Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service Freevee is shutting down — but it’s not all bad news for fans of the platform. According to Deadline, Amazon is phasing out Freevee over the next few weeks and has already migrated Freevee content to Prime Video. New episodes of Freevee series, such as Judy Justice, Neighbours, Tribunal Justice, America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation and Bosch: Legacy will all be available for non-Prime customers, as will older originals including Jury Duty, High School, Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis and Primo.
What this means is for customers where Freevee is available — the U.S., U.K. Germany, and Austria — content labeled Freevee will now be designated as “Watch for Free” for non-Prime customers, meaning that you do not have to have an Amazon Prime membership to be able to watch. Additionally, samples of Prime Video originals, such as The Summer I Turned Pretty and first episodes of The Boys and Fallout, are expected to continue to be available in front of the Prime paywall as well for customers. Based on a statement from an Amazon spokesperson, the phasing out of Freevee is largely a branding measure.
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“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 form other services as an add-on subscription, live sports, blockbuster movies and series to rent or buy, FAST Channels and the complete Amazon Freevee content offering,” the spokesperson said. “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.”
Freevee originally launched in January 2019 as IMDb Freedive before becoming IMDbTV that June. It was rebranded as Amazon Freevee in April 2022. Back in February, reports began to surface that Amazon was looking to shutter Freevee and shift focus to Prime Video, but such reports were denied by Amazon at that time. As for the company, it is being reported that no layoffs connected to the move are anticipated. The Freevee content team had previously been integrated into Amazon MGM Studios while its business team was already a part of Prime Video.