What live TV services does the Amazon Echo Show support?

Best answer: Amazon Echo Show devices support live TV via Alexa skills such as Food Network, Bloomberg, and Hulu. You can also watch live TV with the addition of a Fire TV Recast device or directly on the Echo Show through Amazon's Silk or Mozilla's Firefox web browsers.

What is an Amazon Echo Show?

The Echo Show line of devices combines what is great about the best Alexa speakers speakers with touchscreen displays to give you multitouch controls, audio feedback, and video capabilities. You can do everything you'd do with a traditional Echo speaker, such as ask Alexa questions, make voice calls, set timers and alarms, plus you have the ability to do video chats or watch videos from a variety of popular content sources.

The best Amazon Echo Show devices are available in multiple sizes, including the "mini" Echo Show 5, the "just right" Echo Show 8 (2nd Gen), and the "jumbo" Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen), which comes in at 10.1 inches.

Now, as you listen to Amazon Music, you can view lyrics and album art. You can call up weather forecasts and access your calendars and to-do lists. The Echo Shows still supports voice-activated calls and also includes video calling through services like Skype and Zoom. Searches now include the ability to see the results of your queries on-screen. As with all of its products, Amazon wants to make it easy for you to make purchases from them, and you can now see products before you buy them.

It's a video device as well

It would be a shame if you couldn't watch videos on a device with an HD screen. Originally, the first-generation Echo Show only provided native support for Amazon Prime Video and YouTube (RIP YouTube). Thankfully, the Prime Video catalog has continued to expand, and there are literally dozens of great Amazon originals and Prime Video content that you can watch on your Echo Show device. Netflix is even finally available on the Echo Show! If you subscribe to any of the many great Amazon Prime Video Channels like CBS All Access, HBO, or Starz, you can access those from your newer Echo Show devices, like the Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 10 (3rd Gen).

In addition to Amazon's content and partner channels, after the release of the Echo Show devices, it didn't take long for creative enthusiasts to take advantage of the Alexa Skills Kit to create additional opportunities to enable live TV watching. For example, the Stream Player skill enables viewing of live streams from a long list of TV stations by tapping into their freely available internet feeds. There are also Alexa skills for hundreds of TV content providers, including FX, Food Network, Bloomberg, and Hulu, that all support live TV streaming.

If that menu of sources doesn't satisfy your thirst, and you're handy with writing code, you try your hand at hacking out something like this fellow did to get his fill of BBC and other UK stations. Alternatively, by adding an Amazon Fire TV Recast to your audio-visual setup, you can watch live television or recordings of live TV directly on your Echo Show device whenever you want!

Finally, you can always ask Alexa to pull up Amazon's Silk web browser or Mozilla's Firefox web browser and watch live TV from outlets that publish their content online or via other apps and services through the browser (this is how I watch YouTube videos on my Echo Show 5, and it works like a charm!).