 Logo used since 2022-present | |
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| Available in | English, German |
| Founded | January 11, 2019 |
| Area served | United States United Kingdom Germany Austria |
| Parent | Amazon |
| URL | www |
| Current status | Active |
Amazon Freevee (stylized as freevee and fv), also shortened as Freevee, formerly known as IMDb Freedive and IMDb TV, and sometimes spelled FV, is an American ad-supported video-on-demand (VOD) streaming service owned by Amazon, with original and licensed programming.
Freevee content is presented to Amazon Prime Video users within Prime's smart TV app interface. Aside from the commercial breaks and the absence of Prime's "X-ray" cast list information, the interface, features, and navigation are identical to the Prime user experience. Freevee also functions as a standalone app for use by non-Prime users.
Amazon Freevee launched as a free, ad-supported video channel by the Amazon-owned online database IMDb in January 2019, under the name IMDb Freedive, before becoming IMDb TV five months later; it was rebranded to its current name on April 28, 2022. [1]
The service is available in the United States, as well as the UK and Germany through Amazon and IMDb's websites as well as on all Amazon Fire devices. [2]
On June 17, 2019, IMDb Freedive announced its rebranding to IMDb TV. Signing new deals with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment and MGM Studios (which parent company Amazon later acquired on March 17, 2022), [3] the streaming service began offering new content. [4] Amazon announced that it would be moving IMDb TV's content team to within Amazon Studios on February 20, 2020, with the goal of developing original programming under new IMDb TV co-heads. [5]
In September 2021, Amazon announced the launch of IMDb TV in the United Kingdom; before then, it was available only in the United States. [6]
On April 13, 2022, it was announced that the service would be rebranded as Amazon Freevee beginning on April 27. [7] It was also announced that it would launch in Germany later that year, and would expand its original programming by 70% in 2022. [8] The rebrand occurred on April 28, 2022. Its first announced moves post-rebrand included renewing Bosch: Legacy pre-premiere as well as Top Class, ordering America's Test Kitchen: The Next Generation and a new series adaptation of Black Beauty and expanding Play-Doh: Squished beyond its holiday special. [9]
On August 3, 2022, Amazon Freevee was launched in Germany. [10]
On February 21, 2024, it was reported that Amazon was planning to shut down Freevee in order to focus on Prime Video. [11] However, a spokesperson for Amazon denied the reports. [12]
A revival of the 2008 crime drama series Leverage was ordered by IMDb TV, making it the first major original series for the streaming service. [13]
On October 3, 2019, IMDb TV announced it licensed the Canadian animated series Corner Gas Animated as a branded original series, joining the live-action comedy franchise Corner Gas and the feature film Corner Gas: The Movie , which were both on the streaming platform. [14]
IMDb TV acquired the rights to Eleventh Hour Films and Sony Pictures Television's young-adult espionage series Alex Rider , premiering a series adaptation on November 13, 2020. [15]
On October 29, 2020, Amazon Studios announced it would produce for the service the successor program to Judge Judy , entitled Judy Justice and still starring former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. Production on Judy Justice began as CBS's long-running Judge Judy ended on July 23, 2021. [16] Judy Justice premiered on IMDb TV on November 1, 2021. With significantly high stakes in the program, Amazon ordered 120 episodes for the first season alone which concluded on April 15, 2022, and served as the largest initial order package for a streaming series. Amazon has bargained on Sheindlin to attract her legions of viewers and fanfare from Judge Judy over to their streaming service for Judy Justice. [17] Towards the end of the first season, Judy Justice was granted a second season after it was hailed as a big hit for Freevee with record viewership hours for the streaming service (viewership results measured by hours watched as opposed to rating numbers as Nielsen ratings does not cover streaming services). [18]
Sheindlin's personal production team will bring another court show to Freevee, entitled Tribunal Justice. The program will feature her longtime Judge Judy program bailiff, Petri Hawkins-Byrd. The series will be presented in the form of a 3-judge panel, like Hot Bench (another production from Sheindlin, only for CBS). Tribunal will be presided over by now former Hot Bench judges, Tanya Acker and Patricia DiMango, along with Sheindlin's son, former district attorney Adam Levy. [18]
On February 22, 2021, it was announced that Norman Lear had set up two projects at IMDb TV, half-hour long comedy Clean Slate and hour-long drama Loteria. [19]
On April 13, 2022, it was announced that a spinoff of the Prime Video series Bosch , titled Bosch: Legacy, would premiere on the service on May 6, 2022, and that the coming-of-age series High School , based on the memoir by Tegan and Sara and adapted by Clea DuVall, would premiere in 2022. It was also announced that the service would add original films to its slate, beginning with the romantic comedy Love Accidentally, starring Brenda Song and Aaron O'Connell. [8]
IMDb TV announced it would begin streaming the NBC drama Chicago Fire on December 6, 2019, making the deal the biggest single licensing pact to date for the streaming service. In addition, IMDb TV announced it would also begin streaming all five seasons of Universal Television's Friday Night Lights starting on December 31, 2019. [20]
In February 2020, IMDb TV acquired the rights to more than twenty scripted TV titles controlled by Walt Disney Direct-to-Consumer & International division and began streaming several Star Trek films in June and July 2020. Starting July 15, 2020, IMDb TV began streaming all 92 episodes of the AMC series Mad Men after completing a licensing deal with Lionsgate. [21] [22]
In July 2021, Amazon and Universal Pictures reached a multi-year deal to bring Universal's films to IMDb TV. As part of the deal, titles from Universal's library would become available, making films including The Invisible Man eligible to stream on IMDb TV for free. Most of the studio's titles will be also available ad-free on Prime Video, including future theatrical releases following their first pay window and four months after being released on Peacock. [23]
On November 3, 2021, IMDb TV UK began streaming content from FilmRise, MovieSphere, MagellanTV and SPI's Docustream, along with program-themed channels based on shows Deadly Women , Are We There Yet? , Bridezillas , Unsolved Mysteries , This Old House , MythBusters , and Hell's Kitchen . [24]
In November 2022, it was announced the company was entering a partnership with Fremantle, to launch a revival of soap opera Neighbours , which will go into filming on April 17, 2023 and broadcast on September 18, 2023. [25]
In May 2023, Amazon announced it would make over 100 Amazon Original series and films from Amazon Prime Video available on Freevee. Some shows will also be available in full while others will only have a selection of episodes. [26]
Judge Judy is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudicated real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated courtroom set. Prior to the proceedings, all involved parties signed arbitration contracts agreeing to Sheindlin's ruling. The show aired in first-run syndication. As it was during its active years in production, it continues to be distributed by CBS Media Ventures in syndication, now in reruns that still draw notably high ratings.
Judith Susan Sheindlin, known professionally as Judge Judy, is an American attorney, court-show arbitrator, media personality, television producer, philanthropist, and former prosecutor and Manhattan family court judge.
IMDb is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, plot summaries, trivia, ratings, and fan and critical reviews. IMDb began as a fan-operated movie database on the Usenet group "rec.arts.movies" in 1990, and moved to the Web in 1993. Since 1998, it has been owned and operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon.
Judge Joe Brown is an American arbitration-based reality court show starring former Shelby County, Tennessee criminal court judge Joseph B. Brown. The series premiered on September 14, 1998 and ran through the 2012–13 television season for a total of fifteen seasons. Joe Brown was the second highest paid daytime television personality behind Judge Judy during the time the show was running.
Petri Hawkins-Byrd, better known as Bailiff Byrd or simply Byrd, is an American court show bailiff, television personality, social media personality, actor, voice actor, writer, and former New York State Court Officer.
Amazon Prime Video, or simply Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered both as a stand-alone service and as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced by Amazon MGM Studios or licensed to Amazon, as Amazon Originals, with the service also hosting content from other providers, content add-ons, live sporting events, and video rental and purchasing services.
MGM+, formerly known as Epix, is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by the MGMPlus Entertainment subsidiary of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which is itself a subsidiary of Amazon MGM Studios. The channel's programming consists of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, original television series, documentaries, and music and comedy specials.
A court show is a broadcast programming subgenre comprising legal dramas and reality legal programming. Court shows present content mainly in the form of legal hearings between plaintiffs and defendants presided over in one of two formats: scripted/improvised with an actor portraying a judge; or an arbitration-based reality format with the case handled by an adjudicator who was formerly a judge or attorney.
Bosch is an American police procedural television series produced by Amazon Studios and Fabrik Entertainment starring Titus Welliver as Los Angeles Police Department detective Harry Bosch. The show was developed for Amazon by Eric Overmyer, and the first season takes its inspiration from the Michael Connelly novels City of Bones (2002), Echo Park (2006), and The Concrete Blonde (1994). It was one of two drama pilots that Amazon streamed online in early 2014, and viewers offered their opinions on it before the studio decided whether to place a series order. The seventh and final season was released on June 25, 2021.
Fisher Klingenstein Ventures, LLC, doing business as FilmRise, is a New York–based film/television studio and streaming network, which has become one of the largest independent providers of content to ad-supported streaming (AVOD) platforms, in addition to providing the largest free direct to consumer service with its 22 owned-and-operated streaming channels, the "FilmRise Streaming Network". Currently, the FilmRise Streaming Network has reported more than 31.5 million downloads in the U.S. and can be seen on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Comcast, iOS, Android and Apple, among other platforms. FilmRise also syndicates its own digital linear channels to platforms including The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus, and Amazon's Freevee and Vizio.
Hot Bench is an American nontraditional panel-based court show that debuted in first-run syndication on September 15, 2014. The series is produced by Judge Judy's Judge Judy Sheindlin, who also created the program and concept with executive producers Randy Douthit, Maureen FitzPatrick, and David Theodosopoulos and co-executive producer James Glover for CBS Media Ventures.
Earth's Fury is an American documentary television series that ran on The Learning Channel from February 24, 1997 to November 17, 1998.
Alex Rider is a British spy thriller television series based on the novel series of the same name by Anthony Horowitz. Adapted by Guy Burt, it stars Otto Farrant as the eponymous character, who is recruited by a subdivision of MI6 as a teenage spy to infiltrate places that others are unable to. The series is Amazon's first scripted British Amazon Original series. The show is jointly produced by Eleventh Hour Films and Sony Pictures Television, and is the second screen adaptation of the novels, following the 2006 feature film version of the first novel, Stormbreaker.
Almost Paradise is an American-Philippine crime drama television series produced by Dean Devlin and Gary Rosen. The series is the first American television series to be filmed entirely in the Philippines. It premiered on March 30, 2020, on WGN America in the United States. The series was renewed for a second season on Amazon Freevee, with all 10 episodes premiering on July 21, 2023.
Judy Justice is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. Judy Justice is both a spin-off and continuation of courtroom series Judge Judy (1996–2021). The show features Sheindlin adjudicating real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated courtroom set. Prior to the proceedings, all involved parties sign arbitration contracts agreeing to Sheindlin's ruling.
High School is a coming-of-age drama television series developed by Clea DuVall and Tegan and Sara Quin, based on the 2019 memoir of the same name by the Quins. It premiered on Amazon Freevee on October 14, 2022.
Love Accidentally is a 2022 American romantic comedy film written by Robert Dean Klein, directed by Peter Sullivan, and starring Brenda Song and Aaron O'Connell. It was released on Amazon Freevee on July 15, 2022.
Sprung is an American crime comedy television series created by Greg Garcia. It premiered on the streaming service Amazon Freevee on August 19, 2022.
Tribunal Justice is an American arbitration-based reality court show created by Judge Judy Sheindlin. It premiered on Amazon Freevee on June 9, 2023.
UK originals are not included on the launch slate but the AVOD streamer has been expanding rapidly, with the aforementioned US commissions joining series including Leverage: Redemption, a Bosch spinoff, the second season of Alex Rider and comedy series Sprung.
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