Brian Williams will host Election Night coverage on Prime Video. Is Amazon getting into live news?

New York (CNN) – Amazon attracts millions of live viewers for Thursday night football games. The company also offers high-profile concert performances and a seemingly endless number of shopping livestreams. Next up: A special evening of reporting.

Former NBC News and MSNBC anchor Brian Williams is close to a surprise deal to lead election night coverage on Amazon's Prime Video, three people with knowledge of the talks say, marking the streaming service's first foray into live news.

The planned live stream would feature detailed analysis of the election results with Williams and a wide range of contributors and guests during what is almost certainly the most important news event of the year.

For one night, perhaps longer, Amazon would be in direct competition with CNN, ABC, CBS and Williams' former home network.

Amazon's election coverage plan caused quite a stir in the TV industry when Puck and Variety first reported on it over the weekend. Amazon and competitors like Netflix have generally shunned news programming even as they have expanded into sports and other categories. Do Amazon and its billionaire founder Jeff Bezos want to create a news network?

According to the sources who spoke to CNN, the answer is no. (They insisted on anonymity because the Williams project has not yet been announced.) Amazon, they say, views the election stream as a one-time live event rather than a signal of its future intentions.

“Amazon executives told us, 'We're not building a news division,'” said a talent agent not involved in the Williams deal.

The costs associated with newsgathering and the controversy that comes with round-the-clock reporting could obviously be off-putting for a tech giant like Amazon.

However, reporting can also create a loyal bond with a large audience, especially during special occasions such as a presidential election. Streaming platforms such as Max (from CNN's parent company Warner Bros. Discovery) and Hulu (from ABC's parent company Disney) promote live and on-demand news content from their journalistic channels.

The election coverage is “a special event for Amazon, just like Thursday Night Football,” one of the sources said. Amazon also broadcasts the Academy of Country Music Awards live and just inked a major $1.8 billion-a-year deal to broadcast NBA games starting next year (WBD is now suing the league over the deal).

In the future, Amazon may invest in live coverage of other major news events, although there are no such plans.

Spokespeople for Amazon and Williams declined to comment.

The idea of ​​a Big Tech heavyweight selling its own election night TV show would have been hard to imagine a decade ago. It's a testament to the growing power of the tech industry and the fragmenting power of old-school television.

Williams, 65, is a product of the network who led NBC's election night coverage in 2008 and 2012. The Amazon election event — which has yet to be named — will be his first major project since he signed off from MSNBC three years ago.

Jonathan Wald, an NBC and CNN veteran who worked closely with Williams at MSNBC, will executive produce the livestream, the sources said.

The election coverage will be produced in Los Angeles (a notable difference from all network specials airing in New York and Washington) on Amazon MGM Studios' virtual stage.

Williams will host live well into the night when the election results are in. If election night turns into some kind of election week like it did in 2020, it remains to be seen whether Amazon's live coverage will continue.

One theory underlying the live event, according to the sources, is that many viewers are open to new options and alternatives to traditional political reporting. But the competition on election night is tough: channels like CNN and NBC typically record large numbers of viewers. CNN set some streaming traffic records during so-called election week in 2020.

The CNN Wire
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