Amazon is expanding its Fire TV business, introduces cheaper option

Amazon AMZN is doubling down on its Fire TV business.

Today, the company announced that it is expanding its Fire TV line, introducing both new sizes of the high-end Fire TV Omni QLED Series and introducing a more affordable option, called the Fire TV 2 Series. Amazon has sold more than 200 million Fire TV devices.

The expansion of Fire TV is notable because of the fact that Amazon is looking for cuts in many other areas of its business. The company announced earlier this week that it would slash another 9,000 jobs, adding to the 18,000 layoffs it revealed in January.

The cuts will affect Amazon's advertising business, including Twitch, which Amazon acquired in 2014 for $970 million, and Amazon's massive cloud division, Amazon Web Services AWS. The company has stopped construction on the much-discussed HQ 2 in Virginia because of Amazon's slashing and burning of personnel.

Fire TV, like a few other areas of Amazon's business, seems to be in expansion mode for the foreseeable future. Although Fire TV launched in the U.S. in 2014, this is one of the biggest announcements to date centered on Fire TV, as it will now be available to consumers in the U.K., Germany and Mexico.

The upscale Omni QLED Series will feature what Amazon calls the Fire TV Ambient Experience, which allows customers to interact with a number of apps on their TVs, from calendars to Spotify SPOT, and features works of art that can be displayed on the TV when it is not in use. The addition of the cost-effective 2 series will make the Fire TV more accessible to consumers.

The Fire TV 2 series starts at $199.99, while the QLED series starts at $449.99.

In January, Roku announced that it was building its own TV, and this month, the company unveiled its TVs to consumers for purchase, not only from the incumbent TV giants like Samsung and Sony SONY, but also from tech-centric players like Roku ROKU. Amazon has strengthened its commitment to its TV efforts. Despite the many cuts the company has made, streaming content for Amazon Prime remains one of the areas that the e-commerce giant will continue investing in.

According to CFRA Research Senior Equity Analyst Arun Sundaram, they've already put a huge investment in Amazon Prime. You have heard about some of their originals that they introduced last year. They had that deal with Thursday Night Football. It was a big deal, a costly deal. I think they'll continue to invest in Amazon Prime, Prime Video because that helps boost their entire e-commerce ecosystem. In a statement, Daniel Rausch, VP of Amazon entertainment devices and services, said that most smart TVs aren't all that smart and they're turning to Fire TV to deliver a truly intelligent and intuitive TV experience. When customers love something, we double down.