In defense of IMDb TV rebranding as "Amazon Freevee"

Indiewire

IMDb TV's new name was met with Twitter mockery when it was announced Wednesday morning. "Streamer names are easy fodder for derision; Peacock also received brickbats and eyerolls, especially from those who didn’t think it would take flight," says Tony Maglio. "(For now, that appears to be the case.) Amazon Freevee is a bad name, with a phonetic spelling that’s cutesy and cloying — but it’s also one that makes literal sense in a way that its competitors Tubi and Fubo do not. As a streamer dedicated to free TV, Freevee is free TV. (FreeV wasn’t an alternative; it would be read as 'freev' and Free-V isn’t great, either.)" As Maglio notes, IMDb TV was previously known as "IMDb Freedive," so the new name pays homage to its "Free" past.

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• IMDb TV managed to find a "horrible-er" name: "Freevee? That sounds like the name of a streaming service that runs exclusively on dishwashers in the 30 Rock universe," says William Hughes. "It conveys all the dignity of a hastily flung, dog-slobber-covered Frisbee. It sticks in the memory like a bad bout of food poisoning. It somehow lacks the simple elegance of 'Quibi.'"