CULVER CITY, Calif.—Amazon’s free streaming service IMBd TV has announced plans to rebrand itself as Amazon Freevee on April 27.
In announcing the rebrand, Amazon reported that over the last two years, the ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service with more than 60 FAST channels has experienced rapid growth—tripling monthly active users.
Freeveee also unveiled ambitious plans to expand its slate of originals, which are scheduled to grow by 70% this year and announced that the service, which is already available in the U.S. and U.K., will continue its international expansion with a launch in Germany later this year.
Amazon’s free streaming service will announce additional greenlights of original content at its NewFronts presentation on May 2.
“Over the past two years, we have seen tremendous growth for our AVOD service and are committed to bringing our audiences premium, free-to-consumer content,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “We’re looking forward to building on this momentum with an increasing slate of inventive and broadly appealing Originals, and are excited to establish Freevee as the premier AVOD service with content audiences crave.”
“Customers are increasingly shifting to streaming ad-supported premium content, and we have developed Freevee to deliver them highly sought content with half the commercials of traditional TV,” said Ashraf Alkarmi, director of Freevee. “Our new name clearly communicates who we are: An easy-to-navigate streaming service, available to users for free, whenever and wherever they choose to watch some of the greatest Original and licensed content available."
The free streaming service will also add exclusive Original movies to the content slate, starting with a greenlight order for the workplace rom-com "Love Accidentally," starring Brenda Song and Aaron O’Connell.
