Amazon just gave its ad-supported Freevee streaming service a big batch of new content, including Reacher, The Wheel of Time, and roughly 100 other Prime Video shows.
Reacher will join fellow Prime Video shows The Summer I Turned Pretty, The Wheel of Time, A League of Their Own, and LuLaRich on Freevee starting this month, while other Prime Video shows will begin streaming on Freevee in subsequent months, as Variety reports.
What makes Amazon’s decision to bring a truckload of Prime Video shows to Freevee interesting is that the titles will remain on the main Prime Video service in their original ad-free format, Variety says.
That means we’re not talking about a situation like HBO’s Westworld, which was unceremoniously pulled off HBO Max late last year and then reemerged on Roku with ads, which is the only way you can stream that show now.
One caveat about the Freevee news is that not all of its new Prime Video titles will be available in their entirety.
For example, only the first three episodes of A League of Their Own, The Terminal List, Paper Girls, Goliath, and The Tick will be available for free streaming on Freevee, making them more like teasers for the paid Prime Video service, according to TechCrunch.
That said, other Prime Video shows will arrive with full seasons on Freevee, including Homecoming, Upload, and The Vast of Night, TechCrunch says.
Amazon’s ad-supported streaming service began its life as IMDb Freedrive back in 2019, before morphing into IMDb TV about six months later.
It wasn’t until a year ago that Amazon gave IMDb its latest makeover, rebranding the streamer as Freevee.
The service kicked off with Bosch: Legacy, a spinoff of Prime Video’s popular Bosch series, among other original shows.
Now, Freevee has a genuine hit on its hands with Jury Duty, a mockumentary-style show starring James Marsden that’s been lighting up social media.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he covers smart speakers, soundbars, and other smart and home-theater devices. You can follow Ben on Twitter.