Amazon pulls the plug on Freevee, its ad-supported streaming service

Video streaming services have become significantly more expensive in the last few years. Thankfully, there are some free options, with Google TV offering more than 800 free TV channels. Amazon also runs an ad-supported streaming service called Freevee. However, it is not as popular as Prime Video and has faced a branding issue since its 2019 launch, being renamed multiple times within a few years. Two years after the last rebrand from IMDb TV, Amazon is ending the branding crisis for good by shutting down Freevee altogether.

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Amazon has confirmed to Deadline that Freevee will shut down over the coming weeks. It has migrated over 12,000 titles from Freevee’s content library to Prime Video, including shows like Mad Men: Lost, Bosh: Legacy, and many Amazon Originals. From now on, all new episodes of original Freevee shows will be listed there for streaming.

Thankfully, all Freevee titles will remain free to stream and won’t require a Prime subscription. The change will only apply to regions where Amazon’s free ad-supported streaming service is currently available: the US, UK, Germany, and Austria.

An Amazon spokesperson issued the following statement to Deadline about the transition:

“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.”

The writing was on the wall for Freevee

Source: Unsplash / Thibault Penin 

Amazon announced in late December 2023 that it would start showing ads to Prime Video subscribers from January 2024. This blurred the line between Freevee and Prime Video, as the former showed ad-supported free content. A few months later, in May 2024, Amazon announced interactive and shoppable ads, including interactive pause ads, for Prime Video.

The content team responsible for Freevee’s original content has already transitioned to Amazon MGM Studios. The move is also unlikely to affect the production of any of Freevee’s current original titles. They are just getting a new, more popular home, which should help boost their viewership.