Amazon Rebrands IMDb Streaming Service as Freevee
The Amazon-funded streaming service IMDb TV will be getting a new name later this month. As of April 27, IMDb TV will be known as “Amazon Freevee.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, the name-change is meant to reflect the complimentary nature of the ad-supported service as well as create more separation between the streamer and the IMDb website.
“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 head of Amazon Studios Jennifer Salke (via The Hollywood Reporter). “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.”
Amazon Freevee is working on filling out its roster of original content, with plans for scripted originals including the series Bosch: Legacy, Greg Garcia comedy Sprung and the Tegan and Sara coming of age series, High School. Currently in the works is the movie Love, Accidentally, starring Brenda Song and Aaron O'Connell. In addition, we can expect to learn about more unscripted series and movies coming to the platform on May 2 at the NewFronts presentation.
While this news is certainly unexpected, it should hopefully clear up any misconceptions about the streaming service moving forward. Since the IMDb website serves a different purpose entirely — digitally logging entertainment professionals and their credits — Amazon must have felt that viewers weren't aware of the platform's full range of free content.