Amazon Rebrands Freedive as IMDb TV, Plans European Rollout
Amazon's Freedive streaming service will still be free, but it won't be called Freedive any longer. Instead, the service has been rebranded IMDb TV after only 6 months since it first launched in January. As you might expect from a name that combines the Internet Movie Database with TV, the service includes both television shows and movies.
IMDb TV has also tripled its content offering, according to a press release, and will launch in Europe before the end of 2019. Amazon has struck new deals with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, and MGM Studios, and is bringing big-name movies like Captain Fantastic and La La Land to the service July 1. That's the first time La La Land will be available on an ad-supported streaming service, the release said. Other popular catalog movies on or coming to the service include Drive, Paddington, Dances With Wolves, Sense and Sensibility, as well as TV titles on the service include Fringe, The Bachelor, and Kitchen Nightmares.Oh, and you can get your Gilligan's Island fix, too.
"With IMDb TV, viewers have discovered TV the way it ought to be—a free collection of premium TV shows and movies available anytime," said Mark Eamer, vice president of IMDb TV. "We deliver a top-quality discovery experience that makes it easy to be entertained. With more titles than ever before coming to IMDb TV and our upcoming European expansion later this year, we’re excited for customers to tune in and enjoy all that IMDb TV has to offer, all at no cost."
IMDb TV is available now in the U.S. on the IMDb website and within Amazon's Prime Video app, and amazon claims that the service has "half the ads of network TV."
No date has been set for the service's European launch.