9 months after denying rumors that Freevee was shutting down, Amazon announces it's shutting down Freevee. Content will be absorbed into Prime as Freevee is phased out over next couple weeks.
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.”
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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.”