Last summer, Amazon started putting its Fire TV software inside smart TVs from Westinghouse, Element, and Seiki. Now, the company has a new–and somewhat surprising–partner in Best Buy, which will sell Fire TV Edition televisions from its Insignia house brand and Toshiba. The TVs will be available through Best Buy’s website and brick-and-mortar stores, as well as through Amazon.com, where Best Buy will become a third-party merchant.
Neither company has announced specifics on screen sizes, specs, or prices. A single television from Toshiba will arrive this summer, followed by at least 10 more sets later in 2018.
Best Buy already sells plenty of Amazon products, from Echo speakers to Kindle e-readers to Fire TV streaming devices. Still, this is the first time Best Buy will embed Amazon’s software in its own Insignia products, and the first time it will sell products as a merchant on Amazon. The two companies describe the smart TVs as the “first step” in an “exclusive multiyear partnership.”
The deal also provides a boost to Amazon’s Fire TV platform, which on streaming players has been outselling Roku, Chromecast, and Apple TV in the United States. As Roku’s business shifts from streaming player sales to smart TV licensing, Amazon might not be too far behind.
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