Amazon's free IMDb TV gets a standalone app on iPhone, iPad and Android

IMDBtv on iPad
(Image credit: WhatToWatch.com)

If there ever was any doubt that advertising-supported streaming video is going to continue to play a big part in how we watch movies and shows online, it's time to put it to bed. Amazon, which owns IMDb, has released a standalone app for IMDb TV.

The app is currently available iPhone, iPad and Android.

IMDb TV is made up of the usual sort of categories. There's a featured section, as well as popular movies and popular TV, sci-fi movies, movies of the week, comedy movies, romance movies, etc. Extremely normal fare for this sort of thing.

There's also a "live" section that features linear showings of series such as America's Test Kitchen, Unsolved Mysteries, This Old House and more. It's the same sort of thing you'll find on other advertising-supported platforms, such as Pluto TV — which has a staggering 52 million monthly active users — The Roku Channel and others.

As with any sort of free service, you also need to be prepared to fork over some data in addition to your time spent in front of advertising; you're required to log in with an Amazon account upon installing the app. The advertising itself is interest-based, and in doing so Amazon uses "information such as your interactions with Amazon sites, content or services," as well as information from various third parties.

There aren't any options to reset advertising settings.

There also aren't any sort of profile options, so presumably if you've got a device used by multiple people (which is often the case with something like an iPad), everyone will see the same recommendations.

Phil Nickinson

Phil spent his 20s in the newsroom of the Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal, his 30s on the road for AndroidCentral.com and Mobile Nations and is the Dad part of Modern Dad.