IMDb TV may soon be a household name.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the ad-supported streaming service will be expanding in the coming months. Amazon owns the streaming platform and reportedly hopes to build it into a competitor against other ad-supported services like Roku and Pluto TV.
To aid this expansion, IMDb TV will now offer to pay upfront license fees in exchange for exclusivity, where previously, Amazon only offered to share ad revenue for placement on the platform. This move should allow Amazon to be more competitive in securing content for the nascent service.
News of some high-profile talks have already made their way into the media. Following the cancellation of Vice News Tonight at HBO, the tech giant contacted Vice Media to see if the program might work on IMDb TV. Over the summer, Amazon announced the acquisition of a number of films, including La La Land and Drive.
The pursuit of Vice makes sense in the context of Amazon’s plan to create linear channels within IMDb TV. Each channel might host content belonging to a particular genre, such as crime or lifestyle, providing a user experience similar to cable television.
IMDb TV is still a relative newcomer; the service launched in January of this year. In late August, the platform was made available for iOS and Android, signaling the beginning of a more robust push from its parent company.
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