Variety: Amazon Is Shutting Down Freevee, Its Ad-Supported Video Streamer

Story from Variety:

RIP, Freevee.

Amazon is officially shutting down Freevee, its free, ad-supported video streaming service originally launched under the IMDb brand nearly five years ago. Freevee will be phased out over the course of the next several weeks. Going forward, content that had been on the service will be subsumed under Amazon’s Prime Video brand.

In a statement provided to Variety, an Amazon rep said, “We have built Prime Video into a first-stop entertainment destination where customers can personalize their viewing experience by streaming exclusive Prime member entertainment produced by Amazon MGM Studios, licensed movies and series, content from other services as an add-on subscription, live sports, blockbuster movies and series to rent or buy, FAST [free, ad-supported streaming TV] channels and the complete Amazon Freevee content offering.”

The Amazon spokesperson continued, “To deliver a simpler viewing experience for customers, we have decided to phase out Freevee branding. There will be no change to the content available for Prime members, and a vast offering of free streaming content will still be accessible for non-Prime members, including select originals from Amazon MGM Studios, a variety of licensed movies and series, and a broad library of FAST channels — all available on Prime Video.”

In the markets where Freevee has been launched (the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Austria), free content will be made available to non-Prime users under the Prime Video umbrella and will be labeled “Watch for Free.”

Original series on Freevee include breakout Emmy-nominated reality comedy “Jury Duty”; crime drama “Bosch: Legacy”; Australian soap “Neighbours“; “Alex Rider” Season 2; “Leverage: Redemption”; and “Judy Justice” featuring Judge Judy Sheindlin.

In addition, Amazon has made dozens of Prime Video originals free to watch on Freevee, including “Reacher,” “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “The Wheel of Time,” “A League of Their Own,” “LuLaRich,” “Lizzo’s Watch Out for the Big Grrrls,” “The Grand Tour,” “Mozart in the Jungle,” “Bosch,” “Modern Love,” “Savage X Fenty,” “Sylvie’s Love,” “Troop Zero” and “Late Night.”

News of Freevee’s shutdown was first reported by Bloomberg.

Freevee is the name of the ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service that was originally launched in January 2019 under the name IMDb Freedive and then rebranded as IMDb TV in June of that year. Freevee has been housed within the Amazon MGM Studios group.

Speculation that Amazon would mothball Freevee cropped up earlier this year, following Amazon’s Prime Video launch of ads by default in January. Amazon had previously denied a report that it would shut down Freevee in the second quarter of 2024.