Source: Amazon is “actively pursuing” licensing deals to add live and linear TV to complement its Prime Video offerings
Amazon is looking to add 24/7 live programming to its Prime Video service, according to multiple job listings posted over the past several weeks.
Context & Ripple Effects
This is a decade-old ambition finally moving into execution. Back in 2015 Amazon held preliminary talks with CBS and NBCUniversal about a live online TV service, and soon after began bundling third-party streaming subscriptions into Prime Instant Video — the Channels structure that still anchors its video business today. The intervening years added the advertising layer: a free ad-supported version surfaced in 2017, an ad-supported Prime Video tier followed in 2023, and by late 2025 Amazon claimed [[a:892412|315M ad-reachable viewers across Prime Video content, live sports and free ad-supported channels]].
Now job listings point to licensed 24/7 linear feeds being pursued "actively" rather than weighed — meaning Amazon wants always-on programming to sit alongside its on-demand catalog and sports rights, turning Prime Video's interface into something closer to a full cable replacement.
First-order effects
- Network owners licensing 24/7 feeds to Prime Video get a new distribution channel with Amazon's scale behind it, while Amazon gains the appointment-viewing glue that keeps subscribers inside its app between marquee releases.
- Amazon's own video operations teams are hiring now to stand up linear scheduling and delivery infrastructure inside Prime Video.
Second-order effects
- Rivals already selling live-TV bundles face pressure on price and packaging: Amazon can fold licensed linear channels into an existing Prime membership rather than charging a standalone pay-TV rate, squeezing the economics of traditional vMVPD bundles.
- Channel partners who joined via Prime Video Channels' revenue-share model may find their on-demand storefronts competing for attention with cheaper licensed linear feeds on the same home screen.
Third-order effects
- If licensed linear becomes standard on Prime Video, the pay-TV bundle stops being a product any one distributor owns — it becomes inventory that streamers assemble à la carte, completing the migration of linear TV from cable infrastructure into on-demand platforms that began with Amazon's first live-TV talks in 2015.
- Advertising is the likely settlement: with Amazon reporting hundreds of millions of ad-reachable viewers across on-demand, sports and FAST-style channels, live feeds deepen the ad inventory pool that funds the whole video business.
The trend: Streaming platforms are reassembling the linear TV bundle piece by piece through licensing deals, converting cable's always-on programming into just another layer of an ad-funded subscription service.