# Has Amazon Invalidated Freevee With Its Ad-Supported Tier?
Amazon has officially launched the first rollout of its ad-supported tier. As of January 29 this year, anyone who didn’t opt out of Amazon-with-ads now has it. However, some are asking a key question- if Amazon now has ad support, what’s the point of Freevee? Blake & Wang P.A. [entertainment lawyers](https://www.filmtvlaw.com/) firm in USA, Brandon Blake, digs deeper into this seeming step backward for the streamer’s streaming ambitions.

[Brandon Blake](https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-blake-82941b48/)

## Amazon Day- Now with Ads

Unlike most of their competitors, which spent 2023 heavily promoting new ad-supported tiers in the hopes of luring new subscribers and those churning away from their premium tiers, Amazon has taken a different direction. Now, unless you opted-in for the $2.99 price increase to stay ad-free, you will automatically have been shifted to the Amazon ad-supported tier. Like it or not! Despite some heavy indications to Prime Video users, this rather more opaque shift is likely to cause some confusion in the coming weeks, too.

Not the least of which will be, “If I’m now on Amazon with ads, what’s the point of Freevee?” Unlike many of the other free, ad-supported streaming platforms also run by paid streaming companies, Freevee was already fully integrated into the Amazon streaming landscape. Specifically as an ad-supported alternative to the premium streaming platform.

## The Ad-Supported Oddity

Freevee, the rebrand of IMDb TV, has always been a little odd. It’s not quite a FAST (free, ad-supported streaming TV) service. Nor is it just AVOD (ad-supported video on demand). It’s not even totally ‘free’, with Amazon rentals also running through the platform. Many viewers take the name ‘Freevee’ to simply mean free videos on Prime, unaware it is (technically) a standalone service at all.

Now we add Amazon with ads to that mix. We saw NBCUniversal jettison Peacock’s ad-supported tier for this very reason last year. However, NBCUniversal doesn't have the same massive ecosystem that Amazon does, and simplicity was something of a must for them to boost their paid subscriptions. Amazon may keep the service around to offer ad buyers more real estate to play in.

With the January 29 change-over, Amazon now officially has the most ad-supported members of any streaming service. Let’s be fair, however. Most of those ‘subscribers’ are there for the free shipping perks, not the streaming itself. With Amazon keeping their viewing data under wraps, it’s more or less impossible to know how many are actively using the video services, let alone primarily. Or to predict what the swift and not-altogether-clearly-advertised shift to ads-by-default will mean for its already lower engagement with the service. Amazon themselves are far from new to the ad game, however. Even if the net effect is the same (a price increase to stay ad-free), presenting this as a customer-negative opt-out, instead of the more positive opt-in other services have chosen, may have some negative effects on user perception, too.

All in all, it’s a little difficult to fathom at this stage why Amazon itself ignored the potential of Freevee. While they may damage themselves with too many ad-supported video products, it’s not set in stone in any way. This will be an interesting situation to watch as it develops, however.