Amazon’s ad-supported video streaming service, IMDb TV, is being rebranded. It will be known as Amazon Freevee, starting April 27.
The service plans to expand its original movies and shows as well, according to an Amazon statement.
It’s not the first name change for the service. When IMDb first started streaming videos and TV shows on Amazon platforms in 2019, the service was briefly called Freedive. Six months later, it switched back to IMDb.
Amazon has seen “tremendous growth” for the service over the last two years, said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios, in a statement. The service licenses content from other studios but also has increasingly been introducing original shows, such as the cop drama “Pretty Hard Cases.”
“We’re looking forward to building on this momentum with an increasing slate of inventive and broadly appealing originals,” said Salke. The service plans to add on original movies, including a rom-com called “Love Accidentally.”
IMDb had 16 employees when it was acquired by Amazon in 1998. It was launched in 1990 in England by movie buff Col Needham to catalog the films he liked, according to a blog post on Amazon.
The acronym IMDb stands for “Internet Movie Database.” It was Amazon’s first acquisition.
