It appears as though Canada will soon see the release of their first Fire TV EDition televisions. While searching for more information about Toshiba’s new non-UHD Fire TV Edition televisions that were released earlier this week, I stumbled on product pages for the Canadian versions of Toshiba’s Fire TV Edition televisions, which have not yet been released. Both the 4K UHD televisions and the newer non-UHD Canadian variants are present on Toshiba’s website, which is a good indication that these TVs will soon be released.
When Amazon and Best Buy revealed their partnership to sell more than 10 new Fire TV Edition television models this year, made by Toshiba and Insignia, a single line at the bottom of the press release said the TVs would be also be coming to Canada “later this year.” Since then, 6 new Fire TV Edition models have been released in the US, starting with 3 UHD models in June and followed by 3 non-UHD models earlier this week, but none have been released in Canada.
With less than 4 months left in the year, and even less time before the crucial holiday shopping season begins to ramp up, we should soon see the release of Fire TV Edition televisions in Canada. Toshiba already has a page for the Canadian version of the 43″ UHD Fire TV Edition television on their site, as well as a page for the Canadian version of the 32″ 720p Fire TV Edition television, so that’s a good sign that the TVs will soon be released. Canadian model numbers for all 6 of Toshiba’s US Fire TV Edition televisions are listed on their Bluetooth declaration listing, so it does seem like all US models will also be released in Canada. The Canadian model numbers end in …C19, whereas the US model numbers end in …U19.
The marketing sheets (PDF) for Toshiba’s Canadian Fire TV Edition televisions indicate that CTV and Crave will be the two streaming services with dedicated app shortcut buttons on the Alexa voice remote, in addition to Prime Video and Netflix buttons. CTV and Crave replace HBO and PlayStation Vue, which are found on the US remotes. All other details and specifications for the Canadian TVs appear to be identical to the US versions.
The arrival of Fire TV Edition televisions in Canada will be a significant move for Amazon. Currently, the only Amazon streaming device available in Canada is the Fire TV Stick – Basic Edition, which is a stripped down international version of the regular Fire TV Stick that is available in the US, UK, Germany, Japan, and India. The Fire TV Stick Basic Edition is missing features like Alexa voice capabilities, which are expected to be present on the Fire TV Edition televisions in Canada. The arrival of a more full-fledged Fire TV experience in Canada, through the release of Toshiba’s Fire TV Edition televisions, will hopefully open the doors for other Fire TV models, such as the Amazon Fire TV Cube, to become available in Canada.
Maybe it was meant to say that Alexa is a missing feature of the Fire TV Stick Basic Edition.