Amazon Insists “No Changes” Coming To Freevee Despite Reports Of Potential Shutdown
deadline.comAmazon is pushing back against recent industry chatter and a new press report indicating that it is planning to shut down Freevee. “There are no changes to Freevee,” a company spokesperson said in a statement provided to Deadline. “Amazon Freevee remains an important streaming offering providing both Prime and non-Prime customers thousands of hit movies, shows, and originals, all for free.” The ad-supported streaming outlet traces its roots back to January 2019, when it launched as Freedive, a service from subsidiary IMDb.
Five years later, with Prime Video having recently introduced advertising on its scripted series and movies, the thinking has been that maintaining Freevee could involve redundancy, both internally and for ad buyers.
Adweek, citing three unidentified sources, reported earlier Wednesday that Amazon plans to address that confusion and inefficiency by shutting down Freevee in the coming weeks, ahead of the NewFronts.
The tech giant has been cutting costs of late, including in its entertainment operations, implementing layoffs recently at Amazon Studios and also the gamer-centric streaming division Twitch.
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