TV & Streaming

Amazon bulks up its free streaming service with Prime Video originals

Original series like “The Wheel of Time” and “Reacher” will migrate to Freevee this year.
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Amazon’s free ad-supported streaming service Freevee is getting more premium programming.

More than 100 Amazon original shows and movies from Prime Video, including series like The Wheel of Time, Reacher, and The Summer I Turned Pretty, will migrate to Freevee, where they can be supported by traditional ad breaks, the company announced Monday ahead of its annual NewFront presentation.

The move will substantially bulk up Freevee’s content offerings as Amazon leans further into ad-supported video. A number of new shows are coming to Freevee, including new seasons of shows like the crime drama Bosch: Legacy, Judy Justice starring Judge Judy Sheindlin, and a new courtroom series from Sheindlin called Justice on Trial.

  • Amazon’s total reach on its properties and across Amazon Publisher Direct, which lets brands place ads across publishers and services outside its ecosystem, totals an average monthly US audience of 155+ million, Colleen Aubrey, Amazon Ads SVP, ad products and tech, told advertisers packed inside Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall.

Age of ads: Amazon added VideoAmp and iSpot as streaming measurement providers to give advertisers more ways to measure the effectiveness of their ads. Freevee will soon roll out “brand storytelling ads,” which let brands tell sequential stories over the span of several ad breaks.

Play ball: Thursday Night Football will soon feature audience-targeting capabilities in which different viewer segments can be targeted with different creative, the company announced. Interactive video ads, allowing viewers on Fire TV devices to click a “send to phone” or “send to email” button with their remotes to get additional product and purchase information, are also coming to TNF.

In the black: Amazon is looking to cash in on Black Friday. The company will stream the NFL’s first-ever Black Friday Game and will make it available for everyone—not just Prime members.

“The Black Friday game will help brands cut through the clutter and reach fans on one of the busiest shopping days of the year,” Alan Moss, Amazon Ads’ VP, global advertising sales, said.

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