EXCLUSIVE: It’s official: the free, ad-supported video-on-demand streaming service Amazon Freevee, home to originals like Jury Duty, Bosch: Legacy And Judy Justicewill be phased out in the coming weeks. The content, which has already been migrated and available on Prime Video, will remain there, with new episodes of Freevee shows including Judy Justice, Neighbors, Tribunal Justice, America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation And Bosch: legacy as well as older originals included Jury duty, high school, Hollywood home elevator with Jeff Lewis And Primofor the paywall to remain and available to non-Prime customers.

The update will be rolled out in the areas where Freevee is currently available: the US, UK, Germany and Austria. Moving forward, content currently labeled as Freevee will be labeled “View Free” on the detail pages for non-Prime customers.

No layoffs are expected as a result of the move. As part of previous restructurings, Freevee’s content team had already been integrated into Amazon MGM Studios; the business team is part of Prime Video.

With the consolidation, Amazon is banking on the fact that Prime Video is already a hybrid destination for both Prime members and non-members. It’s broader than a typical streamer, as it also offers new and old movies to rent or buy, a library of FAST channels, and samples of Prime Video paywall originals like the first season of The summer when I became beautiful, first three episodes of The boys and the first episode of Fallout. That will continue.

“We have built Prime Video into a premier entertainment destination where customers can personalize their viewing experience by streaming exclusive Prime member entertainment produced by Amazon MGM Studios, licensed movies and series, content from other services as an add-on subscription, live sports, blockbuster movies and series to rent or buy, FAST Channels and the full content offering of Amazon Freevee,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “To provide customers with an easier viewing experience, we have decided to phase out the Freevee branding. There will be no changes to the content available to Prime members, and an extensive range of free streaming content will still be accessible to non-Prime members, including select originals from Amazon MGM Studios, a variety of licensed films and series , and a wide library of FAST channels – all available on Prime Video.”

Speculation about Freevee’s demise has been circulating since Amazon announced late last year that Prime Video would introduce ads on January 29, 2024. The move largely eliminated the distinction between Prime Video, Amazon’s video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming platform, and and Freevee, its sibling AVOD service. (With the acquisition of MGM, Amazon also owns SVOD platform MGM+.)

Freevee helped Amazon gain its footing in the advertising industry. The company then immediately became the dominant player in the field when Prime Video transitioned to an ad-supported model, having been partially in the game since acquiring Thursday night football.

Still, Amazon in February pushed back on rumors that it was planning to close Freevee, calling the platform “an important streaming offering that provides Prime and non-Prime customers with thousands of popular movies, shows and originals, all for free.”

But there was very little mention of Freevee in advance during Amazon Prime in May, with Prime Video the main focus of the company’s pitch to advertisers.

Freevee wrote original series such as American Rust: Broken Justice and the next one On call had already started migrating to Prime Video before ads were introduced. That was followed in recent months by the announcement that the third and final season of Bosch: legacy would be shared via Freevee and Prime Video, featuring Freevee’s latest new scripted series, The Pradeeps of Pittsburghwhich also recently debuted on both platforms. Shows as Judy Justice, Tribunal Justice And Hollywood Home Lift with Jeff Lewis were also made available on Prime Video, while the Freevee live FAST channels were rebranded as Amazon Prime Video Channels on Fire TV.

While scripted series development was centralized companywide at Amazon MGM Studios, producers could still have pitched shows to Freevee. I recently heard that all upcoming pitch meetings and all pending deals for such projects have been canceled.

Freevee has its origins in January 2019, when it was launched by Amazon subsidiary IMDb as Freedive. It was subsequently rebranded as IMDb TV, Freevee and Amazon Freevee.

Jury duty proved to be a breakout hit for Freevee, earning four Emmy nominations, including one for Outstanding Comedy Series. Other notable series that originated at Freevee include Bosch: legacy, continuing one of Prime Video’s signature series.

Amazon hasn’t published viewership figures but said in 2022, when it rebranded the service as Freevee, that its monthly active user base had tripled to 65 million between 2020 and ’22.