Amazon Says Fitness, Gaming, and Local News is Driving Global Fire TV Growth
Daniel Rausch, Vice President, Entertainment Devices & Services at Amazon, says that the growth of Amazon Fire TV is not just happening in the United States, but all around the world, and that growth is being driven by consumer demand.
Rausch spoke to industry insiders on Tuesday afternoon at the annual Stream TV Show. “Customers want to watch, what they want to watch,” Rausch said. “Sometimes they don’t know what to watch.”
He said that ideally, companies like Amazon need to provide interfaces and resources that bring those experiences together that are similar to and as friendly as a smartphone. “The television can and should be — and in many ways already is — one of the key hubs of the home,” Rausch said.
“Many people don’t realize the true global extent of the Fire TV business,” Rausch said. “The countries where streaming is most popular, where there’s more content available, and Fire TV is doing well in those countries — so the top 12 or so — over half of those countries, more than doubled in terms of active customers within the last year, so this is not (just) a US trend, this is a global trend.”
In December, Amazon said that there are more than 50 million active Fire TV users around the world.
One of the big things that Rausch said that Amazon found is that users are looking for news content. The Fire TV’s Local News Channel has added news content from 88 local television markets across the United States in recent months. Viewers have the capability to select stations from two separate markets, along with multiple national and international news sources for news content.
“The paradigm used to be, you know, the evening news. Now, it’s news when I want it, where I want it, but still from a diverse set of sources,” he said. “We launched local news outlets in our news channel in the United States, and that’s been super popular with customers.”
Two other areas that Rausch said are growing for Fire TV users are gaming and fitness. “Gaming is on the rise; it’s another very high interest (area) from customers,” he said. “We’re seeing the same trend — 115% growth, year-over-year — in fitness-related content consumption on Fire TV.”
Rausch said that much of that growth is likely due to the pandemic, but he feels that there is still room for growth.