How much of a role does the name play in making a streaming service stand out from the crowd? It’s a question it’s hard not to ask in the wake of a brand new name for IMDB TV, announced this week. Brandon Blake, entertainment lawyer los angeles with Blake & Wang P.A, looks at what a name can do for us in the wake of this announcement.
Amazon Freevee
At first glance, it’s pretty hard to take this new name too seriously. It’s trying all too hard to be cute. However, it does tell you what you’re getting- which mysterious and rather irrelevant names like Fubo, Hulu, and Tubi fail to do entirely. It’s Free, it’s TV, and it’s driven by Amazon. At least the message comes over. It does work particularly well as a synergistic tie to Amazon Prime Video, too. Pay the subscription for premium access to their latest top-tier content (and, of course, their intertwined fast shipping), or take the free offerings from Freevee. To date, few realized that Amazon even owned IMDb, now it’s hard to miss.
The AVOD Boom
It also adequately highlights how seriously streaming platforms are taking AVOD video options. While Amazon still lags somewhat behind Apple TV, Netflix, and Disney as an entertainment industry driver, it’s managed to attract a lot of critical attention over the last few years. With 4 Amazon-produced nominees making their way to the Oscars this year, alongside the onboarding of a glorious catalog of stellar films through their impending takeover of the MGM catalog, they’re worth watching as industry barometers.
IMDB TV has always been a little underrated. Claiming to offer ‘half’ the ads of linear TV, it offers 60 free ad-supported TV channels, and has managed to triple its monthly active user base in two years. We’ve never had the exact number revealed, however. We’ve been promised the new Freevee will bring us 70% growth on originals in 2022, original movies (with the first already greenlit), and a host of new AVOD licensing deals with NBCUniversal for their 2020-21 theatrical slate.
Wherever the new name takes them, it will be interesting to see how this refreshed AVOD-powered addition to the Amazon stable thrives over the next year. We’ll be watching with interest.
