7. Watching Free Streaming Video Services
In this chapter, you learn about streaming services featuring some of your favorite premium network programming—all for free.
Discovering Free Streaming Content
You might think that everything good on streaming video costs money. That couldn’t be further from the truth. There’s a ton of free streaming video content available if you know where to look for it.
Discovering Free Streaming Content
However you watch your streaming video—via a Smart TV, on a streaming media player, or on your computer or mobile device—there are lots of apps or channels available that offer a variety of TV shows and movies, all for free. All you have to do is install that app or channel on your device and start watching. In many cases, there’s no subscription necessary—and even if you have to sign in (so the app remembers your preferences), there’s no charge to watch.
Some viewers may question how some services can afford to give away programming for free when Hulu, Netflix, and the other big streaming video services charge for their services. There are two reasons why.
First, these free apps are free because they’re supported by ads. That’s right, you’ll have to sit through (and can’t fast-forward through) occasional commercials, just as you do with traditional broadcast TV.
Second, you’re not getting first-run programming for free. Most of these free services offer older content—classic TV shows, older movies, even a lot of B-movies that didn’t make a big splash the first time around. But hey, they’re free, right? The next sections work through the most popular free streaming video services in alphabetical order.
Crackle
First up is Crackle. Like all the other services discussed here, Crackle is ad-supported and you can’t fast-forward through the ads.
In terms of programming, Crackle offers mainly movies but also some older TV shows. You’ll find series like Barney Miller, Charlie’s Angels, The Facts of Life, Fantasy Island, I Dream of Jeannie, Just Shoot Me, NewsRadio, The Partridge Family, Starsky & Hutch, T.J. Hooker, What’s Happening!, and Who’s the Boss?. Movies run the gamut from classics like All the King’s Men and Gidget to slightly newer fare, including a lot of films that probably went straight to cable.
Crackle also offers a small but growing selection of original content. This includes series such as Snatch and StartUp and a smattering of action and comedy films. The app is available for all major streaming media players, most Smart TVs, and Android and iOS mobile devices.
Chicken Soup for the Soul
Crackle used to be owned by Sony and feature a lot of old Sony Pictures and TV content. It’s since been purchased by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, which also owns the competing Popcornflix free streaming service.
Fawesome
Fawesome is one of the newest ad-supported streaming services out there. It offers more than 10,000 theatrical and TV movies across a broad variety of genres, although you probably haven’t heard of most of the films available here. You can watch Fawesome on Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku streaming players, some LG smart TVs, and Android and iOS devices.
FutureToday
Fawesome is owned by Future Today, which also owns HappyKids.tv and FilmRise.
FilmRise
FilmRise is another ad-supported free streaming service. It offers a mix of classic TV series and B-list and older films. Series include The Commish, Crime Story, Cybill, The Greatest American Hero, Green Acres, Grounded for Life, Hell’s Kitchen, Highway to Heaven, and Wiseguy. It’s available for all major streaming media players and Smart TVs, as well as Android and iOS devices.
Content Changes
The available programming for most of these free services rotates in and out of availability. Each month you’ll see a few new titles as a few older titles disappear, at least until they come back into rotation.
IMDb TV
Originally launched as FreeDive, IMDb TV shares its name with the popular Internet Movie Database film information website. They’re both owned by Amazon.
IMDb TV offers more well-known content here than on some other free services, as well as programming not available on other services. For example, movies include Daddy Day Camp, Eat Pray Love, Ender’s Game, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Rain Man, Snowden, and Zero Dark Thirty. TV series include Chicago Fire, Columbo, Desperate Housewives, Little House on the Prairie, Lost, Murder She Wrote, Psych, St. Elsewhere, Schitt’s Creek, and Spenser for Hire. IMDb TV is also the exclusive U.S. home of the popular Canadian comedy series Corner Gas.
IMDb TV is available as a separate app on Amazon Fire TV devices and as part of the Amazon Prime Video app on Apple and Roku devices, as well as many Smart TVs.
Plex
Plex is kind of an odd bird. It’s best known as a media server app that enables users to distribute and play videos and movies stored on one computer on other devices. However, the company has been expanding the app’s functionality, and Plex now offers an ad-supported free video streaming service that can be viewed on most streaming media players and Smart TVs.
The Plex streaming service offers its own content as well as content from partner service Crackle. Programming includes a mix of older movies and TV series, including Alf, Deal or No Deal, The Lucy Show, Merlin, and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.
The Plex streaming service is available as part of the Plex app on most major streaming media players, Smart TVs, and Android and iOS devices.
Pluto TV
Pluto TV is a free streaming video service that does things a little differently. First, it has more content than most other services, including more well-known movies and TV series. Second, in addition to offering the standard on-demand viewing, it presents dozens of “live” content-specific channels in a scrolling program guide. That makes watching Pluto TV a little like watching traditional television, but with the on-demand option.
The Pluto TV service is owned by ViacomCBS, so there’s plenty of CBS and Paramount content available. There are channels for Action, Classic Movies, Comedy, Documentaries, Thrillers, Westerns, and other types of films; BET, Comedy Central, MTV, Spike, TV Land, and other networks; tons of reality TV programs, including Cops, Cold Case Files, Dog the Bounty Hunter, and specific “binge-worthy” programs such as classic Doctor Who, the Australian McLeod’s Daughters, the British Midsomer Mysteries, and the universal Mystery Science Theater 3000. There are also truly live channels from CBSN, CBS Sports HQ, Cheddar, CNN, Fox Sports, Major League Soccer, NBC News, Sky News, WeatherNation, and other news and sports sources. There’s a lot to watch here.
You can watch Pluto TV on all major streaming media players and most Smart TVs, as well as Android and iOS devices. It’s also available in Canada and the UK.
Popcornflix
Popcornflix is yet another ad-supported free service that offers (wait for it…) older movies and TV series. True to its name, however, Popcornflix leans a little heavier on the film side, although you probably haven’t heard of half of them. TV series include 3rd Rock from the Sun, 21 Jump Street, Hunter, Rosanne, and The Saint.
Popcornflix is available on all major streaming media players and Smart TVs, as well as Android and iOS devices.
Roku Channel
If you own a Roku streaming media player (box or stick) or Roku TV, you have access to the Roku Channel. Roku aggregates free content from across other streaming services as well as its proprietary programming in a service that’s tough to ignore. (It also offers access to paid programming and apps from within the same app; it’s trying to be convenient for all viewers.)
In terms of content, movies are the usual slightly older lot. TV series include Andromeda, Cold Case, Growing Pains, Head of the Class, Just Shoot Me, Storage Wars, Suddenly Susan, and Without a Trace. Roku has also added live programming to its mix, in the form of news channels from ABC News, Cheddar, Newsmax TV, Newsy, and USA Today, among others.
You can watch the Roku Channel on any Roku device or TV, but it’s not available on anything else.
Shout! Factory TV
You may know the Shout! Factory as a company specializing in releasing classic and cult TV shows and movies on DVD. Shout! Factory TV brings much of that same classic and cult content to streaming video, for free.
Content includes the likes of The Carol Burnett Show, Dennis the Menace, Fireball XL5, The Prisoner, Route 66, Sapphire and Steel, Space 1999, and Thunderbirds. The service is also home to episodes of The Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, The Red Skelton Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Shout! Factory TV is available on all major streaming media players and Smart TVs, as well as Android phones and tablets. Selected content is also available as part of the Pluto TV, Popcornflix, and Tubi free video services.
Stirr
Stirr is a free video streaming service owned by Sinclair Broadcasting. It’s a little different from other services in that it offers a mix of local and national news, along with the standard older movies and TV shows. When you first launch the app, you specify the city you’re watching from, and Stirr tailors its content to your location.
Like Pluto TV, Stirr presents its programming both on demand and as part of a scrolling program guide. There are channels for many binge-worthy shows, including The Beverly Hillbillies, Bonanza, Crime Story, Hunter, The Lone Ranger, Sherlock, Silk Stalkings, and Whose Line Is It Anyway?, as well as genre-specific movie channels. Stirr also offers the Charge! and Comet diginet channels, which are both difficult to find on the Internet.
Stirr is available on all major streaming media players, many Smart TVs, and Android and iOS devices.
Tubi
Tubi is a free streaming video service that leans heavier on movies than TV shows, although it has a lot of the latter. Those movies, however, tend to run toward the not-so-recent and not-so-well-known, as with most other free services. TV series include Anger Management, The Apprentice, The Bachelorette, Dark Shadows, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Family Affair, The Masked Singer, and Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. It also offers select programming from Shout! Factory TV.
Like most other free services, Tubi is available on all major streaming media players, most Smart TVs, and Android and iOS devices.
Vudu
Vudu is best known as a place to buy and rent videos for streaming or download. It also offers a variety of movies and TV shows to watch for free, complete with commercials.
Vudu offers the usual selection of older and lesser-known movies and TV shows. The TV series include The Addams Family, Dead Like Me, Hell’s Kitchen, Highlander, Mr. Bean, Rosanne, and Unsolved Mysteries.
Vudu is available on Apple TV, Google Chromecast, and Roku streaming media players (but not Amazon Fire TV devices), some Smart TVs, and Android and iOS devices.
Xumo
Pluto TV started something with its “live” program guide because that’s how Xumo works, too. You can choose from on-demand programming or watch whatever’s playing as shown in the guide. There are channels for America’s Funniest Home Videos, America’s Test Kitchen, The Broadway Channel, Combat War, GoTraveler, History, various home shopping networks, and lots of movies by genre. Plus there are truly live channels for ABC News Live, CBSN, NBC News NOW, and other news sources.
Xumo focuses heavily on reality and documentary programming and movies. There’s hardly any classic TV here, so it’s an interesting alternative to the typical free video streaming mix.
You can watch Xumo on Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices, many Smart TVs, and Android and iOS devices.
Similar Selection
If you browse through a few of these free streaming video services, you’ll see a lot of the same content—especially when it comes to older TV series. The owners of that content license the shows on a nonexclusive basis to multiple services, so you can find, for example, 3rd Rock from the Sun on Crackle, Plex, Pluto TV, Popcornflix, Stirr, Tubi, and Vudu.
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Streaming From Your Local Library
If you have a library card, there are two other free streaming services you can take advantage of—Hoopla and Kanopy. With both of these services, you have to sign in with your library card information to access the content that’s free for all public library users.
Hoopla lets you digitally “check out” all manner of items, from ebooks and audiobooks to videos. You can read the ebooks on your computer, tablet, or phone; you can watch the videos on any of those devices plus on any streaming media player or Smart TV. You have 72 hours to watch any video you check out, just like when you check out a physical DVD from your local library.
Also like your local library, Hoopla has a fairly broad selection of programming. There’s a lot of documentaries, self-help videos, and family programs, of course, but there’s also a selection of regular movies and TV series—including a lot of foreign TV from the Acorn streaming service. There’s a little bit for everyone.
Kanopy works similarly, with a catalog of more than 30,000 videos from the Criterion Collection, PBS, and other quality sources. You won’t find a lot of mindless action thrillers here; Kanopy’s selection runs more towards classics, indie cinema, and foreign films.
Hoopla and Kanopy are both available on all major streaming media players and many Smart TVs. They’re also accessible from any computer or mobile device. Note that not all public libraries have made Hoopla or Kanopy available to their patrons; follow the onscreen instructions to see whether your library participates.
Watching YouTube
There’s one more free video service worth discussing, although it’s a bit of a different beast. YouTube is technically a streaming video service because it streams the hundreds of millions of videos on its site, although that’s neither how it bills itself nor how most viewers see it. Instead, YouTube is a video-sharing community, where its legion of users upload and view a huge variety of videos on all types of devices.
Anyone can upload a video to YouTube, and at times it seems like practically everyone has. There are tons of how-to and self-improvement videos on YouTube, as well as pranks and stunts, funny animals and funny humans, video game play-throughs, product reviews—you name it. There are also tons of old television programs uploaded by users and studios, as well as old and new music videos, movie trailers, and the like. Best of all, YouTube is all free—no monthly subscription required.
Many people like to watch YouTube videos on the big living room screen, and there are YouTube apps for most Smart TVs and all major streaming media players. Just start the app and use your device’s remote control to browse or search for the video you want to watch.
By the way, there are a couple of paid variations of YouTube that may be of interest. YouTube Premium is the standard shared-video YouTube without advertisements; it runs $11.99 USD per month. YouTube TV is a totally different service that offers live streaming of broadcast and cable/satellite channels for $64.99 USD per month.
YouTube TV
Learn more about YouTube TV in Chapter 8, “Watching Live Streaming Video Services.”
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Watching Free Streaming Video in Canada and the UK
The free streaming services discussed in this chapter are U.S.-based services. A few of these services are available in either Canada or the UK, although many aren’t. It’s all a matter of rights to various content differing from country to country.
In Canada, the most popular free streaming services include Kanopy, the Canadian-specific Much, Plex, Pluto TV, Popcornflix, and Tubi. In addition, CBC Gem has a free level with lots of CBC network programming. (There’s also a $4.99 CAN ad-free level.)
There aren’t that many free streaming services available in the UK; Plex, Pluto TV, Popcornflix, and Tubi are the big ones. You can also find free content on the Film4 section of Channel 4’s All 4 streaming app, the BBC’s iPlayer app, and Channel 5’s My5 streaming app.
In addition, if you have a Roku streaming media player, the Roku Channel is expanding beyond the United States into several other countries, including Canada and the UK. The Roku Channel in these countries does not offer the same content as in the U.S (those pesky country-specific rights again), but it’s still pretty good.
Finally, YouTube is available in pretty much all countries around the globe, including Canada and the UK.