Amazon’s Prime Video is expanding its Clips initiative with something the streaming platform calls News Clips. Though nominally US-only for now, the feature will include the “latest local news, weather, and national news reports,” available for free on the platform.
The roster of providers includes “ABC News Live, CBS News 24/7, LiveNOW from Fox, CNN Headlines, NBC News NOW, and hundreds of other free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) Channels.”
Ready for Prime Video time?
According to Prime Video’s head of global app experience, Brian Griffin, “…not everyone can catch breaking news the moment it happens. With News Clips, customers have a quick and easy way to get caught up on the latest stories happening in their neighbourhood and around the world.”
It’s not the worst idea. News dissemination has changed since streaming took over. Newspapers, radio broadcasts, and newscasts don’t have the reach they once did. Despite full news coverage being available on Amazon’s streaming platform, there’s no guarantee that users are tuning in. The time investment could well be getting in the way.
Sticking this briefer option in front of folks with short attention spans may improve local and international knowledge in an age of curated algorithmic feeds. Of course, Amazon says this is also curated, so it may not be quite as useful as it might be otherwise.
Amazon says that this new feed is free to all American Amazon customers, whether they subscribe to Prime Video or not. It’s found in a dedicated area at the top of the streaming app, making it simple to access. It’ll be marginally more useful than procuring news reports from TikTok, but not much. Short-form video content has already done a number on human attention spans. Even ‘useful’ additions to the technology are unlikely to improve that situation.
