“Customers are increasingly shifting to streaming ad-supported premium content, and we have developed Freevee to deliver them highly sought content with half the commercials of traditional TV,” Ashraf Alkarmi, director of Freevee, said this morning in a press release outlining the rebrand. “Our new name clearly communicates who we are: An easy-to-navigate streaming service, available to users for free, whenever and wherever they choose to watch some of the greatest original and licensed content available.”
The soon-to-be Freevee aims to grow its slate of originals by 70 percent in 2022, the company said this morning, with a slate including “Bosch” spinoff “Bosch: Legacy,” and new shows from in-demand creators like Dick Wolf and Michael Schur. IMDB TV/Freevee is also the home to Judge Judy Sheindlin’s “Judy Justice.” Season 1 alone has 120 episodes; “Judy Justice” has been renewed for a second season. How popular is “Judge Judy’s” Judge Judy? Well, the O.G. series has now led the courtroom-show genre in linear-TV syndication every week for more than 25 straight years. You read that correctly – and “Judge Judy” ended (originals, it’s now all library reruns) last season. Original movies are coming as well: Freevee has greenlit its first original movie, workplace rom-com “Love Accidentally” starring Brenda Song and Aaron O’Connell. You’ll be excited to learn that the whole things centers around a “wrong-text-who-dis?” situation. Freevee also set what it called a first in AVOD licensing deals with NBCUniversal, securing an exclusive network window for select films from Universal Filmed Entertainment Group’s 2020-21 theatrical slate, including “Dolittle,” “The Invisible Man,” “Promising Young Woman,” “F9,” and “Sing 2.” For those movies, the path from theatrical release to Freevee should go like this: Theater > PVOD > VOD > Freevee. (We asked reps at both Freevee and Peacock how the NBCU streaming service fits into that progression; we did not immediately get a concrete answer.) While Salke and Alkarmi took their bows, Twitter took to jokes. The social media platform also took to some meanness; hey, that’s just what Twitter does.
— Myles McNutt (@Memles) April 13, 2022
also checks date to make sure it’s not the early 2010s — Alex Zalben (@azalben) April 13, 2022
— Mr. Mase (@masekerwick) April 13, 2022
— Jessica Derschowitz (@jessicasara) April 13, 2022
— Ryan Schwartz (@RyanSchwartz) April 13, 2022
— Phil Nobile Jr. (@PhilNobileJr) April 13, 2022
— Jonathan (@jonathanmb32) April 13, 2022
Tronc would like a word! https://t.co/5DkXrqS3Jl — Nina Metz (@Nina_Metz) April 13, 2022 There was some support to be found among the mockery, though those users appeared to be in the minority.
— Brandon Katz (@Great_Katzby) April 13, 2022
— julia alexander (@loudmouthjulia) April 13, 2022
— ᴍɪᴋᴇ ᴠᴀɴ ᴇꜱʟᴇʀ (@MikeVanEsler) April 13, 2022 And then there was whatever this one represents.
— Carrie Raisler (@TVandDinners) April 13, 2022 Carrie may actually have it the rightest. It’s fine? It’s fine. And all of our brains are tired. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
