Amazon quietly rebranded its Freevee live FAST channels as "Amazon Prime Video Channels" on its Fire TV OS platform earlier this week, igniting rumors that the Amazon might end the Freevee brand for good soon.
AFTV News was the first to report the change, which seemingly rolled out Wednesday on Amazon’s Fire TV smart TV's and streaming gadgets.
We reached out to Amazon to confirm this speculation, but a company representative wasn’t immediately available for comment.
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The news comes after a February report published by AdWeek indicated that Amazon was planning to sunset the FAST brand. Amazon denied the report. Amazon converted its entire Prime Video streaming kingdom to partial ad support back in January. Streaming pundits have noted the redundancy of Freevee following this shift.
If Amazon decides that it no longer needs a standalone FAST service, the on-demand content on Freevee would likely live as a free tier of Prime Video.
Amazon would hardly be the first company to consolidate its streaming offerings, after Disney announced plans earlier this week to jettison multiple on-demand apps for channels like ABC, Freeform and FX in an effort to push customers towards Disney Plus.
Warner Bros. Discovery also announced earlier that month that it would be shutting down its kids’ streaming service Boomerang, and transition its content to Max.
It’s likely a move to cut down on the redundant back-end costs generated by hosting a number of small apps, as streaming services struggle to turn a profit and shut down viewer churn.
Currently, all of Freevee’s channels are already available to access within the Amazon Prime Video app.
