
In transient: Amazon is rebranding its free, ad-supported video on demand streaming service for the second time since 2019. Starting April 27, IMDb TV will probably be referred to as Amazon Freevee. The e-commerce large stated the service has skilled speedy progress during the last two years, with the variety of month-to-month energetic customers tripling because of speedy distribution throughout at-home and cell units in addition to a rising slate of content material.
No specifics had been supplied this time round, however in May 2021, Amazon stated IMDb TV viewership had elevated 138 p.c yr over yr. Total viewing throughout all of its ad-supported platforms hit 120 million.
Amazon initially launched the service as IMDb Freedive in early 2019. In June of the identical yr, the service was renamed to IMDb TV and the quantity of content material it carried tripled because of new licensing offers with Warner Bros., MGM Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment. A month earlier, an identical deal was reached with Universal to convey the studio’s content material to Amazon’s streaming providers.
Freevee goals to develop its unique programming library by 70 p.c in 2022. Now that Amazon owns MGM, much more content material may very well be heading to Prime Video and Freevee. They’ll quickly have entry to extra eyes, too, because the service is because of launch in Germany later this yr.
“Over the previous two years, now we have seen large progress for our AVOD service and are dedicated to bringing our audiences premium, free-to-consumer content material,” stated Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We’re wanting ahead to constructing on this momentum with an rising slate of ingenious and broadly interesting Originals, and are excited to ascertain Freevee because the premier AVOD service with content material audiences crave.”
Image credit score Andrea Piacquadio