Amazon Hoping to Help Users Navigate Video Streaming, as Its MAUs Pass 50M

In the mix-and-match world outside of pay TV, consumers have become self-aggregators, mostly “unwillingly,” said Parks Associates analyst Steve Nason Tuesday during Parks’ virtual Future of Video conference.

The increasingly complex TV landscape presents viewing challenges for customers, along with opportunities for much more content selection, said Sandeep Gupta, general manager-Amazon's Fire TV, reviewing the company's recent revamping of its Fire TV user interface to simplify and improve search and discovery on the platform. It was the first UI revamp in three years. “The landscape has changed, and how people use content has changed, and we’ve had to adapt the experience to meet that.”

Amazon said this week it passed 50 million monthly active users, up from the 40 million threshold it announced at CES in January. Amid the vast amount of programming available, “it’s not always easy for customers to figure out where to go, what to watch,” Gupta said.

More than 100 video catalogs and 70 apps are integrated into the Fire TV platform’s voice service, enabling users to engage with Alexa to find content, said Gupta. Amazon is also working with about 20 live TV providers to create a more “unified experience” for customers’ varied preferences, he said. Among the updates, Amazon now offers individual household members their own profiles for personalized recommendations. “You’re not getting recommended a kids’ program when you’re in your profile, but your kids get recommendations for kids," he said.

Profiles are listed on the main menu. Users can also customize the navigation bar to genres or apps they watch the most. Live channels from vMVPDs such as Sling, YouTube TV and Pluto TV are integrated in the live page of the interface. App peaks give glimpses into apps, including recommendations, Gupta said.

In the Find section, users can search for suggestions for free content or particular genres across all providers, so they don’t have to “hunt around,” said Gupta. All searches are voice-enabled through the Fire TV remote. Users can ask Alexa what they’re watching and where they can find shows they might like. Amazon announced Alexa Conversations in summer to enable more natural dialogue between the voice assistant and users; that will also help improve the search and discovery as the technology advances, he said.

Addressing conference attendees, Gupta said: “Sometimes we forget that our customers haven’t made the technical leaps that we have.” Many “remember the guides and the dials, and we have to bring our customers with us on this journey,” he said, to make finding content “approachable by everyone.”

On whether Amazon will make new features on the Fire TV platform available on the Amazon Prime Video app that’s wrapped into other platforms such as Roku, Gupta said other platform providers “have their own road map of features that they deliver.” His group is focused on ensuring all its content providers -- Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+, for instance -- “are having a great experience via voice and interactions.”