• by Wayne Friedman , November 13, 2024

Amazon is shutting down Freevee, the company’s FAST platform (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV), as a stand-alone video service.

Amazon will fold Freevee TV and movie content into Prime Video, its premium streaming ad-supported/subscription and ad-free subscription platform, and will phase out all Freevee branding.
There will be no change to the content available for Prime members.

Confirming the move, an Amazon statement sent to Television News Daily says: "We have built Prime Video into a first-stop entertainment destination where customers can personalize their viewing experience."  

The Freevee platform is a collection of FAST channels, airing original content from Amazon MGM Studios, and licensed movies and TV series. Amazon has also made dozens of Prime Video originals free to watch on Freevee.

Original TV programs on Freevee include “Jury Duty” and “Bosch: Legacy.”

The Amazon platform started up in January 2019 as IMDb Freedive. Five months later it became IMDb TV, and in April 2022 it changed its name to Freevee.

In February 2024, reports said Amazon was planning to shut down Freevee -- a month after Amazon said Prime Video would be launching an ad-supported option.

In recent years there has been a rush among many legacy TV/media companies to launch new FAST channels, in order to extend much-needed advertiser consumer reach in response to declining reach of their live, linear TV networks.

Prime Video has been included free of charge with membership to Amazon Prime, priced at $14.99/month.

Now Prime and non-Prime members can pay $2.99 extra a month to get Prime Video ad-free.

This story has been updated.