For some time now, Amazon has offered ad-supported access to the first episodes of many shows. Now FilmRise is offering access to full seasons of shows 100% free as long as you are willing to watch ads. As best as we can tell, the shows offered are through Amazon’s partnership with FilmRise. These shows include 3rd Rock from the Sun, Cybill, Grace Under Fire, Highway to Heaven, My Favorite Martian, The Rifleman, and Unsolved Mysteries.
According to Amazon these free shows are not from Amazon but come from FilmRise through the Prime Direct Publishing system. This system lets companies like FilmRise publish videos directly on Amazon. It also seems now that companies like FilmRise can also have their content monetized with ads for free streaming on Amazon.
Not all FilmRise shows on Amazon are free to non-prime members, though. For example, Reading Rainbow and Chips do not offer a free streaming option. There are likely other free shows we have yet to list here; if you happen to find any please feel free to leave a comment and let us know what on Amazon is free to non-prime members.
At this time the free streaming only seems to work on Amazon’s website.
Cord Cutters News has reached out to Amazon for comment. We hope to learn more about how the free streaming with ads work and how companies can add their content to Amazon to be ad-supported.
Update: An earlier version of this story said that Amazon and Filmrise had partnered in this deal. According to Amazon, this was done by FilmRise and there is no affiliation with Amazon.
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