It’s official – Amazon’s Freevee has finally kicked the bucket.
After months of warnings, the free, ad-supported streaming service (which launched in the UK back in 2022) has stopped working on smartphones today, redirecting users to Prime Video instead.
Though in typical tech fashion, it’s a bit of a messy breakup – while the smartphone app is dead and buried, Freevee is somehow still clinging to life on Fire TV devices – for now.
If you’re wondering where those free shows you’ve been watching have gone, don’t panic – they’re still available, but finding them might require a bit more effort than before.
The Final Freevee Shutdown
Throughout August, Freevee users have been seeing those shutdown warnings, but the app continued to work normally. This continued into September, with the service still functioning on the 1st and 2nd.
Today marks the actual end, as smartphone users attempting to open the Freevee app are now redirected to Prime Video.
Strangely, the Freevee app on Fire TV devices still works at the time of writing – though this will likely change soon as Amazon completes the shutdown.
However, we’ve seen some “dead” apps continue functioning long after their official expiration dates before – these tech zombies have surprising staying power, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Where Has All The Content Gone?
The good news is that Freevee’s content hasn’t disappeared. The old Freevee UK domain now points to a dedicated ‘Free with Ads’ page on Prime Video, which includes all the free content that was previously available on Freevee.
In fact, there appears to be even more content in this section than Freevee previously offered, including the first season of Upload and several other titles that weren’t always part of the Freevee lineup.
The bad news? Finding this content organically through the Prime Video app is like searching for a needle in a digital haystack. While the content is definitely there, the ‘Free with Ads’ category isn’t exactly prominently featured on the Prime Video homescreen.
For anyone looking to access this content directly, you can use this link, which will take you straight to the free content section without having to navigate Prime Video’s menus.
What Exactly Was Freevee?
For those who never had the pleasure (or perhaps never knew what they were watching), Freevee was Amazon’s free, ad-supported streaming service that had a rather winding journey over its lifetime.
Originally launched in the US as Freedive back in 2019, it was rebranded to IMDb TV before finally settling on the Freevee name when it properly launched in the UK in 2022.
Despite the identity crisis, the service consistently offered the same basic proposition: free, ad-supported streaming that didn’t require a paid subscription.
Freevee made its biggest splash in the UK when it became the exclusive home for the reboot of Neighbours after Channel 5 dropped the beloved Aussie soap.
This was a significant move at the time, demonstrating Amazon’s willingness to splash some cash on original content specifically for their free platform (though sadly, the show was cancelled yet again earlier this year – poor Ramsay Street can’t catch a break).
Beyond Neighbours, Freevee hosted other originals like Bosch: Legacy and the Emmy-nominated Jury Duty, alongside a decent library of older films, TV shows, and FAST channels that provided linear-style viewing without the need for traditional TV equipment.
A Long Time Coming
The shutdown shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s been following the story. Rumours about Freevee’s potential demise first started circulating in early 2024, though Amazon initially denied them, telling us here at Cord Busters that “Freevee remains an important streaming offering” with no changes planned.
By November 2024, however, the company had changed its tune, officially announcing plans to phase out the Freevee brand.
The writing was probably on the wall back in January 2024 when Amazon introduced adverts to Prime Video, blurring the lines between their paid and free services.
After that November announcement, it took Amazon nearly another year to actually pull the plug, with the shutdown warnings first appearing in the app in July 2025. Talk about a long goodbye.
What This Means for You
If you were a regular Freevee user, here’s what you need to know:
- The smartphone app is now dead – it will just redirect you to Prime Video
- The Fire TV app may still work temporarily, but don’t count on it lasting
- All (or at least most) free content has moved to the ‘Free with Ads’ section on Prime Video
- You’ll need an Amazon account to access this content, but not a Prime subscription
- Advert breaks will continue to interrupt your viewing, just as they did on Freevee
The most challenging aspect of this transition is simply finding the free content among Prime Video’s subscription offerings.
Without a direct link, it’s not immediately obvious where to look for these free shows and films – almost as if Amazon would prefer you just sign up for Prime instead.
With the Freevee brand now officially consigned to the digital dustbin, questions remain about Amazon’s long-term commitment to free, ad-supported content.
Without a dedicated platform or brand to promote, will they continue investing in expensive original productions that don’t directly drive Prime subscriptions?
The recent cancellation of Neighbours might already provide a hint at the answer.
What’s particularly interesting is that this shutdown comes at a time when the free, ad-supported streaming market is actually booming.
With Tubi’s return to the UK and services like Pluto TV and ITVX’s free tier attracting viewers tired of subscription fatigue, competition in this space is heating up rather than cooling down.
Amazon’s decision to tuck these free offerings inside Prime Video rather than maintain a separate service seems to be about streamlining their products and positioning Prime Video as an all-in-one solution for both paid and free content.
However, the relative obscurity of the ‘Free with Ads’ section within the Prime Video interface tells its own story. If Amazon was truly committed to this free content, wouldn’t they make it a bit easier to find?
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