Introduction
During this time of isolation and social distancing, most of us are stuck at home working while being a vegetable on the bed and sitting in couches in front of the TV. According to Matthew Davies, it is the perfect excuse to binge on some good shows and movies even if you don’t have a paid subscription to Netflix or Amazon Prime. Here are a few free streaming services that are available for free during social distancing:
The Services
- IMDB TV – To some this service is a new player in the market from IMDB while others used to know it as FreeDrive. While Amazon competes with Netflix and other paid streaming platforms with Amazon Prime Video, it seems like the e-Commerce giant that owns IMDB and IMDB TV would like a share of the ad-supported streaming market as well. Apart from a wide collection of movies, the service also provides many popular TV shows. However, there’s a catch. You can only access the service via PCs, from IMDB apps, and within Prime Video itself.
- Crackle – Crackle is an ad-supported streaming service from Sony and is one of the big players in this market. You can stream through plenty of movies and TV well into the future after the planet brought the current pandemic under control. Moreover, it is one of the few free streaming services that features original content. The best thing is that you don’t even need to set up an account to use this service. However, if you decide to do so, you can get recommendations, features like resume playback, and save content to favorites.
- Hoopla – If you have a library subscription, contact them to find out if they are partnered with Hoopla. It is a digital media service that functions just like a library. You “borrow” a movie and need to watch it within a limited time before it becomes unavailable to you. In this case, it’s 72 hours. Depending on the partnership program that your library has signed with Hoopla you get a total number of movies that you can “borrow” each month. If you stream using Hoopla on your mobile, you also get to download content for offline viewing.
- Tubi TV – Tubi TV has an impressive library of free mainstream commercial movies that come with plenty of commercials while you view them. Tubi TV also offers content from big studios like MGM, Lionsgate, and even Paramount. However, there are plenty of movies you wouldn’t even want to watch for free. Fortunately, there is a way to separate and weed out the trash from the gold. Check out two categories, Not on Netflix and Highly Rated on Rotten Tomatoes. Some of the best movies available on this platform are Minority Report, Train to Busan, Black Hawk Down, and more.
Conclusion
Matthew Davies believes that there’s a lot of time for most of us during this time. While you isolate yourself at home to break the chain and flatten the curve these free streaming services will keep you entertained.