Amazon Fire TV News app adds dozens of local news channels

Amazon has expanded the local news options in its relatively new Fire TV News app, providing more Fire TV owners with access to their local news stations. The feature is particularly relevant given the nature of the past year and how many people have tuned in to their local news stations for information about regional COVID-19 cases and vaccination programs.

Amazon launched its Fire TV News app in late 2019; it's a portal for accessing free news broadcasts, though you may not have had access to your local news channels at the time. The app can be found on the Fire TV home screen in the menu bar — it is simply listed as "News" and doesn't need to be manually installed.

In an announcement today, Amazon revealed that it has expanded the number of local news stations available through its news app, growing from the 12 cities added last year to now cover 88 major cities across the US.

The latest additions include cities like Salt Lake City, Detroit, New Orleans, and Phoenix; they join the cities added in 2020, including Seattle, Philadelphia, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Boston, Tampa, Miami, and others.

As before, the News app remains free to stream, providing broadcasts from news providers like CBS News, Bloomberg, and ABC News Live. Users who launch the app will automatically be assigned their nearest metro region, according to Amazon, which notes that users can select which local news sources they're interested in. National news sources remain available, as well.