Guide to Streaming Video Services

Posted by admin on April 11, 2023

Here are all the details on where to stream movies, TV series, sports, and more

CR has all the intel, including prices and programming, on the best streaming services from giants like Netflix and Hulu to niche services like BritBox.

By James K. Willcox

Updated by Daniel Bortz

Every year, more people rely on streaming services, even those that still subscribe to a traditional pay TV service. According to CR’s latest American Experiences Survey, Americans typically now subscribe to four streaming services, while almost 1 in 10 subscribe to nine or more. One reason is the exploding number of streaming options now available. Those numbers rose sharply over the past few years, as many of the country’s largest media companies launched their own streaming services featuring popular original content, and stopped licensing shows and movies to services like Amazon Prime Video (which is included with an Amazon Prime membership) and Netflix.

The traditional big three—Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, and Netflix—have been joined by dozens of additional services, including Apple TV+ and Disney+, Paramount+, and Peacock. You can choose niche services, like BritBox, or sign up for services like YouTube TV, which offer live TV channels, just like cable TV. And a number of services now have ad-supported tiers. Agree to watch some ads and you can pay less each month.

There is also a growing number of streaming services that are just plain free, which can help make all of this more affordable. (CR’s strategies for saving money on streaming services can help you control your entertainment budget, as well.)

This guide to the major streaming services can help you sort through the choices. Scroll through all the listings or jump to the category of service.

Big and Bigger (Amazon Prime, Apple TV+, Disney+, Hulu, and Netflix)
British Fare (Acorn and BritBox)
Cable-Replacement Services (Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, and others)
Free Services (Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi, ViX, WBTV, Xumo Play, and othersw)
Network Services (ESPN+, Paramount+, Peacock, and others)
Niche Services (Criterion Channel and PBS Passport)
Premium Channels (HBO Max, Showtime, and Starz)

Consumer Reports also has advice on selecting a streaming media device. And CR members can search our TV ratings, which have test results on hundreds of models.

Big and Bigger

Newer services, such as Apple TV+ and Disney+, have now joined Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix as primary streaming choices for many people.

Amazon Prime
Price: $139 per year or $15 per month, with free shipping on Amazon Prime purchases. A video-only subscription costs $9 per month.

Prime Video delivers a large library of TV shows and movies, plus a solid roster of original shows, including the popular “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”; “Wheel of Time,” an epic fantasy adventure starring Rosamund Pike; and “Reacher,” based on the popular Lee Child novels. Fans of epic adventures can watch the much-hyped “Lord of the Rings” prequel series, “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”

Amazon finalized a previously announced acquisition of MGM, bringing 4,000 additional films and 17,000 TV shows to Amazon Prime (and some to its free ad-supported Freevee streaming service, described below). In January, the company rebranded Epix, MGM’s streaming platform, as MGM+. The service costs $6 a month, or $50 annually.

Amazon also has a deal that brings new Universal movies to Amazon Prime Video four months after they appear on NBCUniversal’s Peacock service.

In addition, the company has been bumping up its sports coverage recently. Last year Amazon streamed 21 New York Yankees games and it became the exclusive home of “Thursday Night Football” NFL games. It recently launched a live daily sports talk network on weekdays.

Apple TV+
Price: $7 per month.

Apple TV+ is a good bet for viewers interested in Apple’s new original programming and those who want the convenience of adding more premium channels, such as HBO Max and Showtime, through the service’s app.

The Apple TV+ subscription streaming service, which is now going on 3 years old, recently raised its price from $5 to $7 per month. Apple TV+ is included in Apple One, which bundles up to five other Apple services into a single monthly subscription, with plans starting at $17 a month.

The service has films such as “Sharper,” starring Julianne Moore and Sebastian Stan; Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand; “Emancipation,” starring Will Smith; and “CODA,” the Academy Award-winning movie about a teenager who is the only hearing member of her family.

The service also offers original series including “The Morning Show,” starring Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell; “Severance,” a dark original drama series from Ben Stiller; and “Ted Lasso,” the Emmy-winning Jason Sudeikis comedy about an American football coach hired to run a British soccer team.

The company also has a $15-a-month, or $99 per year, streaming service for Major League Soccer called MLS Season Pass; for Apple TV+ subscribers, the service costs $13 a month or $79 per year as an add-on. It includes every live MLS regular-season match, the entire playoffs, plus the Leagues Cup.

Starting in 2023, Apple TV+’s weekly Friday Night Baseball is a regular part of the service, open only to subscribers. Last year, the Friday night games were free; now, viewers must pay for Apple+’s $7-per-month subscription to watch the matches.

Disney+
Price: $8 per month with ads, $11 a month without.

Given its vast library of content, Disney+ is a no-brainer for many families. Disney owns all the “Star Wars” movies, as well as Marvel Studios and Pixar. Its most recent acquisition is 20th Century Fox, now renamed 20th Century Studios. That brings subscribers to movie franchises such as “Avatar,” “Deadpool,” and “X-Men,” and TV shows including “The Simpsons” and “Empire”—as well as National Geographic shows.

Disney now has a less expensive, ad-supported plan. It costs $8 per month—which had been the price of its ad-free plan. For ad-free Disney+, you now have to pay $11 a month, or $110 if paid annually.

There are also three bundle plans. Duo Basic, which costs $10 a month, gives you the ad-supported versions of both Disney+ and Hulu. Trio Basic adds ESPN+ with ads for $13 a month. A premium version of the bundle, called Trio Premium, has ad-free Disney+, ad-free Hulu, and ESPN+ for $20 a month.

The service’s high-profile content includes “The Beatles: Get Back” from Peter Jackson; Disney’s “Encanto”; “Loki,” a Marvel series starring Tom Hiddleston in the titular role; and a new Star Wars series, “Star Wars: Andor.” New original series include “National Treasure: Edge of History,” plus a third season of the popular series “The Mandalorian,” also set in the “Star Wars” universe. Coming shows include “Agatha: Coven of Chaos,” a Marvel series starring Kathryn Hahn.

There have been reports that Disney is considering selling Hulu, and might license some of its content to other streaming services. Other rumors include having Disney launch its own free ad-supported streaming service. Some reports also indicate that Disney has been in talks with streaming services to sell some of its back catalogs. This would be a major change for Disney, which pulled back their content from Netflix and others just a few years ago.

Hulu
Price: $8 per month with ads ($2 a month for eligible students) or $80 per year; $15 per month without ads.

Hulu, which is now owned by Disney, is a good option for cord-cutters who don’t want to miss out on broadcast TV. (It’s not included a standalone Disney+ membership.)

The service is a good way to get programming from ABC, AMC, Bravo, Big Ten Network, CBS, E!, ESPN, Fox, Fox Sports, FX, NBC, NFL Network, Oxygen, PBS, Syfy, and USA Network. Note, however, that many NBC shows, such as “Law & Order” and “Chicago Fire,” are no longer available since parent company NBCUniversal moved them to its own Peacock streaming service. Earlier this year, NBCUniversal moved next-day access to Bravo shows from Hulu to Peacock. Some NBC shows that no longer air new seasons will remain on Hulu, though.

Hulu originals include “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” based on the best-selling novel; “The Handmaid’s Tale”; and “The Patient,” with Domhnall Gleeson and Steve Carell. Other Hulu originals include “Nine Perfect Strangers,” starring Nicole Kidman, and “Only Murders in the Building,” starring Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short. You also get exclusive access to films such as “Prey” and “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”

Hulu is now the streaming home for FX shows, with exclusive rights to more than 70 original offerings. It is now the new on-demand streaming home of “Schitt’s Creek” in the U.S., and an exclusive deal with AMC Networks is bringing “Fear the Walking Dead,” another spinoff from “The Walking Dead,” to Hulu. The deal also gives Hulu exclusive rights to new and coming scripted programming from AMC, BBC America, IFC, Sundance TV, and WeTV.

As noted above, Hulu can be bundled with Disney+ and ESPN+ for $13 per month with ads or $20 per month without them. You can also add several premium services. HBO Max, for example, costs $15 per month, while Showtime is $11 extra each month.

Netflix
Price: $7 a month for ad-supported tier; $10 per month for standard-definition video on a single screen; $15.50 per month for high-def video on up to two screens; and $20 per month for 4K ultra-high-definition video on up to four screens.

Netflix is still the king of binge, with a vast library of movies and TV shows, plus now-classic original shows (“Stranger Things,” “Bridgerton”) and newer ones (“Wednesday,” “Sandman,” “Squid Game,” “The Witcher”). It also has a growing library of original movies, such as “Don’t Look Up” and “Roma.” But Netflix has lost access to some Disney titles and Marvel and Pixar movies, which are now part of the Disney+ service.

The company says it has added spatial audio—using its own 3D immersive audio technology—to about 700 titles. They’re available only to subscribers to Netflix’s top tier.

Like other services, Netflix raised prices earlier this year, but the company now has a lower-priced ad-supported service, called Netflix Basic With Ads. It costs $7 a month, with 4 to 5 minutes of ads each hour before and during programming. The ads are typically 15 or 30 seconds. The video is HD quality, not 4K.

But not all of the Netflix content is available with the cheaper service; it says that 5 to 10 percent of the shows available to other subscribers aren’t on Netflix Basic With Ads service because of licensing restrictions. These include shows such as “House of Cards” and “Peaky Blinders,” and movies such as “Quantum of Solace” and “Morbius.” Netflix is reportedly negotiating with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Sony for licensed content.

Right now, Netflix Basic with Ads isn’t supported on Apple TV streaming players, and it’s only on Chromecast With Google TV; you can’t get it on Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra. You can access it from most other major streaming players.

Netflix may also be considering a free, ad-supported service to compete with services such as Pluto TV, the Roku Channel, and Tubi. (See Free Services, below.)

Netflix has cracked down on account sharing in several countries, including Canada, and is expected to roll it out in the U.S. soon. It requires people outside the household of the account holder to sign up for their own account.

To make it easier for customers who’ve been sharing an unauthorized account to set up their own legitimate one, Netflix has unveiled an account-migration tool that lets you transfer your account info, such as viewing history and program recommendations, to a new subscription.

The company also recently reached a deal with Universal to bring animated titles from that studio and DreamWorks Animation to the service this year after a four-month window on Paramount+ expires. An arrangement with HBO Max for all new releases has expired.

British Fare

Anglophiles looking for regular doses of popular British TV shows, police procedurals, and movies now have several great options, among them Acorn and BritBox. Here’s a look at each.

Acorn TV
Price: $7 per month or $70 per year.

Blessed with a very deep catalog of older shows, such as “Agatha Christie’s Marple,” “Midsomer Murders,” and “Foyle’s War,” Acorn is now creating its own original programming with shows such as “Bloodlands,” a police thriller; “Dalgliesh,” based on the P.D. James character; “Agatha Raisin,” about a public relations specialist turned amateur sleuth; and “Queens of Mystery,” in which a perennially single detective and her three crime-writer aunts solve murders in the countryside.

Acorn also offers shows from Australia and New Zealand, as well as the popular Canadian TV series “Murdoch Mysteries.” It has picked up Channel 4’s original film “Help,” a drama about the U.K.’s poor response to care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, written by “His Dark Materials” and “Enola Holmes” writer Jack Thorne and starring Jodie Comer and Stephen Graham.

BritBox
Price: $8 per month or $80 per year.

BritBox is a joint venture between the BBC and ITV. Unlike Acorn, BritBox focuses exclusively on British shows.

Some of the more popular series on BritBox include “EastEnders,” “Coronation Street,” and “Antiques Roadshow,” plus older classic episodes of “Dr. Who” and two seasons of “Fawlty Towers.” New original shows include “The Cleaner,” about a crime-scene cleaner; “Stonehouse,” about the aftermath when a high-flying politician fakes his own death; “Sister Boniface Mysteries,” starring a moped-riding nun; and “Hope Street,” about the arrival of the first Muslim police officer in a small Northern Ireland town.

Cable-Replacement Services

These services look to replicate what you’d get with a traditional cable TV or satellite plan for less money. Most include local broadcast channels and an assortment of cable stations, plus the ability to add some premium channels. All now include a cloud DVR for recording shows.

DirecTV Stream
Price: $75 to $155 per month.

AT&T has been doing a lot of rejiggering lately, including spinning off its DirecTV satellite and streaming businesses into a new entity, also called DirecTV. DirecTV Stream, essentially the DirecTV satellite service minus the satellite dish, is the new name for its AT&T TV and AT&T TV Now streaming services, and its plans are among the most expensive out there.

The company raised prices on all plans at the beginning of the year. The Entertainment plan now costs $75 a month, a $5 price hike, while the Choice plan—the cheapest plan that provides regional sports networks, jumped $10 to $100 a month. The Ultimate plan (with Starz) now costs $110 a month, while the Premier plan (with HBO Max, Cinemax, and Showtime) is $155 a month—those both represent $5 increases.

Customers with legacy plans also got hit with monthly price increases of either $5 or $10, with plan prices ranging from $85 to $115 a month.

HBO Max, which remains a separate entity within the new Warner Bros. Discovery company, can be added to plans that don’t include HBO.

You can get DirecTV Stream service using an app on streaming players and on some smart TVs, but DirecTV also sells its own Android-based player, which costs $120 upfront or $5 per month for 24 months. That’s much pricier than most stand-alone streaming media players, but it does support 4K videos and has a voice remote and Google Assistant built in.

Fubo TV
Price: $75 to $95 a month.

FuboTV is a cable-replacement service targeting sports fans; it recently raised prices on two of its plans by $5 a month. The base Pro plan, $75, has over 150 channels with local stations in most markets, plus lots of sports networks (BeIn Sports, ESPN, FS1, MLB Network, NBA League Pass, NHL Network, NFL Network) and many cable channels (AMC, Bravo, FX, Syfy, USA), though not Turner channels such as CNN, TBS, TCM, or TNT, and A&E networks such as A&E, History Channel, and Lifetime.

Stepping up to the $85-a-month Elite plan gets you Fubo Extra, with 53 more lifestyle and sports channels, plus over 130 events in 4K. The Premier plan has even more channels, as well as Showtime.

You can add several premium channels, though not HBO Max. One plan combines MGM+, Showtime, and Starz for $20 per month. Separately, Showtime costs $11 a month; Starz is $9 a month. Sports fans can get Sports Plus with NFL Red Zone, with NCAA games and RedZone from the NFL Network, for an extra $11 per month. An $8-per-month Fubo Extra plan adds more TV shows, movies, news, sports, music, and kids’ entertainment. There are also several Spanish-language plans and add-ons.

Fubo recently added the Bally Sports Networks, which are regional sports networks. The company also recently went back to allowing month-to-month billing for new members after a period of forcing them to sign up on a quarterly basis. In addition, Fubo recently rolled out a new MLB.TV direct-to-consumer add-on package for an additional $25 per month (or $150 per season) that lets baseball fans stream out-of market games, both live and on demand.

Hulu + Live TV
Price: $70 per month with ads and $83 per month without.

Cord-cutters who want yet another option to reproduce most of a traditional pay-TV package should take a look at Hulu + Live TV, which offers about 75 channels, including the major broadcast channels in most markets. You also get cable channels such as A&E, BET, CN, Comedy Central, CNN, Disney, Fox News, FX, TBS, and TNT, among others, plus everything in the Hulu library. It also has CBS Sports, ESPN, and Fox Sports, plus some regional sports networks.

Hulu + Live TV now includes both Disney+ and ESPN+, though the price is now $5 higher. Hulu with ads + Live TV, Disney+ with ads and ESPN+ with ads costs $75 a month. (As per above, note that Disney+ with ads isn’t currently supported on certain Apple and Chromecast devices.) Ad-free Hulu + Live TV, ad-free Disney+ and ESPN+ with ads costs $83 a month.

You can also get Live TV Only, which provides subscribers with access to live content, but not the Hulu streaming library or access to Disney+ or ESPN+, for $69. Given its price, it doesn’t make much sense.

Though Hulu reached a deal with Discovery to keep several channels, including Food Network, HGTV, and TLC on the service, some shows, such as “90 Day Fiancé” and “Fixer Upper,” remain on the company’s newer Discovery+ service. It also lacks a few networks, including AMC, though it has recently added 14 new channels, including Hallmark and The Weather Channel.

There are also several add-ons. For example, an enhanced cloud DVR with 200 hours of storage, and the ability to zap through commercials on recorded shows, is $10 extra each month. Unlimited use also costs an extra $10 a month, but you can bundle it with unlimited screens at home, plus access for three mobile users, for $15 per month, a $5-per-month savings.

Philo
Price: $25 a month.

Philo can be a great option if you get local channels via an antenna. It’s a sports-free streaming service backed by several cable networks, including A&E, AMC, Discovery, Scripps, and Paramount (formerly CBSViacom). In addition to lacking local channels, it doesn’t offer live news (CNN, Fox News) or sports networks such as ESPN or NFL Network. But for just $25 a month, you get access to more than 70 channels from partners including Discovery, Paramount (CBS and Viacom), and AMC Networks.

The company recently added the Smithsonian Channel and Pop, which airs older network shows such as “House” and “NCIS: New Orleans.”

In addition to the cable channels, Philo now has a few original series, including “Boss Moves,” with “Love and Hip-Hop” star Rasheeda Frost.

You can add premium channels, such as MGM+, $6 a month, and Starz, $9 a month.

Last year Philo’s price for new subscribers went from $20 to $25 per month, but those who signed up before the price hike have been able to keep the lower price. As part of the new $25 package, Philo is extending the time it keeps recordings in its unlimited DVR from 30 days to a year.

Sling TV
Price: $40 to $55 a month.

You might consider Sling TV if you can find another way to get CBS and ABC local channels, because the service has lacked them until now—although ABC is coming to some regions (see below). The Orange package is now $40 and includes about 30 cable channels, including Disney and ESPN, plus A&E, the Food Network, and TBS, but no broadcast TV. It supports one user at a time. Sling Blue, also $40 per month, supports three users and has a different mix of about 40 channels, including local broadcasts and regional sports. (Among other differences, Sling Blue does not include ESPN.) A combined plan costs $55.

In late January, the company announced that Sling TV would start carrying ABC-owned stations in eight cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, in the Sling Blue and combined Sling Blue and Orange plans. However, Sling is hiking the cost of its Sling Blue tier in those markets by $5, to $45 a month. The price of the combined Orange/Blue tier is also going up $5 in those markets, to $60 a month.

You can add premium channels, including Showtime, $10, and Starz, $9. Sling TV offers a large number of add-on packs, which provide extra genre-based programming (sports, news, lifestyle, Hollywood, etc.). They cost $6 to $21 (for a bundle with several packs) extra each month.

Sling recently raised prices on its plans by $5 a month and upped the prices for its themed add-on packages, though only by $1 per month. But the good news is that Sling has beefed up its cloud DVR. Everyone now gets 50 hours of free DVR storage, up from 10 hours. You can also get 200 hours of storage, up from 50 hours, for $5 per month with the DVR Plus add-on.

In addition, Sling has an exclusive deal with Barstool Sports for a channel dedicated to sports and pop culture. The Barstool Sports Channel features live content, including video podcasts, blogs, and video series.

YouTube TV
Price: $73 per month.

YouTube TV is a solid option for cord-cutters looking to save money without giving up sports or major cable channels. It offers access to more than 100 channels, including all the major broadcast networks, cable channels (AMC, Bravo, Disney, ESPN, FX, Fox News, Fox Sports, MSNBC, National Geographic, Turner, USA), and major sports networks such as CBS Sports, ESPN, and Fox Sports, along with the MLB, NBA, and NFL league networks.

HBO Max, Showtime, Starz, and a few other channels can be added for an extra fee. There’s also a 4K add-on plan, which gives you additional channels in 4K, for an additional $5 a month for the first 12 months, then $10 a month. And there’s a Spanish-language plan that costs $35 a month.

Like other cable-style streaming services, YouTube TV has imposed a few price hikes, the latest being an $8 increase, from $65 to $73 per month. Current customers will see their rate increase starting April 18, while new customers are already being charged the new $73 price.

Perhaps the biggest news, though, is that parent company Alphabet (Google) has reached a deal with the NFL to give YouTube TV and YouTube Primetime Channels the exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket starting with the 2023 NFL season. NFL Sunday Ticket had been a DirecTV exclusive for decades; that deal expired after the 2022 season.

The company says YouTube TV subscribers will get special pricing for NFL Sunday Ticket, but it hasn’t provided details. It says that NFL Sunday Ticket will have split-screen options so you can watch multiple games at once.

The company will also reportedly offer some less expensive NFL Sunday Ticket options.

YouTube is rolling out an updated user interface for its live TV guide and library. In the Live tab, you’ll see a more condensed version of the programming, with curated recommendations at the top. A new favorites area is being added to the Library tab for recommended programs and events, with filters that let you fine-tune them. There are now also overlays that show program summaries without having to leave the page you’re viewing.

Also new, on regular YouTube, is the ability to subscribe to additional streaming services, including AMC+ and Paramount+, plus several other smaller and/or niche services. YouTube TV subscribers have been able to do this, but now anyone can access the Primetime Channel hub on YouTube.

Free Services

A growing number of ad-supported services let you watch content free of charge. The list below includes the major ones, and we also maintain a more comprehensive list of free video streaming services.

Amazon Freevee
Previously called IMDb TV, Amazon Freevee is an ad-supported service that offers a mix of live channels, on-demand classic TV shows and movies, and some original content. You’ll find shows such as “Lost” and “Mad Men,” alongside classics such as “Bewitched,” “Columbo,” and “All in the Family.” Movies currently available include “The Night Before,” “Emma,” and “Mission Impossible 2.” Licensed content rotates in and out from month to month.

Original shows include “Judy Justice,” starring Judge Judy Sheindlin; “Alex Rider”; and “Bosch: Legacy,” a spinoff of the popular Amazon Prime series.

In addition, Freevee has an hourlong music performance and interview series, “Monumental: An Artists Den Experience,” showcasing popular recording artists at iconic locations throughout the world, such as “Ellie Goulding at Kew Gardens."

Crackle
Crackle, which used to be Sony’s ad-supported streaming service, hosts a library of mainstream titles that include popular older TV shows such as “Barney Miller” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” as well as some popular newer series, including “Sherlock,” starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Movies include everything from “Midnight Express” and “Night of the Living Dead” to somewhat more recent fare, such as “The Last Blockbuster” and “Mid90s.”

Crackle is now owned by Chicken Soup for the Soul and is part of a bigger brand called Crackle Plus, which operates several ad-supported and subscription networks, including EspañolFlix, FrightPix, and Popcornflix, among others. The company also recently acquired Redbox (see below).

Crackle exclusives include four seasons of “Sherlock,” all five seasons of “Ripper Street,” and a documentary series called “A Life in Ten Pictures” that profiles important cultural figures, such as Elizabeth Taylor, Freddie Mercury, John Lennon, and Tupac Shakur. The service is also adding a new series from the BBC library every month.

Crackle’s original content already includes “Snatch,” a series based on the now-classic movie; “Les Norton,” a 10-episode series starring Rebel Wilson; “The Uncommon History of Very Common Things,” an entertaining and often irreverent history of everyday objects; and season two of “In The Vault,” a suspense series set at a fictional college. There’s also “Mad Families,” a Crackle original film starring Charlie Sheen and Leah Remini.

Hoopla and Kanopy
If you have a library card, Hoopla and Kanopy might be your ticket to free movies, music, audiobooks, and comics. Getting started is pretty simple. Just go to the site, find your local library, and create an account with your library card. You check out TV shows and movies as though they were books, using your library card.

The main difference between the two services is that Hoopla tends to focus more on popular entertainment than Kanopy does, and it includes other types of media beyond videos, such as audiobooks, comics, e-books, and music.

With either service, 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. With Hoopla, you have 72 hours to watch a movie. (Your library sets the limit on how many movies you can borrow each month. In my case, it recently jumped from four to eight.) Your movie will start streaming once you’ve made a selection.

Peacock
Bad news for new subscribers: Peacock is no longer offering its free tier, instead shifting its emphasis to its two paid Premium services. However, anyone currently using the free tier can continue to use it, and paid subscribers who cancel their subscription will automatically be downgraded to the free plan.

The free tier lets subscribers watch new 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 properties. But it doesn’t provide live sports events, most blockbuster movies, or original Peacock programming such as “Yellowstone,” “Love Island,” and “Bel Air.”

In recent months it appeared that the free tier had an increasingly limited library of content, though it included movies and popular shows such as “21 Jump Street,” 10 seasons of “Law and Order: Criminal Intent,” and several seasons of “Cheers.” Free movies include “Sherlock Holmes,” “The Amityville Haunting,” and “Pride and Prejudice.” Some current NBC shows are available a week after they air, but with many others, you can access only one or two early episodes.

Pluto TV
Pluto TV, owned by Paramount, has about 250 curated channels, drawing content from its own Paramount properties (BET, CBS, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, and Paramount Pictures), plus networks such as Bloomberg, Cheddar News, CNN, NBC News, and Fox Sports. Pluto TV also has a decent library of on-demand content, including now-classic movies—“Rain Man,” “The Age of Innocence”—and newer fare such as “Kubo and the Two Strings.” TV shows run the gamut from “The Andy Griffith Show” and the original “Gunsmoke” to “The Twilight Zone” and “Criminal Minds.”

In addition to genre-based channels, Pluto TV has added channels powered by other providers, including CBS (“NCIS,” “FBI”), AMC Networks (“The Making of the Mob,” “NOS4A2: Ghost”), and Showtime (“Dexter,” “Billions”).

Recently added shows include “BBC Top Gear,” “Blue Bloods,” and “Dateline 24/7.”

There’s also now a Pluto TV Latino service, with over 45 curated Spanish- and Portuguese-language channels covering categories including comedy, movies, music, reality TV, sports, telenovelas, and true crime.

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 now has a free, ad-based live service as well, which gets some of its content from Xumo. Thanks to the Xumo partnership, Redbox’s free service includes Magnolia Pictures’ CineLife ad-supported channel, which features top-rated independent films and award-winning documentaries from the Magnolia Pictures catalog.

Redbox was recently acquired by Chicken Soup for the Soul, which also owns Crackle. The company says for now the streaming service will continue to run as a separate entity.

The Roku Channel
Thanks to a rapidly expanding roster of programming, you can watch free shows and movies via the company’s ad-supported Roku Channel, which is now available outside of just Roku streaming players and TVs.

The Roku Channel has a lot of licensed TV shows and movies, plus some live channels from ABC, AMC, Fox, NBC, Hallmark, and others. One big focus going forward will be Roku Originals, which will roll out 50 new shows over the next few years. Roku also purchased the content from Quibi when that short-lived service went under. Current Roku Originals include “Reno 911: Defunded”; “The Fugitive,” starring Kiefer Sutherland; “The Newsreader”; and the movie “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” a biopic based on the life of Weird Al Yankovic that stars Daniel Radcliffe.

New original series include “Fight to Survive,” “Reptile Royalty,” and “UFO Cowboys.” The company also recently added second seasons for original food series starring Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse, part of co-production deals with Marquee Brands and Milk Street Studios that brings over 3,000 episodes of library content.

Recently, Roku (and Tubi) licensed hundreds of movies and TV shows, including “Raised By Wolves” and “Cake Boss,” from Warner Bros. Discovery.

In addition, Roku has a multiyear deal with Lionsgate that gives it rights to stream Lionsgate’s theatrically released films. Exclusive to Roku, it’s the first time Lionsgate titles are available free anywhere. Roku is also teaming up with a private equity company to acquire up to a 20 percent stake in the premium channel Starz, which was acquired by Lionsgate in 2016.

Roku also lets you access AMC Networks’ paid streaming services— AMC+, Shudder, and Acorn TV—through the Roku Channel’s Premium Subscriptions.

In a recent announcement, Roku said that it was partnering with a venture capital firm to acquire up to 20 percent of Starz.

Sling Freestream
Sling Freestream is a new ad-supported service from Sling TV. The service has more than 210 channels and over 40,000 on-demand titles, with genres ranging from news, sports, game shows, and crime dramas to sitcoms, home improvement, cooking, and more. Popular channels and programming include ABC News Live, CBS News, ESPN On Demand, FilmRise: “Hell’s Kitchen,” “Heartland,” “Forensic Files,” and The Walking Dead Universe and VH1 I Love Reality.

Through Freestream, you’ll be able to subscribe to more than 50 standalone streaming services, including AMC+, Discovery+, and Showtime.

Freestream is available through the Sling app on all Roku devices, and is rolling out across LG, Samsung, and Vizio devices.

Tubi TV
This ad-supported service has more than 50,000 titles, including selections from the libraries of Lionsgate, MGM, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros., plus networks including A&E, Lifetime, and Starz. The options range from old (and probably best forgotten) Chuck Norris films to classic indie titles (“Requiem for a Dream”) to somewhat more recent movies such as “Sorry to Bother You.” You’ll also find full seasons of TV shows ranging from oldies (“The Honeymooners”) to more recent fare (“The Masked Singer”).

Recently, Warner Bros. Discovery licensed hundreds of movies and TV shows, including "Westworld" and "Cake Boss,” to Tubi (and Roku).

Now owned by Fox, Tubi is ramping up its original content with 100 new film and TV titles slated to appear over the course of this year. Tubi offers streaming access to many Fox shows, such as “Hell’s Kitchen” and “Lego Masters,” after they are broadcast. It also has a lineup of newer originals, including “Prisoner of Love” and “Corrective Measures,” the latter starring Bruce Willis. These join other Tubi Originals, such as “10 Truths About Love,” “War of the Worlds: Annihilation,” and “Mysteries From the Grave: Titanic.”

It has several programs based on the Lego franchise, specials starring Garfield, and some Pokemon programs. The company also has a deal that brings eight seasons of “Barney & Friends” to the service. It has several live local and national news channels from outlets including ABC, Black News Channel, Bloomberg, CBS, Cheddar, Fox, and NBC.

ViX
ViX is a free, ad-supported Spanish-language service owned by Univision, and formerly called PrendeTV. Unlike PrendeTV, which was exclusively a free, ad-supported service, ViX also has an ad-free subscription version, called ViX+, which costs $7 a month.

Both the paid and free versions offer more than 50 entertainment channels, including movies, sports, and children’s programming. (ViX+ also has premium series and some exclusive live sporting events.) ViX has more than 20,000 hours of on-demand content, which includes shows from Univision, plus content from large media companies based in Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. It also has deals with Disney, Lionsgate, and MGM to offer more than 150 films to viewers.

Other programming includes several soccer channels, nature and wildlife channels from Blue Ant Media, nine telenovela channels, and seven movie channels. There are also three family channels.

ViX is available on Amazon Fire TV devices, Apple TV and iPhones, Roku players and TVs, and Google’s Android phones and TVs.

WBTV
This new ad-supported service, from Warner Bros. Discovery, hasn’t yet launched. Not a lot is known yet about the planned service, but it will probably leverage content from Warner Bros., including HBO Max, Discovery, and Scripps. Warner Bros. Discovery recently licensed hundreds of movies and shows to Roku and Tubi, but those types of deals may end when it launches its own free service. So far, no launch date, or content, has been announced.

Xumo Play
Xumo Play, a joint venture between Comcast and Charter, is an ad-powered streaming video platform that offers live and on-demand content from more than 290 channels across multiple genres, including sports, action and drama, news, kids and family entertainment, live events, comedy, lifestyle, and movies.

Content on Xumo Play includes news programming (ABC News Live, Bloomberg, CBS News Latest Headlines, LiveNow from Fox), movies from FilmRise, Hallmark, and Crackle, TV shows ranging from classic (“That Girl”) to kids (“Garfield and Friends”), and sports (CBS Sports HQ, Fox Sports). Movies also run the gamut from classics (“Charade”) to modern classics (“American Psycho”). It also has channels created specifically for Black and Latino audiences.

In addition, last summer the service struck an exclusive deal with Magnolia Pictures that brings a new Magnolia movie almost every month, with a three-month exclusive window.

At CES 2023, Xumo announced that it was partnering with Element Electronics to launch a line of 4K Element Xumo TVs in the U.S. later this year. Earlier, Comcast and Charter announced that they’d be rebranding XClass smart TVs as Xumo TVs. The Flex streaming player will be rebranded as the Xumo Stream Box.

Network Services

AMC+
Price: $9 a month or $84 per year. Some promotional pricing is available when you sign up through one of the service’s partners, such as Amazon, Apple, and Roku.

AMC+ is one of the newer ad-free streaming subscription services. It includes the best of AMC, such as “Better Call Saul,” “Mad Men,” and exclusive series including “Interview With the Vampire,” “Gangs of London,” a British action crime series’ plus shows and movies from BBC America, IFC, and Sundance TV, with full access to Shudder, Sundance Now, and IFC Films Unlimited. New exclusive movies are added every Friday.

Among the new programming is a new series, Anne Rice’s “Mayfair Witches,” starring Alexandra Daddario and Harry Hamlin, plus the horror series “Chucky.”

Like HBO Max, one perk of AMC+ is early access to some shows, as well as some streaming exclusives that aren’t available elsewhere.

Discovery+
Price: $5 per month with ads or $7 per month without. Students can get a discounted $3-per-month rate.

Discovery+ targets those who like to watch Discovery’s assortment of channels without subscribing to a full cable-style replacement service such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling, or YouTube TV.

The company—perhaps best known for Shark Week—has an extensive collection of content. That includes more than 55,000 episodes from 2,500 current and classic shows in Discovery’s portfolio of networks, which includes Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Food Network, HGTV, and TLC. The service also includes content from the BBC Natural History Collection, plus nonfiction programming from A&E, The History Channel, and Lifetime.

Last year, Discovery and WarnerMedia completed their merger; the new entity is called Warner Bros. Discovery. Company executives have said the long-term plan will be to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming entity, called Max. The company recently announced it would launch the combined service April 12.

However, in a slight change of course, the company recently decided it will also keep Discovery+ as a lower-cost standalone service, for people not interested in the scripted entertainment programming.

New original shows will feature programming starring or created by Martha Stewart, Kevin Hart, David Schwimmer, Sir David Attenborough, Bobby Flay, and Giada De Laurentiis. However, the parent company recently shuttled shows from Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia Network from Discovery+ to HBO Max.

ESPN+
Price: $10 per month or $100 per year for the basic service.

ESPN+ is best for hardcore sports junkies looking to add out-of-market baseball and hockey games to their menu, college sports fans who want a broader assortment of sports than they can get with traditional TV, and those with an interest in niche sports, such as rugby and cricket. The service will also offer documentaries and scripted series.

Shows include “Peyton’s Places” with Peyton Manning; “Man in the Arena,” with Tom Brady; and “More Than an Athlete,” with Michael Strahan. There’s also a library of original “30 for 30” documentaries, including “Vick,” about the rise and fall of the quarterback Michael Vick.

The bad news is that Disney hiked the price of ESPN+ by $3, from $7 to $10 a month, or $100 a year. As mentioned above, you can also get bundled plans with Disney+ and Hulu, with ads, for $13 a month. Another plan, with ad-free Disney+ and ad-free Hulu, plus ESPN+, costs $20 a month.

Paramount+
Price: $5 per month or $50 per year with ads, or $10 per month or $100 per year ad-free. Either plan bundled with Showtime is $12 a month or $120 a year.

Paramount+ is the replacement for CBS All Access and provides full-length episodes of CBS programs and new original programming, plus livestreams of local CBS affiliates in many markets.

The big news for the company is that it is merging both the Showtime cable channel and the Showtime Now streaming service into Paramount+. The new cable network is called Paramount+ With Showtime, while the streaming service is Paramount+ Premium With Showtime.

Parent company Paramount (formerly ViacomCBS) offers two plans. The $5-per-month ad-supported Essential tier mirrors what you used to get with CBS All Access: movies and TV shows from CBS and Viacom properties, including BET, CBS, Miramax, and Paramount, as well as live sports, including NFL games, soccer matches, and PGA golf. This plan doesn’t include live local CBS stations, but the NFL on CBS is available via separate live feeds. Verified students are able to get a 25 percent discount on the Essential plan.

The Premium tier, previously called Commercial Free, costs $10 per month. It’s mostly commercial-free (except for live TV streams) and features the same content as the ad-supported tier but includes your live local CBS station. It also has shows and movies in 4K with HDR (including Dolby Vision), plus mobile downloads. The rebranded Paramount+ Premium with Showtime will include all the original Showtime series, which you don’t get with Essential. But the company just announced that it will be raising the price of Essentials from $5 to $6 a month, while the Premier plan goes from $10 to $12 a month. It didn’t say when the price increases will take effect.

Paramount+ original content includes “1923,” a companion to the popular “Yellowstone” series (which, thanks to an oddity of licensing deals, is on Peacock) starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, and shows such as “Seal Team,” “The Good Fight,” “The Mayor of Kingstown,” and “Evil,” some of which used to be on CBS. There are also a growing number of series based on the “Star Trek” franchise, and a reboot of the popular comedy “Fraser”—with Kelsey Grammer returning in the title role—will air later this year.

New blockbuster movies include “Top Gun: Maverick” and the horror film “Smile,” available now, and “Mission: Impossible 7.”

Peacock
Price: $5 per month or $50 per year with ads; $10 per month or $100 per year without ads.

NBCUniversal’s Peacock lets you access NBC shows and Universal movies, as well as licensed content, original programming, and live sports events.

The service has had free and paid tiers, but the company recently stopped offering the free tier to new subscribers. Those who have the free tier can keep it. All include current-season NBC broadcasts, plus a mix of offerings from NBC, Universal Studios, USA Network, Syfy, Bravo, Telemundo, and Universal Kids. The service also licenses shows from other networks, including A&E, ABC, and Fox, as well as Paramount. There are deals in place for movies from Universal Pictures, DreamWorks, Focus Features, Illumination, Warner Bros., and Blumhouse.

The Peacock Premium paid tier gets you exclusive next-day access to current NBC and Bravo shows now that those deals with Hulu have expired. You also get access to original series, including “Poker Face,” “The Resort,” “Love Island,” and “Yellowstone.” A deal with Universal brings that company’s new movies, including “Jurassic World: Dominion” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” exclusively to Peacock for 45 days after leaving theaters. Other new movies include the Jordan Peele horror film “Nope,” the religious comedy “Honk for Jesus: Save Your Soul” and “They/Them,” a horror thriller about campers at an LGBTQ+ conversion camp.

A multiyear deal with Lionsgate brings all its theatrically released films (including “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” starring Nicholas Cage, and “John Wick: Chapter 4,” starring Keanu Reeves) to Peacock starting in 2024.

For sports fans, Peacock will stream Premier League soccer games, golf tournaments, and WWE Network matches. It also recently signed an extension with the NFL through 2033 to show Sunday night NFL games that air on NBC.

Niche Services

The Criterion Channel
Price: $11 per month or $100 per year.

Rising out of the ashes of the now-shuttered FilmStruck, the Criterion Channel classic movie streaming service offers “continuous access to Criterion’s streaming library of more than 1,000 important classic and contemporary films, plus a constantly refreshed selection of Hollywood, international, art-house, and independent films,” according to the company.

The stand-alone Criterion Channel is the result of a special deal with WarnerMedia, which shut down the FilmStruck streaming service in late 2018. Parts of the Criterion Collection film library, which had been included in that service, are also available on the HBO Max service.

Among the titles recently added to the Criterion Channel are the Beatles film “A Hard Day’s Night”; the Coen Brothers’ “Blood Simple”; “Pillow Talk,” with Rock Hudson and Doris Day; and “Tootsie,” starring Dustin Hoffman.

PBS Passport
Price: $5 a month or $60 per year for most stations.

While a free version of PBS is also available, PBS Passport unlocks additional programming that’s no longer available for streaming to nonmembers. The price can vary depending on your market because each PBS station sets its own Passport subscription prices.

The PBS Passport library features episodes from popular programs, including “American Experience,” “American Masters,” “Antiques Roadshow,” “Nature,” “Nova,” and Masterpiece shows such as “Annika,” “All Creatures Great and Small,” “Downton Abbey,” “Grantchester,” and “Sanditon.”

On the PBS streaming service, episodes that are available for viewing only by Passport members sport a blue “compass rose” Passport icon in the upper left-hand corner of the program.

Premium Channels

HBO Max
Price: $10 a month or $100 per year with ads; $16 per month or $150 pear year without ads.

HBO Max offers everything you used to get with HBO and HBO Go, plus a lot more content from WarnerMedia properties, for about the same monthly price, though HBO Max now costs $16 a month since its $1-a-month price hike in January. HBO Max is also included in some top-tier DirecTV and DirecTV Stream plans.

In addition to regular HBO channels, HBO Max includes a slate of new original programs and titles from the Warner Bros. TV and film library. The service also has content from Warner’s Cartoon Network, CNN, DC Entertainment, TBS, The CW, TNT, and Turner Classic Movies. But a deal with Universal that brought movies to the service has expired; they now go to Peacock (see above).

HBO Max has a number of exclusives, including the streaming rights to every episode of “Friends” and “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and exclusive domestic rights to all 12 seasons of “The Big Bang Theory.” Newer movies include “Black Adam” and “Amsterdam,” and original series include “The White Lotus,” “The Gilded Age,” “Succession,” and “Euphoria.” Newer series include "The Last of Us," based on the video game, and the “Game of Thrones” prequel, “House of the Dragon.” A second season has already been approved.

For those on a budget, there’s now also a less expensive, ad-supported version of HBO Max called HBO Max With Ads. It costs $10 per month or $100 a year. Apart from the ads, one difference is that you don’t get movies in 4K, and you can’t download movies for offline viewing.

As we noted above, Warner Bros. Discovery executives plan to combine HBO Max and Discovery+ into a single streaming entity called Max, with Discovery+ continuing as a lower-cost standalone service for people who don’t want the scripted programming.

The company says it plans to launch the new service this spring.

Showtime
Price: $12 per month or $120 per year.

Like HBO Max, the Showtime streaming service lets you watch a cable network without the cable. But Paramount recently rolled the Showtime streaming service into its two streaming plans, Paramount+ Essentials (with ads), and the ad-free Paramount+ Premium, as part of a bundle. Either bundle—Essential with Showtime and Premium with Showtime—costs $12 a month, or $1 a month more than the standalone Showtime service. By signing up, you get all of Showtime’s movies, documentaries, sports events, and original shows such as “George and Tammy,” “Your Honor,” “Dexter: New Blood,” and “Billions,” documentaries, and sporting events. All the Showtime content is ad-free.

Note that if you subscribed to the Showtime streaming service without the bundle and then choose to subscribe to the bundle through Paramount+, you’ll need to cancel your Showtime subscription to avoid being double-billed.

Starz
Price: $9 per month or $75 per year.

Like HBO and Showtime, you can now get Starz without a pay-TV subscription. Content includes original shows (“Spanish Princess,” “Outlander,” “Party Down”) and movies (“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” “Fall”). Starz ended its agreement with Sony Pictures, but a deal with Lionsgate brings movies like “John Wick” and “Knives Out” to the service.

Starz also has a number of original TV shows, including “The Serpent Queen,” “Hightown,” about a Cape Cod woman struggling with sobriety, and “Who Is Ghislaine Maxwell?” about Jeffrey Epstein’s cohort. Newer ones include the horror/comedy “Shining Vale,” with Courtney Cox, and “Dangerous Liaisons,” based on the classic novel.

Roku recently announced that it was partnering with a venture capital firm to acquire up to 20 percent of Starz.

Consumer Reports is an independent, nonprofit organization that works side by side with consumers to create a fairer, safer, and healthier world. CR does not endorse products or services, and does not accept advertising. Copyright © 2023, Consumer Reports, Inc.