Amazon Freevee

• 1. Three Names, One Service

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  Amazon Freevee's first name lasted five months. Through three names and six years, the service offered free television supported by advertising and required no subscription. How a movie database became a free-streaming platform is one question worth asking. Why Amazon ultimately decided the platform could not stand apart from Prime Video is the other.

• 2. From IMDb to Freevee

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  IMDb Freedive launched in January 2019, attached to Amazon's online film and television database. On the 17th of June 2019, the service announced it would become IMDb TV. That change came alongside new deals with Warner Bros. Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and MGM Studios. MGM was still an independent studio at the time; Amazon would not complete its acquisition of the company until the 17th of March 2022.

  On the 20th of February 2020, Amazon moved IMDb TV's content team to Amazon Studios. Two new co-heads were put in charge, with a mandate to develop original programming.

  The third name arrived on the 28th of April 2022. Amazon Freevee replaced IMDb TV. Announced at the same time were expansion plans. Germany would receive the service later that year. Original programming would grow by 70 percent in 2022. On the 3rd of August 2022, Freevee launched in Germany. The platform was then accessible in three countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany. Access came through Amazon, through IMDb's websites, and on all Amazon Fire devices. Germany marked the furthest international reach Freevee would ever achieve.

• 3. Original Ambitions

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  Judy Justice premiered on the 1st of November 2021 with an initial order of 120 episodes for its first season. Judith Sheindlin had spent 25 seasons on Judge Judy. That run was ending amid a dispute between Sheindlin and CBS Media Ventures, the show's distributor. Amazon announced the new series on the 29th of October 2020, describing it as a spiritual successor to Judge Judy.

  In March 2022, the series was renewed for a second season. The first season had by then recorded over 25 million hours of viewership. That figure made Judy Justice the most-watched original the platform had produced. By 2023, Sheindlin had executive-produced a spin-off, Tribunal Justice, which also aired on the service.

  Leverage, a crime drama that had originally aired in 2008, was revived in 2020. That made it the first major exclusive series the service commissioned. Before Leverage arrived, IMDb TV had licensed Corner Gas Animated, a Canadian animated series. On the 3rd of October 2019, IMDb TV announced that deal. The show joined a franchise that already included the live-action Corner Gas series and the film Corner Gas: The Movie.

  Alex Rider premiered on the 13th of November 2020. The series was an adaptation developed by Eleventh Hour Films and Sony Pictures Television, based on a young-adult espionage property. On the 22nd of February 2021, Norman Lear set up two projects at IMDb TV. One was a half-hour comedy, Clean Slate; the other was an hour-long drama, Loteria.

  By April 2022, Bosch: Legacy, a spinoff of the Prime Video series Bosch, was confirmed to premiere on the 6th of May 2022. High School, adapted by Clea DuVall from the memoir by Tegan and Sara, was also announced for a 2022 premiere. Love Accidentally, a romantic comedy starring Brenda Song and Aaron O'Connell, was named the first original film the service would release. Also ordered in April 2022 were Play-Doh: Squished, Beyond Black Beauty, and a food competition series called America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation.

• 4. Licensing the Library

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  On the 6th of December 2019, Chicago Fire, the NBC drama, began streaming on the platform. IMDb TV described the deal as the biggest single licensing pact it had completed to date. On the 31st of December 2019, all five seasons of Friday Night Lights, a Universal Television series, became available.

  In February 2020, the service acquired rights to more than twenty scripted television titles from the Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International division. In June and July 2020, several Star Trek films joined the catalog. Beginning on the 15th of July 2020, all 92 episodes of the AMC series Mad Men became available, following a licensing deal with Lionsgate.

  In January 2021, Almost Paradise, a former WGN America series from producer Dean Devlin, was acquired. Amazon Freevee later ordered a second season; it premiered on the 21st of July 2023.

  A multi-year deal with Universal Pictures followed in July 2021. Films from Universal's library became available for free, including The Invisible Man. Most Universal titles would also appear ad-free on Prime Video. Future releases from Universal would become available on Prime Video four months after their Peacock window.

  On the 3rd of November 2021, the UK service expanded with content from FilmRise, MovieSphere, MagellanTV, and SPI's Docustream. Program-themed channels were added at the same time. They were built around Deadly Women, Are We There Yet?, Bridezillas, Unsolved Mysteries, This Old House, MythBusters, and Hell's Kitchen.

  In November 2022, Amazon Freevee announced a revival of Neighbours. The Australian soap opera had been cancelled after the UK's Channel 5 dropped it. Freevee would carry new episodes in the United Kingdom and the United States. Archive episodes would also be available. Network 10 would remain the series' first-run broadcaster in Australia.

  In May 2023, more than 100 Prime Video titles became available on Freevee. Some came in full; others offered only selected episodes. That transfer was the last major addition the platform's catalog would ever receive.

• 5. Absorbed Into Prime

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  In February 2024, reports emerged that Amazon planned to shut down Freevee and refocus on Prime Video. Amazon initially denied those plans. By November 2024, the company reversed course. Freevee would be discontinued, with its content merged into a free, ad-supported section of Prime Video rather than removed entirely. On the 3rd of September 2025, the apps were decommissioned. The November 2024 plan preserved Freevee's catalog rather than erasing it. That programming would continue in Prime Video's free ad-supported section, available to subscribers at no extra cost.