• by Wayne Friedman , February 21, 2024

Amazon Freevee is not going away.

Responding to reports of the free ad-supported television (FAST) service's demise, Amazon representatives told Television News Daily: “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 report in Adweek on Wednesday said Freevee was likely to “sunset” in the second quarter, possibly before the NewFronts presentations in April.

The FAST service started up January 2019 under the brand name IMdb Freedive, then becoming IMdb TV in June of that year. It was rebranded to its current name Freevee in April 2022.

Earlier this year, the company’s bigger subscription video-on-demand service, Amazon Prime Video, started up an advertising option, which runs four minutes of advertising per hour.

Consumers have the option of continuing Prime Video as an ad-free service for an extra $2.99 a month.

Prime Video -- part of the  broader Amazon Prime e-commerce service -- had been an ad-free subscription service since its inception in September 2006. Amazon Prime’s current price is $14.99 a month/$139 a year.

Pricing estimates for advertising on Prime Video are at a low $30 to $35 for the cost per thousand (CPM) users, according to reports.

Analysts believe that given the size of Amazon Prime Video in the marketplace, this pricing structure will push down CPMs on other streaming/connected TV services.