Guide to Free Streaming Video Services
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When it comes to streaming services, the first names that come to mind probably include Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO, Hulu, and Netflix, which offer hundreds of titles, including recent releases, original movies, and TV series.
One thing they have in common is that you have to pay a subscription fee—and just about all of them have been raising prices.
But budget-conscious consumers can also stream movies free from services that are usually supported by ads. The best options include Crackle, Kanopy, Peacock, Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, Tubi TV, Vudu, and Xumo.
Like Netflix and Hulu, these free services are available on most streaming devices, making it easy to watch on your smart TV, streaming media player, laptop, or tablet.
In addition to making you sit through ads, the services require some trade-offs. In most cases, you’re out of luck if you want ultra-high definition, or 4K, shows. Instead, they provide regular HD video, just like cable TV companies.
You’re not likely to find recently released movies. And, of course, you won’t be able to watch original shows, such as HBO’s “Watchmen,” Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” or Netflix’s “Glow,” although some free services are now developing their own original programming.
Still, in a world of $1,300 smartphones and $5 salted caramel mochas, it’s nice to know you can still see “Teen Wolf” or “Lethal Weapon” without having to pay. (Looking for another path to free content? Get a TV antenna.)
Here’s where you can stream movies free.
Crackle
Crackle, which used to be Sony’s ad-supported streaming service, hosts a library of mainstream titles including popular older TV shows and movies such as “Lethal Weapon,” “Big Fish,” and “Pineapple Express.” It’s now owned mainly by Chicken Soup for the Soul, a company that also operates the free Popcornflix and Frightpix streaming services.
The same company also has a service called Crackle Plus. Here’s the difference: Crackle is the company’s free film and TV service. Crackle Plus is a larger group of channels that includes Crackle, Popcornflix, Truli (faith-based content), and Pivotshare (a subscription video-on-demand service).
Among the latest news, the company announced it will have close to 200 hours of new Crackle original and exclusive programming in 2021. It includes a mix of scripted series, unscripted programs, feature films, and sports docuseries.
Among the new series will be a second season of “Going From Broke,” a program from Ashton Kutcher that helps millennials get out of debt and learn how to control their financial futures. New feature films include “Willy’s Wonderland,” a horror flick starring Nicolas Cage as a quiet janitor at a condemned theme park who teams up with local teens to defeat a legion of demonic animatronic characters.
Like Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, Crackle has been developing some of its own content. These series include “Snatch,” a drama based on the movie of the same name, and “StartUp,” which is essentially a darker version of HBO’s “Silicon Valley.” It also has a few original movies, including “Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser,” starring a mulleted David Spade, and “Cleanin’ Up the Town,” a documentary about the making of “Ghostbusters.”
Crackle still offers popular older TV shows (“Fantasy Island,” “Who’s the Boss?”) and older movies (“The Big Chill,” “El Mariachi”). It also has a smaller collection of somewhat more recent movies, including “Spider-Man 3” and “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” with Tina Fey.
During the pandemic, Crackle has launched the Homeschool Channel, which provides parents and others who are taking on the role of home schooling with a variety of teaching tools focusing on students up to 8 years old. Some of the content includes episodes of series such as “Baby Einstein” and “Bailey’s Backyard.”
Fawesome.tv
Fawesome.tv is a newer ad-supported streaming service that offers more than 10,000 movies and series in HD quality across a variety of genres, including action, comedy, family and kids, health and lifestyle, horror, and thriller.
It’s owned by FutureToday, which operates more than 1,000 streaming channels, including HappyKids.tv and FilmRise.
You can get Fawesome.tv on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming players, as well as on some LG smart TVs, Windows computers (requires an app), and on mobile devices.
Haystack News
Haystack News—formerly called Haystack TV—is an ad-supported streaming service that provides local, national, and global news from more than 300 content partners. The company says the service covers over 90 percent of local U.S. markets.
Among its newest features is Newsline, an interactive news ticker that includes local news headlines, weather conditions, forecasts and alerts, stock market data, and top stories across business, entertainment, science, and technology categories. The feature, which can be personalized for each user, is rolling out on Roku devices before hitting other platforms.
In addition to Roku streaming players and TVs, Haystack News is available on Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, and Apple TV streaming platforms, as well as smart TVs from Hisense, LG, TCL, Sony, Samsung, and Vizio. It can also be accessed online and on Android and iOS mobile devices.
Hoopla
If you have a library card, Hoopla might be your ticket to free movies, music, audiobooks, comics, and more. Getting started is pretty simple: Just go to the site, create an account, then find your local library.
Once you’ve signed up, you can browse by title or genre, or get recommendations based on what you’ve previously borrowed and what’s popular. When you check out a movie, you have 72 hours to watch it. (Your library sets the limit on how many movies you can borrow each month; in my case, it’s four.) Your movie will start streaming once you’ve made a selection.
You can access Hoopla on a computer, on Android and iOS mobile apps, and via streaming players such as Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku. If you’re using the mobile app, there’s a download option for offline viewing.
IMDb TV
Amazon owns this ad-supported streaming service powered by the IMDb movie and TV show database, IMDb TV—formerly called IMDb Freedive. The service is very similar to the free Roku Channel available on Roku TVs and streaming players.
Unlike Amazon’s premium video offerings, IMDb TV focuses on older movies and TV shows, plus IMDb celebrity interviews, documentaries, and coverage of film festivals and award shows. The content selection is also expanding.
So, for example, you’ll be able to watch classic TV shows ranging from “Bewitched” to “Desperate Housewives” and movies such as “Memento” and “Total Recall.”
The service recently announced it has the exclusive free streaming rights to eight “Star Trek” movies: “Star Trek Beyond,” “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home,” “Star Trek: First Contact,” “Star Trek: The Motion Picture,” “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” “Star Trek Generations,” and “Star Trek: Nemesis.”
The company has also signed deals with studios such as MGM, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and Warner Bros. that will triple the amount of content available on the service this year. And its first original scripted animated series, “You’re Not a Monster,” is available right now.
You can watch IMDb TV via the IMDb website, Fire TV devices, or Amazon Prime Video apps on smart TVs, mobile devices, tablets, Echo screen devices, and Apple TV. You’ll need to sign in using an IMDb or Amazon account. You can also use a Google or Facebook account.
IMDb TV videos include advertisements that run before and/or during playback, and—no surprise—they can’t be skipped.
Kanopy
Unlike the other streaming services on this list, Kanopy doesn’t show ads. But to use the service you’ll need a membership at a participating library, university, or other learning institution.
Kanopy says it has a catalog of 30,000 films from sources including the Criterion Collection, the Great Courses, New Day Films, and PBS. If that sounds like a cerebral list, it is. Kanopy’s selection leans away from Michael Bay blockbusters and toward art-house films. Indie flicks include “Under the Silver Lake” and “Lady Bird.” Available documentary titles include “Meru,” “An Inconvenient Truth,” and “I Am Not Your Negro.”
The service is currently showcasing more than 200 top titles previously featured at the Tribeca Film Festival.
If you access Kanopy through a library membership, you may be able to watch a limited number of titles per month; members of educational institutions get unlimited access.
Kanopy maintains a list of participating institutions. The same page lets you request access for your library if it doesn’t participate.
LG Channels/Channel Plus
LG Channel Plus—which is called LG Channels on 2019 and 2020 TVs—is a free streaming service powered by Xumo, which is described in greater detail below. Basically, it offers more than 180 live and on-demand news, sports, and entertainment channels from the internet, which you can access using a program guide.
Several months ago, LG and Xumo renewed their deal, which started at more than 50 of Xumo’s top digital channels, such as Eleven Sports, eSports Revolution, FailArmy, and This Old House. More channels will follow monthly.
If you’re using an antenna to get free over-the-air channels, those stations and the Channel Plus options will appear together in the same program guide.
Channel Plus is included in LG’s WebOS smart TV system on newer TVs, and it can be added via firmware to select older TVs going back to 2012. You can access the Channel Plus feature from the main menu bar that runs along the bottom of newer LG WebOS TVs.
Peacock
Peacock, which has been available to some Comcast subscribers since mid-April, has now opened its door to anyone in the U.S., provided you have a device that supports the service’s app.
Although there are two Premium tiers—$5 per month with ads and $10 per month without—Peacock has a free ad-supported tier that gives you access to about two-thirds of its library of about 20,000 shows, movies, news, sports, and exclusive original programming. It includes current-season NBC broadcasts a week after they air, plus a mix of classic TV shows, movies, news, and sports programming from several of the parent company’s own properties, including NBC, Universal Studios, USA Network, Syfy, Bravo, Telemundo, and Universal Kids.
The service will also license shows from other networks, including A&E, ABC, Fox, and ViacomCBS, which owns the competitive CBS All Access service (see above).
As you might imagine, you’ll find NBC shows such as “30 Rock,” “Parks and Recreation,” and “Saved by the Bell,” though not the hit comedy “The Office,” which is on Netflix until next year. Peacock also has deals in place for movies from Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, Focus Features, Illumination, Warner Bros., and Blumhouse, with titles ranging from “The Bourne Identity” and “The Matrix” to “Jurassic Park” and “The Godfather” trilogy.
What you won’t get with the free service is the full complement of programming and live sports events available to the paid tiers, not to mention original Peacock programming such as “Brave New World,” “Psych 2: Lassie Come Home,” and “The Capture.” You’ll have to wait a week, instead of a day, to see current shows, too.
Much like AT&T’s HBO Max service at launch, Peacock isn’t available on Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, two very popular streaming platforms.
Right now, you can access Peacock through Comcast’s own Xfinity X1 cable and Flex streaming platforms, as well as on Apple devices (Apple TV and Apple TV 4K, iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch); Google Android TVs, phones, tablets, and Chromecast; and through LG and Vizio smart TVs. The service is also available on Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4 game consoles.
Plex
Plex is best known for letting you access movies and videos stored on one computer via a second device. But the company has its own ad-supported free streaming service, too, with thousands of free movies, TV shows, extreme sports films, music documentaries, Bollywood musicals, and more.
The company’s new free live TV service features over 80 channels across multiple genres. Called “Live TV on Plex,” it will offer news from Reuters and Yahoo Finance, movies from the Archive and the Film Detective, and food shows from Tastemade and Cooking Panda. There will also be channels for anime, music and karaoke, Spanish-language shows, and kids’ programming from Toon Goggles, Monster Kids, and KidsFlix. Sports fans get Fubo Sports Network for live sports and e-sports from IGN TV.
If you already have a Plex account, the streaming service selections will appear in a sidebar alongside your personal content collections.
As for on-demand programming, Plex has been adding major studios—including Legendary, Lionsgate, MGM, and Warner Bros.—to its list of content partners. That means you’ll be able to see movies such as “Apocalypse Now” and “The Terminator.”
The company just added thousands of shows and movies from the Crackle streaming service.
The Plex streaming service is available on Android and iOS devices; Android TVs; Amazon Fire TV; Apple TV; Chromecast, and Roku streaming players; and Xbox and PlayStation game systems.
Pluto TV
Pluto TV has a redesigned, updated user interface that makes it easier to find content. One improvement is that you can now select from categories such as Movies, News, or Sports rather than wading through the service’s 200-odd channels. And there’s a preview mode that shows trailers and more info about the program or movie.
Also new is the ability to designate most-watched channels as favorites so they appear at the top of the channel guide. Plus, you can add programs and movies to a watchlist for viewing on demand later.
Although Pluto TV started mainly with video content curated from around the web, including online newscasts from Cheddar and comedy content from “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” the service has been expanding its repertory since being acquired by ViacomCBS last year. It now has about 200 curated channels across a variety of genres, drawing content from networks such as BET, CNN Comedy Central, Fox Sports, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount, among others.
Pluto will soon come preloaded on FiOS cable TV boxes, Stream TV, and 5G Amazon Home Fire devices. It’s now live on new Verizon Android devices, which will get three new exclusive channels curated especially for Verizon customers. They include a film channel called Movies on Verizon, Real Life on Verizon—which will feature true stories—and Yahoo Finance, which will carry financial news, stock quotes, and financial reports.
In addition to some more conventional streaming-service content, including modern movies (“True Grit,” “Shutter Island”) and earlier-era classics (“Clue,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “The Way of the Dragon”), Pluto TV is home to new versions of 13 channels based on existing Viacom networks. It also just added the cooking show “America’s Test Kitchen” plus two more Pluto TV channels—Pluto TV Paranormal Channel and Pluto TV Best Life Channel—to its lineup.
The new Pluto TV Latino has 11 curated Spanish- and Portuguese-language channels covering categories including comedy, movies, music, reality TV, sports, telenovelas, and true crime.
Pluto TV has also added several channels powered by content from AMC Networks, IFC, and All Reality WeTV. You can watch “The Walking Dead en Español.” A channel called Stories by AMC will bring past seasons of “The Walking Dead,” “Into the Badlands,” and some seasons of “Ride With Norman Reedus” to the service. Coming soon to the service: The AMC series “Fear the Walking Dead” and “Preacher.”
A deal with the BBC will add shows such as “Doctor Who” and “Antiques Roadshow” to the mix.
Recent reports suggest that ViacomCBS will include Pluto TV in a new service planned for a summer launch. The service will be built on the CBS All Access subscription service (see above).
Pluto now powers Vizio’s WatchFree Wednesdays streaming service, which provides about 100 free, ad-supported channels on its SmartCast TVs.
Redbox
Best known for its rental kiosks at grocery stores and shopping centers, plus a newer video-on-demand streaming rental and purchase service, Redbox has quietly rolled out a free, ad-based live service that it intends to broaden in the coming months.
Accessible via a “Free Live TV” link at the top of its website, the new service is still relatively light on content. Right now, you can watch celebrity and entertainment news from TMZ, national and world news from USA Today, viral videos from FailArmy, plus movies, TV shows, and comedy specials from various providers.
The service recently added 10 new channels—including America’s Test Kitchen, The Design Network, Funny or Die, beIN Sports, and Voyager Documentaries—bringing its total channel count to more than 50.
The service, which is partly powered by Xumo (see below), also has three exclusive Redbox branded channels: Redbox Rush, Redbox Comedy, and Redbox Spotlight. Like Xumo, Redbox’s free service will now include Magnolia Pictures’ new CineLife ad-supported channel, which features top-rated independent films and award winning documentaries from the Magnolia Pictures catalog.
The Roku Channel
If you have a Roku streaming media player or a Roku TV, you’ve been able to watch free shows and movies via the company’s ad-supported Roku Channel since last fall.
A recent deal with Blue Ant Media brings three family-friendly channels—Love Nature, Love Nature Español, ZooMoo, a kids’ channel dedicated to animal programming—and expands Roku’s free lineup to more than 100 channels.
But Roku is moving beyond its own streaming media players and TVs with the Roku Channel for the Web, which lets you access free programming from a computer, smartphone, or tablet. In addition, there will be a Roku Channel app on Samsung smart TVs. On any of those devices, you simply go to Roku website and log in to a Roku account to start streaming.
Roku recently updated the Roku operating system software (Roku OS 9.2), which includes a new, easier-to-use channel guide. It also has better discovery and updates to its 4K Spotlight channel. An earlier update lets you use the voice search function to begin playback on movies and TV shows, as well as more than 25 of the premium subscription services available via the Roku Channel.
To make content easier to find, the company has added an option called Featured Free to the Roku home screen, where you’ll find links to content from not only the Roku Channel but also from other content providers, including ABC, the CW, Fox, and streaming services such as Crackle, Pluto TV, and Tubi TV.
More recently, the company rolled out a new “Kids & Family” area in the Roku Channel that will feature more than 7,000 ad-supported movies and TV episodes from partners such as All Spark (Hasbro Studios), Lionsgate, and Mattel. It also includes parental controls that let you monitor and limit the content your kids can watch via the Roku Channel.
Samsung TV Plus
Like major brands such as LG and Vizio, Samsung’s smart TVs have their own free service—Samsung TV Plus—which offers more than 90 ad-supported channels featuring news, sports, and entertainment.
And Samsung has now partnered with Bloomberg Media to launch Bloomberg TV+, a 4K business/finance channel. (It’s the first 4K channel available on the service.) It also has a deal with TYT, the progressive news channel, for shows such as “The Young Turks,” hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian, and “The Damage Report,” with John Iadarola.
The company recently added “Deal or No Deal,” the popular game show hosted by Howie Mandel, and Ion Plus, which shows dramas ranging from murder and crime to medical shows. It currently has a selection of more than 40 holiday-themed movies, as well.
All Samsung smart TVs dating back to 2016 are able to access TV Plus, which includes channels such as CBSN (CBS’ 24/7 live digital news channel), Yahoo Finance, A&E’s Lively Place, Bon Appétit, Vevo, Outside TV+, and others.
Samsung TVs also have an app for Tubi TV, which is described below.
SnagFilms
Designed for those who might be interested in programming that’s outside the mainstream, SnagFilms offers more than 2,000 on-demand movies, TV show episodes, documentaries, and original comedy shorts.
Categories include Climate Change & the Environment, Refugee & Immigrant Stories, Celebrate Pride, and Before They Were Stars.
Like other free services, SnagFilms is supported by ads. You can access the service via a computer; Android and iOS smartphones and tablets; Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast, and Roku streaming players; and PlayStation and Xbox game consoles.
Stirr
Stirr is an ad-supported streaming service launched last year by local TV broadcaster Sinclair. Although not as well-known as many other free streaming services, Stirr offers local content plus a mix of national news, sports, entertainment, and digital-first channels, as well as a library of on-demand video titles.
In celebration of the MLB season kicking off, the service has just added a number of baseball-themed movies to its roster. They include “Burn the Ships,” a documentary about players in a little-known women’s professional softball league; “The Jackie Robinson Story,” a 1950 biopic starring Jackie Robinson as himself; “Joe Torre: Curveballs Along the Way,” which is based on Torre’s career as a ballplayer and manager; and “Fastball,” a documentary about the pitch narrated by Kevin Costner.
Next year, Sinclair will launch a headline news service that will appear on Stirr and other Sinclair affiliates. In addition to
original content, the lineup will include fare from Sinclair’s network of local broadcast stations.
When you sign up for Stirr, you select a city near you so that you can receive local news and other content on the 24-hour Stirr City channel. The other channels aren’t that well-known, but they include Cheddar, FailArmy, NASA TV, Stadium, and World Poker Tour. You can also watch chef Gordon Ramsay on “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Kitchen Nightmares” and classic movies on an American Classic channel.
The service has added several new channels featuring shows such as “The Greatest American Hero,” “Hunter,” “The Commish,” and “21 Jump Street.” And for those who’d like to add a few happy trees to their environment, the service has a deal to add a channel devoted to “The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.”
Stirr is available on Apple TV and Roku streaming players, Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, and computers. You can download the Stirr TV app from Google Play or the Apple App Store, add it as a channel on Roku, or watch it on the Stirr website.
TiVo+
This ad-supported streaming service was announced late last year when TiVo unveiled its TiVo Edge DVRs. Unlike most other ad-supported services on this list, TiVo+ is available only through one hardware platform—you have to own a TiVo device.
The new service is powered by several services, including Xumo (see below), and will offer older TV shows such as “3rd Rock From the Sun,” “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” and “21 Jump Street,” as well as content from Cheddar, Hell’s Kitchen, TMZ, Outside TV, PowerNation, and FailArmy.
TiVo says it will soon be launching a streaming player, called the TiVo Stream 4K, to compete with players such as Apple TV and Roku. The company is merging with another company called Xperi, which is the parent to brands including DTS and Imax Enhanced.
Tubi TV
This ad-supported service has more than 20,000 titles, including selections from the libraries of Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., and Starz Digital.
The options range from old (and probably best forgotten) Chuck Norris films to classic indie titles (“Bagdad Cafe”) to more recent acclaimed movies such as “The Hurt Locker.” You’ll also find full seasons of TV shows such as “Pokémon,” “Merlin,” and “Blue Bloods.”
Tubi was acquired in April by Fox (separate from 21st Century Fox, now owned by Disney), and the service will now add a slate of new programming from that company. That includes several programs based on the Lego franchise—think the Fox entertainment series “Lego Masters,” hosted by Will Arnett—as well as 12 specials starring Garfield. And Tubi is teaming up with Mattel for programming featuring characters from Barbie, Monsters High, and American Girl.
It recently acquired the rights to stream Fox’s popular show “Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back.” The first two seasons are now available, and season three episodes will hit the service after they air on Fox.
The family-focused Tubi Kids features more than 1,200 age-appropriate movies and television shows, according to the company. Most of the new Lego series will appear on Tubi Kids.
Thanks to a deal with MGM Television, Tubi TV is the exclusive home for all 15 seasons of “The Apprentice.” And a new partnership with NBCUniversal brings almost 400 TV shows, including classics such as “The A-Team” and “Battlestar Galactica.”
Tubi says it will be launching a dedicated Spanish-language section, called Tubi en Español, with more than 800 titles within the Tubi app.
The service will also be preloaded on new smartphones from LG and some 2020 Hisense smart TVs.
You don’t have to register for Tubi TV, but if you do, you get some perks, such as being able to resume play from where you left off and keep track of what you’ve watched.
The company says it will spend more than $100 million in 2020 to expand its current library of movies and TV series.
Vizio WatchFree
In much the same way that LG has partnered with Xumo for its Channel Plus service, Vizio has teamed up with Pluto TV for its ad-supported WatchFree streaming service.
Vizio has added 30 new channels, including news and lifestyle content from USA Today and CBC News, as well as sports action from the Fubo Sports Network. Other additions include celebrity and entertainment news from TMZ, cooking shows from Hungry and Food52, sci-fi content from Dust, and documentaries from Magellan TVNow.
The content can be found under a “Free Channels” row on the SmartCast home screen, and it complements fare already available via WatchFree, part of Vizio’s SmartCast smart TV service. That one offers access to about 150 news, sports, movie, and TV channels. (See Pluto TV, above, for more details.) WatchFree is treated as its own input on SmartCast TVs, so you find it by pressing the Input button on the Vizio TV remote control.
Vudu
Vudu is currently shifting from Walmart to Fandango. The companies say there will be no immediate changes to the service.
Best known as a place to buy or rent a wide range of movies and TV shows, the service recently expanded its free, ad-supported content lineup, which you can find under the Vudu: Free Movies & TV page.
The rotating collection includes hundreds of popular older movies, such as “The Matrix,” “Stargate,” and “Up in the Air,” and TV shows such as “Roseanne,” “3rd Rock From the Sun,” and “Hell’s Kitchen.”
The company recently unveiled a slate of original ad-supported programming, including a sci-fi series starring Evangeline Lilly (who appeared in “Lost” and “Ant-Man and the Wasp”), a travel/comedy show produced by Queen Latifah, a reboot of the kids’ show “Blue’s Clues” done with Nickelodeon, and a documentary-style interview series with Randy Jackson.
Also new is a recommendation tool that helps you find shows and movies based on what you’ve watched.
To access the free content, you need a Vudu account, but you don’t have to provide payment information.
Watchyour.TV
Fans of classic TV shows and movies might want to check out Watchyour.tv, a free, ad-supported service from TVS Television, which claims to be the fourth oldest commercial TV network in the country.
The content is organized into general-interest “networks,” such as sports, movies, entertainment, and kids and family, and then broken down further into subcategories.
For example, there are six sports channels, including TVS Sports Network, TVS Classic Sports, TVS Women’s Sports Network, and TVS Boxing Network, and five movie channels, including TVS Classic Movies, TVS Drive In Movie, and TVS Nostalgia Movies (a Fred Astaire movie was playing recently).
The service also has a “DVR,” but it’s more like a catch-up feature that lets you scroll through each channel’s offerings over the past seven days, and then stream.
When we checked, you could watch older movies (“Zulu”) as well as classic TV shows, including “The Andy Griffith Show,” “Bonanza,” “My Favorite Martian,” and “The Beverly Hillbillies.”
Watchyour.tv is available on a number of devices, inside or outside of the home, including iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Amazon Fire TV and Roku players and televisions, Apple TVs, and Android TVs.
Xumo
Xumo is an ad-powered streaming video platform that offers live and on-demand content from more than 190 channels. There have been rumors that Comcast is interested in buying the service, though no deal has been announced.
Unlike other free options, Xumo focuses on premium branded channels, and you’ll find a lot of short-form content across a wide array of entertainment, lifestyle, news, pop culture, and technology content providers. That includes everything from The Onion and Funny or Die to TMZ, GQ, Vogue, NBC News, and Sports Illustrated.
After you’ve used the service, it starts making program recommendations based on your interests.
Xumo continues to expand its channel lineup. It just signed a deal with Magnolia Pictures that will bring its CineLife ad-supported channels to the service. CineLife features top-rated independent films and award-winning documentaries from the Magnolia Pictures catalog.
Xumo also just launched the Black News Channel, with programming created specifically for African American audiences. The channel is available on Xuon and the Roku Channel.
Xumo now has deals to bring content from the History Channel, the Fubo Sports Network plus 13 other genre-based channels, and the PGA Tour’s first ad-supported streaming channel to the service. That PGA Tour channel will include live coverage of matches as well as highlights and interviews.
You can watch Xumo on some smart TVs, iOS and Android smartphones and tablets, Apple TVs (via AirPlay), and Amazon Fire TV and Roku streaming players and televisions.
YouTube
You might think of YouTube mainly as the home of user-created content, but the site also has movies in the Free to Watch section under Movies & Shows. The offerings are different from those on YouTube Premium (formerly known as YouTube Red), which bundles videos, original movies, TV shows, and music as part of an ad-free plan that costs $12 per month.
When we checked, there were about 360 titles available on the platform—about three times as many as last fall—all of them free with ads. You’ll find everything from older, bigger-budget Hollywood fare (“Legally Blonde,” “Bull Durham”) to animated movies (“Igor”) and documentaries (“Jiro Dreams of Sushi”).
The lineup changes periodically. A few months ago, we were able to watch several of the “Rocky” movies, which are no longer listed. So be sure to circle back for up-to-date options.
YouTube is now available on Amazon Fire TV; it hadn’t been in the past because of a dispute between Google and Amazon.
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