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Amazon apps to distribute Fox local news feeds

The deal is the first time Fox's owned-and-operated local news feeds have been made available beyond Tubi.

The deal is the first time Fox's owned-and-operated local news feeds have been made available beyond Tubi.

A post outside the Oakland, California studios of Fox-owned television station KTVU, Channel 2.
A post outside the Oakland, California studios of Fox-owned television station KTVU, Channel 2. (Photo by Tony Webster via Wikimedia Commons, Graphic by The Desk)

Fox Corporation’s local broadcast subsidiary Fox Television Stations (FTS) and technology powerhouse Amazon have announced a partnership that will see more than a dozen local news feeds accessible natively within Amazon’s streaming media ecosystem.

The feeds originate from Fox owned-and-operated stations in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Seattle and other metropolitan areas. The Amazon partnership marks the first time the news feeds have been made available beyond Fox’s own free streaming service Tubi.

“This important collaboration with Amazon further solidifies our commitment to bring FTS’s powerhouse local news content to as many people as possible,” Jeff Zellmer, the senior vice president of digital operations at FTS, said in a statement. “We know that choice and accessibility matter to our viewers and this launch is another key step in our overall strategy and goal of giving our viewers the live and on-demand content from the stations they love.”

The deal will see Amazon integrate Fox’s local news feeds directly into the Amazon News app, which is available on all supported Amazon Fire TV devices. The feeds will also be available on Amazon’s Echo Show line of smart displays, which are powered by the voice assistant Alexa.

Five stations were quietly added to Amazon News and the Echo Show devices this past December, including:

  • KMSP (Channel 9) in Minneapolis
  • KTVU (Channel 2) in San Francisco
  • KSAZ (Channel 10) in Phoenix
  • WJBK (Channel 2) in Detroit
  • WTXF (Channel 29) in Philadelphia

The rest of Fox’s local news feeds debuted this week. They include:

  • KCPQ (Channel 13) in Seattle
  • KDFW (Channel 4) in Dallas-Fort Worth
  • KRIV (Channel 26) in Houston
  • KTBC (Channel 7) in Austin
  • KTTV (Channel 11) in Los Angeles
  • WAGA (Channel 5) in Atlanta
  • WFLD (Channel 32) in Chicago
  • WITI (Channel 6) in Milwaukee
  • WNYW (Channel 5) in New York City
  • WOFL (Channel 35) in Orlando
  • WTTG (Channel 5) in Washington, D.C.
  • WTVT (Channel 13) in Tampa Bay

The local news feeds carry news broadcasts from local Fox newsrooms (some feeds, like KTVU, have a delay of up to 10 minutes) along with national programming from Fox’s free, ad-supported breaking news feed called LiveNow from Fox. Programming from Fox Weather is also available during major climate-related events. LiveNow from Fox is available as a standalone feed on Amazon News.

The launch of the Fox local news feeds adds to a growing roster of local news streams available through the Amazon News app, which offers around 300 linear channels of local news content originating from 250 cities.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys covers the business of broadcast and streaming TV, radio broadcasting, social media, technology and telecommunications. A journalist for over 15 years, Matthew previously worked at Thomson Reuters, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTXL in Sacramento and McNaughton Newspapers. He received 9 California Journalism Awards between 2018 and 2020, and is a member of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors).
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