What the business is
Amazon's free, ad-supported streaming service offering original and licensed series and films
The bet
A name that says the service is free, plus a bigger slate of original series, can make Amazon's ad-supported streamer matter
How it started
The service launched as IMDb Freedive in 2019 and was then called IMDb TV. The Verge said it quickly faded into the background of the streaming wars, and the earlier rebrand never put it on the map.
What happened
In April 2022 Amazon announced it would rename it Amazon Freevee, a name meant to stress that the ad-supported platform is free. Director Ashraf Alkarmi described it as a supplement for viewers who want premium series and films with half the commercials of traditional TV. Freevee leaned on originals such as Bosch: Legacy and a scripted adaptation of Tegan and Sara's memoir, and planned to grow its original programming by 70% by year-end.
What has to be true
The earlier IMDb Freedive and IMDb TV branding had not made the service visible
The new name makes the free, ad-supported offer explicit
Amazon said viewers were shifting toward ad-supported premium content
A 70% bigger original slate was meant to differentiate it from other free services
What can be applied
Renaming alone did not fix IMDb TV's visibility problem; The Verge wrote that viewing, not content volume, would decide success.
Aftermath
As of 2022-04-13 Freevee was newly rebranded with a planned 70% growth in original programming. The Verge did not report any viewership figures.
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