Is Amazon Finally Breaking into the News Industry?

Amazon’s next delivery to your home might just be a 65-year-old newsman.

The e-commerce, cloud computing, and media titan is in talks with veteran TV news anchor Brian Williams to host an election night special, Variety reported this weekend. The move would bring primetime news to Amazon Prime Video, at least for one night.

Broadcast Blues

After breaking into TV and movies, Amazon has burst into the world of live programming by snatching up long-term — and expensive — broadcast rights to the NFL and NBA, the latter of which starts next season. But, like most of the rest of the streaming world, the e-commerce giant has shown next to no interest in live news.

With Williams, who’s been out of a job since leaving his MSNBC post in 2021 (his first tour at the network ended after a verisimilitude controversy), Amazon may have found an industry veteran to help them break in. The one-off program would focus more on analysis from a stable of commentators and newsmakers rather than breaking news, sources told Variety.

It’d be a big first step into live news, though it is an audience pool that seems to be shrinking in real-time:

• An estimated 56.9 million people tuned in to election night coverage across 21 networks in 2020, according to Nielsen ratings (for reference: 102 million people watched the Super Bowl on Fox that year). That was down from 71 million viewers across 13 networks in 2016, per Nielsen, though Fox News’ 13.7 million viewers in 2020 marked the highest figure ever recorded by a cable news station on election night.
• Making the space somewhat less appealing for broadcasters (and their advertisers): the audience. The median age of MSNBC, Fox News and CNN viewers is 70, 69, and 67 years old, respectively. No wonder Amazon is opting for such a — shall we say — familiar face for its first foray into TV news.

Scripps Creek: Amazon’s first election night might just be another competitor’s last. On Friday, E.W. Scripps CEO Adam Symson told employees in a note that Scripps News, the company’s 24/7 over-the-air national news station, would be winding down operations by November 15. News flash: TV news is a tough industry.