It looks like Amazon’s free streaming service Freevee isn’t dead after all.
“There are no changes to Freevee. Amazon Freevee remains an important streaming offering providing both Prime and non-Prime customers thousands of hit movies, shows, and Originals, all for free,” a company spokeswoman told Cord Cutters News.
The denial comes after AdWeek reported that Freevee would be shut down by the online retail giant in the coming months, citing similar business models between FreeVee and Prime Video, which now has ads. Freevee was a free, ad-supported service that was available to anyone, even if they didn’t have a Prime subscription.
But Freevee’s fate was in question after Amazon introduced ads to Prime Video. Having two ad-supported streaming services potentially confuses advertisers, and splits the focus of the sales team.
AdWeek updated its story to note that Freevee could serve as the bottom of a three-tier offering, with Freevee being the so-called FAST option like The Roku Channel, the basic Prime Video being the ad-based subscription service, and the $2.99-a-month ad-free tier being the premium option.
Still, Freevee’s shutdown would’ve been surprising simply because nearly every other company is introducing a free, ad-supported service, with offerings like The Roku Channel and Tubi regularly making the top charts among streaming services. Walmart on Tuesday said it was acquiring Vizio for $2.3 billion partly to get access to its WatchFree+ free streaming service.
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