Gone too soon.
After some rumors surfaced about this earlier in the year, Variety has now confirmed Amazon is shutting down Freevee, its ad-supported streaming service, over the next few weeks. Content previously available on Freevee, including series like “Jury Duty” and “Bosch: Legacy” (if you’re a man over the age of 35, you watch this show), will now be offered under the Prime Video brand.
This move is part of Amazon’s effort to streamline its streaming services under one brand, according to the company. “To deliver a simpler viewing experience for customers, we have decided to phase out Freevee branding,” an Amazon spokesperson told Variety.
Prime members will continue to have access to the full library, while non-Prime users in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Austria will still be able to watch free content on Prime Video, under a “Watch for Free” banner.
Why This Matters:
Freevee launched in 2019 as IMDb Freedive, rebranded later that year as IMDb TV, and ultimately became “just” Freevee in 2022. It has offered free, ad-supported access to movies, TV series, and original content.
Amazon’s decision to shut down Freevee and fold its content into Prime Video highlights a broader trend toward consolidation in the streaming industry. With a crowded market, even large companies are reevaluating standalone services in favor of streamlined, all-in-ones that cut down on complexity for their viewers. See Disney+ and Hulu, HBO Max and Discovery+ or Paramount+ and Showtime. There is rising brand confusion given the glut of streamers and these efforts, while painful at times, have worked to solve for it.
By merging Freevee’s ad-powered content under Prime Video, Amazon can offer subscription and ad-enabled options in one place. This helps them appeal to a wider audience while making its content easier to navigate, in general. For advertisers, this move might also mean greater reach, with Freevee’s content now alongside Prime Video’s larger audience base. They can get a more integrated, scaled platform for ad-supported content.
Experts React:
In response to the news, Farhad Massoudi, founder and ex-CEO of Tubi, posted the following spicy take on X:
Our Take:
Does any of this really matter? Amazon will continue to invest in offering SVOD and AVOD content, with the latter being a particularly big opportunity. The Freevee app was always a bit of an odd duck. If anything, it helped familiarize Amazon Prime Video users with the ad-supported streaming model. Now, they can jettison that brand completely and keep everything together.
Look, as long as nothing happens to the final season of Bosch: Legacy, these changes are perfectly acceptable.
