I don’t expect many people to have used or heard of IMDB TV, Amazon’s free, ad-supported TV streaming service that until now was bizarrely named after the Internet Movie Database.
And that might be why, according to Variety, IMDB TV has decided to rebrand as Amazon Freevee, a name that isn’t necessarily more appealing but does make it clear that we’re dealing with a free TV service owned by Amazon.
Free tv —
Freevee was technically launched in 2019, but is part of the current onslaught of free, ad-supported TV providers sweeping through your preferred app store of choice, including Tubi, Plex, Pluto, and now even YouTube.
Freevee née IMDB TV is mostly home to licensed content from linear TV networks — I remember a window in 2020 when it was one of the only ways to stream AMC’s Mad Men — but Amazon has recently started heavily investing in original content for the platform as well. A revival of cult hit series Leverage called Leverage: Redemption streamed last year and a spin-off of cop drama Bosch called Bosch: Legacy is supposed to arrive next month.
Maybe not the splashiest additions to the TV canon, but in a world where increasingly every media company wants to charge you a monthly subscription for content (and frequently fails at it), I can’t be too mad about free TV. Especially not with a goofy name like Freevee.
