Amazon Denies Report That Freevee is Shutting Down

Update 2/21/2024, 1:30 p.m. ET – Despite a report to the contrary, Amazon says it has no plans to close down Freevee, their free, ad-supported streaming platform. The retail and streaming giant released a statement this afternoon, following a flood of reports based on claims published at AdWeek. In a statement, the company told 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."

Original story continues below.

Freevee, the Amazon-owned streaming service that has been the home to shows like Leverage: Redemption and Judy Justice, is reportedly shutting down. A new report says that Amazon will be shutting down Freevee in the coming months, presumably to migrate its content to Prime Video. Streaming video broadly has seen a shift toward free, advertiser-supported TV (FAST) options, which would make the dismantling of Freevee seem strange -- except that Amazon recently rolled out an ad-supported tier for Prime Video, their flagship streaming service. In fact, they made the ad-supported tier a default setting, asking users to affirmatively opt in to paying more for ad-free service.

In addition to reruns of old shows like Columbo and revivals like Leverage and Judge Judy, Freevee last year introduced Jury Duty, one of its most popular original series. AdWeek spoke with two insiders who suggested it was unlikely Freevee would make it all the way through NewFronts -- the digital version of TV's upfronts, where networks present content to potential advertisers -- which take place in April.

"If the question is whether or not Amazon will persist with two stand-alone streaming services," one of AdWeek's sources told them, "I'm certain the answer is no."

Unsurprisingly, Amazon declined to comment for AdWeek's story.

Barring more changes to Prime Video's structure, the change would be a net loss for consumers. While there is an "ad-supported" version of Prime Video, even that comes as a free add-on to Amazon Prime, a service that offers free shipping and other perks for $139 per year. If they kill Freevee, then, Amazon will have to decide between losing consumers unwilling to pay for ad-supported content, or removing the paywall that keeps The Boys and Invincible from people without Prime memberships. While the latter seems more likely, it would technically be another perk that Prime users would be losing, reducing the value of their subscription dollars.

Both Leverage: Redemption and American Rust have already been migrated to Prime Video ahead of their upcoming seasons.

"This change will allow us to continue investing in compelling content and keep increasing that investment over a long period of time," Amazon said when they added the ad supported tier. "We aim to have meaningfully fewer ads than linear TV and other streaming TV providers."