Today, Amazon’s free streaming service announced a rebrand to Amazon Freevee, the new name for IMDb TV, beginning April 27. Over the last two years, the ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service experienced rapid growth – tripling monthly active users – driven by rapid distribution across living room devices and mobile, an increasing slate of Originals, an always updating library of highly sought movies and TV shows, and over 60 FAST channels. Following a successful launch in the UK last September, Freevee will continue its international expansion with a launch in Germany later this year.
Freevee will grow its Originals slate by 70% in 2022, including the spinoff of the longest-running Original series for Prime Video, Bosch: Legacy, premiering May 6; a new home-design series, Hollywood Houselift with Jeff Lewis; Greg Garcia’s comedy series Sprung; the Australian crime drama Troppo; and High School, a scripted series adapted for television by Clea DuVall, produced by Plan B, and based on the New York Times best-selling memoir by Grammy-nominated, platinum recording artists Tegan and Sara Quin. Amazon’s free streaming service will announce additional greenlights at its NewFronts presentation on May 2.
“Over the past two years, we have seen tremendous growth for our AVOD service and are committed to bringing our audiences premium, free-to-consumer content,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We’re looking forward to building on this momentum with an increasing slate of inventive and broadly appealing Originals, and are excited to establish Freevee as the premier AVOD service with content audiences crave.”
“Customers are increasingly shifting to streaming ad-supported premium content, and we have developed Freevee to deliver them highly sought content with half the commercials of traditional TV,” said Ashraf Alkarmi, director of Freevee. “Our new name clearly communicates who we are: An easy-to-navigate streaming service, available to users for free, whenever and wherever they choose to watch some of the greatest Original and licensed content available.”
Additionally, the free streaming service will add exclusive Original movies to its already robust slate, starting with a greenlight order for the workplace rom-com Love Accidentally, starring Brenda Song and Aaron O’Connell. In Love Accidentally, Alexa (Song) and Jason (O’Connell) are competing for a promotion at their advertising firm when each of their significant others breaks up with them. Thinking she has texted a friend, Alexa mistakenly sends Jason a brokenhearted message. The two spark up an anonymous relationship via text with neither aware of who the other really is. When the truth comes out, will they be able to put their rivalry aside and let true love prevail? Love Accidentally also features Denise Richards and Maxwell Caulfield, while Barry Barnholtz, Zelma Kiwi, and Jeffrey Schenck serve as executive producers.
Spanning drama and comedy, scripted and unscripted, Originals currently available on the service include buddy-cop drama Pretty Hard Cases, with a second season dropping April 22; the heist drama Leverage: Redemption; sports docuseries UNINTERRUPTED‘s Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers; the spy thriller Alex Rider; the music docuseries Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary; and the zany true-crime docuseries Bug Out. In addition, the service features Judy Justice, a court program helmed by television icon Judge Judy Sheindlin with a 120-episode Season One order. Judy Justice will continue to deliver customers new episodes every weekday through April 15 and has been picked up for a second season.
Previously, Amazon’s free streaming service announced greenlight orders for Primo, the coming-of-age comedy from Michael Schur and Shea Serrano, and On Call, the half-hour procedural drama from prolific TV producer Dick Wolf. Additionally, the service announced an AVOD first by licensing a deal with NBCU securing an exclusive network-window for films from Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s 2020-21 theatrical slate, including titles such as Dolittle, The Invisible Man, Promising Young Woman, F9 (Fast & Furious 9), as well as rights to a package of animated movies, including Sing 2.
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About IMDb TV, soon to be Amazon Freevee
IMDb TV is a free streaming video service with thousands of premium movies and TV shows available anytime.
· Expansive Catalog: IMDb TV is a modern television network, offering viewers ambitious Originals, including Judy Justice, Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary, Leverage: Redemption, Alex Rider, Moment of Truth, and UNINTERRUPTED’s Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers, and an always updating library of broadly appealing hit movies and TV shows that customers would expect to see on a paid service. IMDb TV adds new titles to the service every month across a wide selection of genres, including comedy, family, romance, thrillers, science fiction, documentaries, and horror.
· Free: IMDb TV is TV for free. No paid subscriptions are necessary.
· Half the Ads: IMDb TV has half the ads of traditional linear TV.
· Instant Access: IMDb TV is available as an app on Fire TV, Fire Tablets, and as a free Channel within Prime Video, across hundreds of devices. IMDb TV is also available as an app on third party devices including Roku, Samsung smart TVs (2017-2021 models), Comcast’s Xfinity Flex, Xfinity X1, Chromecast with Google TV, NVIDIA SHIELD, and other Android TV devices, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 consoles, as well as LG Smart TVs (2018-2021 models). The app is also available on iPhone, iPad, and Android mobile devices.
To learn more about IMDb TV, soon to be Freevee, visit www.amazon.com/imdbtv and follow @IMDbTV.
