Freedive, Amazon’s free video-on-demand service, serves up new video advertising opportunities

IMDb, the Amazon-owned database of TV and movie titles, has launched an ad-supported video-on-demand service called Freedive. It is available in the U.S. on the IMDb website, Amazon Fire TV devices, Amazon’s Roku channel and on mobile devices via the IMDb app.

Why advertisers should care

Amazon is estimated to be the third largest digital ad seller in the U.S., behind Google and Facebook. With the launch of Freedive, Amazon is expanding its advertising options and growing its ad revenue opportunities against premium content — and pose a challenge to the market leaders on the fast-growing video advertising front.

According to Variety’s report, Amazon IMDb has more than 250 million unique monthly users worldwide, and offers more than 130 feature movie titles and 29 TV shows available for free. IMDb CEO Col Needham said in a statement, “We will continue to enhance IMDb Freedive based on customer feedback and will soon make it available more widely, including on IMDb’s leading mobile apps.”

Marketing Land reached out to Amazon for further comment on media buying, targeting and data options for video advertising on Freedive and will update as we receive more information.

More on Amazon’s Freedive news

• As an AVOD (ad-supported video-on-demand) service, Freedive competitors include Sony’s Crackle, Walmart’s Vudu, Tubi, Xumo and Pluto TV.
• Amazon’s Fire Stick TV customers can launch the video-on-demand service by clicking on the IMDb Freedive icon listed in “Your Apps & Channels” menu option, or use the Alexa voice command, “Alexa, go to Freedive.”
• Variety reports Amazon plans to continually add new entertainment titles to Freedive’s backlog of movies and TV shows. That should, in turn, open up more advertising inventory.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues is Third Door Media’s General Assignment Reporter, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs.com, SoftwareCEO.com, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy’s articles.