New ad-funded tier of Prime Video cannibalising Amazon’s free streaming service. As a result, Amazon is looking at closing down Freevee.
- Freevee became known as the UK home of new Neighbours series and Judy Justice
- But industry insiders say Freevee has become redundant since Amazon added adverts to its existing Prime Video service.
US industry publication Adweek reports Amazon is considering closing down Freevee in the ‘coming weeks’. According to the report, Freevee could be gone by early April.
Amazon currently has two standalone streaming services – Prime Video and Freevee – with reports suggesting the status quo can’t be maintained.
Freevee, formerly known as IMDb TV, has operated as a free, ad-supported alternative to Prime Video in certain countries.
In the past two years, the service has become the home of Judge Judy successor Judy Justice and the new chapter of Australian soap opera Neighbours in the UK.
Internationally, the situation has been different. In Ireland and other countries where Freevee wasn’t rolled out, the same programmes have been distributed through Amazon’s main Prime Video platform.
Whereas Freevee was ad-supported, Prime Video has been ad-free. Not any more. Since Amazon made changes to Prime Video, both services are ad-supported. And both Freevee and Prime Video apps now host similar if not the same ad-supported programmes.
Citing three people familiar with the matter, Adweek says the effective redundancy of Freevee has “compelled Amazon to wind down Freevee”.
Possible three tier Prime Video
Closing Freevee may result in Prime Video becoming a three-tier service in the future.
Freevee could be replaced by a totally free, ad-supported ‘bottom tier’ of Prime Video, with some limits on available content.
The middle tier would be the current ad-funded tier available to Prime subscribers.
The top tier would then be the current ad-free option, with extras like Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision, which have recently been taken away from some users.
Update: Amazon has now denied plans to remove Freevee, despite Adweek citing industry sources in its article.
With the possibility that Freevee could effectively turn into a new free-tier of Prime Video in due course, it’s possible both sides are at least partially correct.
Marc Thornham