Amazon Freevee: Amazon Launches Free Streaming Portal with Ads

The streaming industry is already confusing, with more and more providers entering this competitive market. Amazon is also represented, but Prime Video is now joined by a second – free and ad-based – track called Freevee. The “new” service is called Amazon Freevee and the quotes have been deliberately chosen here. Because this streaming service has actually been around for a long time, but under a different name, namely IMDb TV.

That was originally the content of the well-known Internet Movie Database. IMDb has long been owned by the mail-order giant, but earlier this year Amazon announced it would relaunch IMDb TV as Freevee. The name is a play on the words of Free and English TV and it is no coincidence that it is reminiscent of the word Freebie, or (business) gift.

Freevee is part of the Amazon site

Freevee is now also available in the EU. The new service does not have its own website; Freevee is integrated into Amazon’s main page. Partly due to an indistinguishable user interface, the service is probably best described as an Amazon (Prime) video with advertising. One has free access to Freevee, but has to live with commercial interruptions.

Freevee’s focus is on older content, but if you need to save money or don’t watch movies and series too often, you can definitely find what you’re looking for on the portal. The service also wants to score with some of its own productions, the showpiece here is Bosch: Legacy. There are also series like “2 Broke Girls”, “Person of Interest” and “Broadchurch”. Various films, older productions, and B-Ware are also on the program. According to an interview by Blickpunkt: Film with Freevee co-boss Ryan Pirozzi, there’s a maximum of nine minutes of advertising per hour on the service — that’s significantly less than in classic private TV, according to Pirozzi.