Amazon Freevee first debuted in 2019 as IMDb Freedive. Since then, the service has supplied viewers in choose nations, together with the US and UK, a restricted, ad-supported catalog of TV reveals without charge. With Amazon now specializing in Prime Video, although, it will likely be phasing out Freevee within the coming weeks.
In response to Deadline, Amazon is retiring Freevee and redirecting customers to Prime Video as a substitute. The corporate will proceed providing its unique Freevee reveals, equivalent to Judy Justice and Excessive College, by its Prime Video platform. Such content material shall be marked with a “Look ahead to Free” label, making it simple at no cost, non-Prime customers to search out and think about them. An Amazon spokesperson instructed Deadline:
To ship an easier viewing expertise for purchasers, we now have determined to section out Freevee branding. There shall be no change to the content material accessible for Prime members, and an enormous providing of free streaming content material will nonetheless be accessible for non-Prime members, together with choose Originals from Amazon MGM Studios, quite a lot of licensed motion pictures and sequence, and a broad library of FAST Channels – all accessible on Prime Video.
Rumors about this transfer surfaced earlier this yr when Amazon introduced advertisements to Prime Video. With each Amazon-owned platforms now equally providing ad-supported tiers, it makes little sense to take care of them individually.
Behind the scenes, Freevee’s content material and enterprise groups have already been built-in into Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, respectively. In consequence, Amazon isn’t anticipated to put off any of them in the interim. In a way, the transfer is extra of a merger between the 2 streaming platforms quite than an entire shutdown.