given Amazon’s increased investments in sports content, including exclusive
streaming rights to “Thursday Night Football.”
The app will launch with six primary pages: home, store, find, live TV, free with ads, and “My Stuff.”
Customers
will also have sub-navigation options to more easily browse by content or offer type, such as movies, TV shows and sports on the home page, and channels and rent or buy on the store.