Amazon Freevee, home of ‘Jury Duty,’ shuts down: What does this mean for your favorite shows?

On Tuesday, Amazon announced that it would “phase out” Freevee, its ad-supported video-on-demand streaming service. It is perhaps best known as being the original home of “Jury Duty,” which received four Emmy nominations in 2023 for Best Comedy Series, James Marsden as Best Comedy Supporting Actor, Mekki Leeper as Best Comedy Writing, and Best Comedy Casting. The mockumentary was designed to be a one-off, so a second season was never ordered.

Amazon Freevee will shut down “over the coming weeks,” according to our sister site Deadline. Its content has already migrated over to Prime Video, a paid service. But if you aren’t a Prime subscriber, don’t worry — new episodes of Freevee shows will be available there at no charge. Besides “Jury Duty,” some of Freevee’s original programming includes “Bosch: Legacy,” “Judy Justice,” “Neighbours,” “Tribunal Justice,” and “America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation.”

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Here is the official statement from an Amazon spokesperson:

“We have built Prime Video into a first-stop entertainment destination where customers can personalize their viewing experience by streaming exclusive Prime member entertainment produced by Amazon MGM Studios, licensed movies and series, content from other services as an add-on subscription, live sports, blockbuster movies and series to rent or buy, FAST Channels and the complete Amazon Freevee content offering. To deliver a simpler viewing experience for customers, we have decided to phase out Freevee branding. There will be no change to the content available for Prime members, and a vast offering of free streaming content will still be accessible for non-Prime members, including select Originals from Amazon MGM Studios, a variety of licensed movies and series, and a broad library of FAST Channels – all available on Prime Video.”

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Freevee is still currently available for a limited time in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria. After the phase-out period ends, Freevee’s content will be labeled as “Watch for Free” for non-Prime customers on those specific detail pages.

In February, Amazon reportedly balked at rumors of Freevee’s downfall, calling the service “an important streaming offering providing both Prime and non-Prime customers thousands of hit movies, shows, and originals, all for free.” But insiders started getting suspicious when Freevee was hardly brought up at the Amazon Prime upfront in May, when studios pitch their new content to advertisers.

The good news is that no layoffs are expected, as Freevee’s team has already been integrated into Amazon MGM Studios (for film) and Prime Video (for television). The streamer originally launched in January 2019 as IMDb Freedive, and then rebranded itself as IMDb TV in June 2019. It finally became Amazon Freevee in April 2022.

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