It’s been less than a month since Amazon Prime began charging subscribers an additional $2.99 a month to continue perusing its video library without ads—a pricing tactic that feels to some suspiciously like extortion. Anyone hoping the pronounced backlash to this initiative might be enough to convince Amazon to walk it back, however, is about to be disappointed.
According to an Adweek report, Amazon is planning to sunset Freevee, its preexisting ad-supported app, as soon as April. This revelation is an unmistakable signal that the company is standing firm with a new ad-supported tier for Prime Video and no longer needs a second similar service—despite that service having created Jury Duty, an Emmy-nominated surprise hit, last year.
Freevee, as its goofy name implies, is a free, ad-supported TV offering that has lived in Prime Video but also functioned as a stand-alone app. Amazon originally launched the service as IMDb TV in 2019, before rebranding it as Freevee in 2022. Prior to the success of Jury Duty, it was mainly known for original series like Bosch: Legacy and American Rust, and for tricking Prime subscribers not paying close enough attention into watching programming that has ads. (All Freevee shows will now reportedly become property of Prime Video proper.)
Although at least one ad rep has downgraded the Adweek report about Freevee to the level of rumor—and Amazon has flat-out denied it—the news certainly makes sense in the context of Amazon’s recent actions. The company announced layoffs in January, with especially hard cuts among Freevee’s marketing and strategy staff (two of three directors apparently moved over to Prime Video).
What makes far less sense, however, is the timing of this news. If Amazon had been planning to jettison Freevee after rolling out the ad-supported tier, why not just announce both moves at the same time? The monthlong lag is even more puzzling when considering another revelation in the Adweek report, that “the company is actively monitoring consumer feedback and rates of churn to determine the success of the initiative, according to three people familiar with the matter.”
If Amazon is indeed monitoring the churn rate while evaluating whether its Prime Video plan is a success, announcing the end of Freevee now suggests the company may ignore any negative findings. It’s a move that seems designed to project confidence in the new $2.99-per-month ad-free option. Perhaps the reason for the timing of the announcement has to do with something that has happened in the weeks since the recent change to Prime Video—a lawsuit over false advertising, which may eventually reach class-action status.
The announcement comes at a time when many Prime Video users may be on the fence about upgrading, since Amazon could conceivably be on the brink of backing down over the lawsuit. What better way to convince those users of Amazon’s commitment to the new regime than booting its fallback plan?
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