Amazon Prime Video Adds Short-Form News Clips in Push for Younger Viewers
Amazon said Monday it is adding on-demand short-form news clips to Prime Video, first on TVs and later on the web and mobile apps, joining other streamers that have adopted the short-video format popularized by TikTok.
The clips will appear inside the Prime Video app in the News destination, within its Trending Topics and Local News carousels, according to TechCrunch. They will first be available on televisions and other living-room devices, with a rollout to the web and Prime Video's mobile apps to follow. Amazon could not confirm whether the mobile clips would be oriented for vertical video, saying only that they would be treated as short-form content on iOS and Android.
The short clips sit alongside Prime Video's existing local, national and world news coverage from a number of major providers, which is available to everyone in the United States whether or not they hold a Prime subscription.
TikTok is better known as an entertainment destination, but it and Instagram have become increasingly common places for younger people to get news. Gen Z viewers in particular watch news creators and influencers on short-form apps, including YouTube Shorts. Amazon, which does not operate a social destination of its own, is adding short-form video to Prime Video instead in an effort to capture that audience.
What draws younger viewers to those social apps is not necessarily the length of the clips but how the information is presented. Pew Research findings cited by TechCrunch indicate that these younger news consumers want short-form news content that "feels organic, not over-produced."
Amazon is not the first streamer to add short clips to its lineup. Peacock added support for them in March, HBO Max and Netflix followed in July, and Disney+ in August. Together the updates reflect an industry-wide effort to reach viewers who increasingly look for entertainment in shorter bursts that can be consumed in moments or minutes rather than in portions of hours.
Amazon has not disclosed which news providers will supply the new clips, how long each clip will run, or a specific date for the web and mobile rollout.
Editor's Summary
Amazon Prime Video will add on-demand short-form news clips to its app, starting on TVs and living-room devices before expanding to the web and mobile. The move places the streaming service in competition with TikTok and Instagram for younger audiences who get news from short video, following similar short-form additions by Peacock, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ this year.