Yahoo News Amazon’s IMDb TV Inks Disney Pact for Free Streaming of ‘Lost,’ ‘Desperate Housewives,’ More
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IMDb TV, the Amazon-owned free streaming service, has signed a deal with Disney to license full seasons of 21 older TV shows — including “Lost,” “Desperate Housewives,” “My So-Called Life,” “Ally McBeal” and “Malcolm in the Middle.”
Under the pact with the Disney Direct-to-Consumer and International group, IMDb TV currently offers every episode of “Desperate Housewives,” “My So-Called Life,” “White Collar” and “The Glades,” all free to watch with ads. As of March 1, “Revenge,” “Private Practice” and “Lie to Me” will be available free to stream. All 112 episodes of “Ally McBeal” will be available on IMDb TV as of April 1.
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Starting May 1, IMDb TV will be the exclusive free streaming service for “Lost” — all 121 episodes — timed for the 10-year anniversary of the show’s finale. The service also has exclusive free streaming rights to all 151 episodes of “Malcolm in the Middle,” which will be available June 1.
Here’s the full list of titles IMDb TV is licensing from Disney: “Ally McBeal”; “Army Wives”; “Boston Legal”; “Desperate Housewives”; “The Glades”; “Graceland”; “L.A. Law”; “Legends”; “Lie to Me”; “Lost”; “Malcolm in the Middle”; “My So-Called Life”; “Private Practice”; “Revenge”; “Roswell”; “St. Elsewhere”; “Terra Nova”; “Ugly Betty”; “The Unit”; “White Collar”; “Witches of East End.”
IMDb TV is loading up on Disney library television titles as competition has picked up among free, ad-supported VOD services. NBCUniversal’s Peacock will offer a selection of shows for free with ads when it launches this summer, joining AVOD services like Tubi and Viacom’s Pluto TV.
Currently available only in the U.S., IMDb TV has gradually expanded the AVOD lineup. It inked deals last summer with studios including Warner Bros., Sony Pictures Entertainment, MGM and Lionsgate and secured streaming rights later in the year to “Chicago Fire” and “Friday Night Lights.” Movies popular on the service include “Shrek Forever After,” “The Fury” and “Stranger Than Fiction.”
According to IMDb, the ad-supported VOD service has half the ads of linear TV. It’s available as an app on Fire TV and a free channel within the Prime Video and IMDb apps across several hundred devices. IMDb TV is also available on the IMDb website.
IMDb first launched the ad-supported VOD service a year ago as “Freedive” before rebranding the service IMDb TV.
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