Other Free Streaming Video Services
Have you used up your 10 Kanopy tickets for the month?
Why not try a free streaming video service? The catch is you will need to watch ads (for most of the services). You may also need to create a free account.
In this guide are some of the free streaming video services available in Canada. You may have heard of other services but some are no longer free (e.g. Crackle, Hayu, Crunchyroll) and others are not available in Canada (e.g. IMDB, Vudu).
Like Netflix and other streaming platforms, the titles on these sites change. Titles are dropped and others are added so keep checking for new additions and deletions to a service.
Want an easy way to find where a movie or TV series is streaming?
You may want to check out JustWatch. JustWatch is like a "TV Guide" for streaming video. It is a streaming aggregator which scans multiple video streaming sites to find where movies and TV shows can be found. It covers all five types of streaming services:
- Free streaming
- Free streaming with ads
- Paid subscriptions
- Renting
- Buying (as download)
tubi
Access via:
- https://tubitv.com/home
- tubi Android and iOS Apps
- tubi TV Apps
With over 41,000 film and TV titles, tubi is one of the largest free video streaming sites. It has 31 genres – including comedy, crime, documentary, foreign language, LGBTQIA+, lifestyle, reality TV, romance, classics, sci-fi and reality.
tubi has over 250 content partners, including A&E, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, Magnolia Pictures, Lionsgate, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and NBCUniversal, so its catalogue includes many popular (but mostly older) movies.
tubi has a kids section with parental controls.
PLEX
Access via:
- Over 50,000 Movies and Shows across a variety of genres (action, animation, comedy, crime, documentary, drama, horror, musical, romance, sci-fi, thriller, western) – from publishing studios like MGM, Warner Bros, Lionsgate, and Crackle.
PLEX is also a media server for people looking to set up their own personal media library. For more information about this service, please see this PLEX Support article.
PLEX is also experimenting with being a video streaming aggregator (similar to JustWatch). For more information, see Plex Discover.
Pluto TV
Access via:
About Pluto TV:
- Launched in Canada in December 2022.
- Mission is “to entertain the planet.”
- Considered a FAST streaming service (Free Ad-Supported Television).
Watch for free:
- Over 20,000 hours of content – primarily TV but also some movies. Content is from owner Paramount and Canadian partner, Corus Entertainment (and 100+ third-party partners).
- TV shows include: Classics (e.g. Happy Days, Love Boat, Mission Impossible, The Ed Sullivan Show); Crime (e.g. Hawaii Five-O, CSI, NCIS, 48 Hours, Unsolved Mysteries); Drama (e.g. Beverly Hills 90210, Baywatch, Dynasty); Comedy (e.g. Cheers, Frasier, South Park); News (24-hour news from local and national Global channels in Canada, and CBS in the U.S.); Sports and Gaming; Home, DIY, Food (e.g. Reno & Flip, Fixers and Flippers, Iron Chef Canada); Kids (e.g. Nick Jr., Blues Clues, Dora TV, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles); and Reality TV (e.g. Judge Judy, Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen, Fear Factor). Canadian content consists of more than 30 channels: 6 home/DIY channels (including Bryan and Sarah Baeumler, Sarah Richardson, Scott McGillivray); 5 food channels; 5 kids channels (including Franklin and Max & Ruby); and 14 national and local Canadian news channels. French-language content is also included.
- Movies are organized by genre and include titles such as Grease, Terms of Endearment, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. There is also a Christmas 365 Holiday channel with holiday movies available throughout the year.
- Viewers can watch by:
- Live TV channel or
- On Demand (Movies and TV)
For more help, see Pluto TV Support.
CBC Gem
Access via:
- https://gem.cbc.ca/
- CBC Gem Mobile Apps
- CBC Gem TV apps
Watch for free:
Everything. Genres include news, lifestyle, documentaries, animation, drama, comedy, music, reality, and sports. Lots of children's programming here as well (all of which is ad-free). Includes popular CBC shows such as Schitt’s Creek, Luther, Kim’s Convenience, Great Canadian Baking Show, and Nature of Things. Also includes some British shows such as Line of Duty, Downton Abbey, and Happy Valley, as well as a collection of other international shows.
All content is free but, to watch past seasons of many shows, or to watch live stream CBC TV from any CBC channel other than Ottawa, you need to create a free CBC Gem account. For more information on these 2 free ways to access CBC Gem, see What is CBC Gem.
For more help, see CBC Gem Help.
CTV
Access via:
- https://www.ctv.ca/
- CTV Mobile Apps
- CTV TV Apps
Watch for free:
- All CTV Primetime shows for a limited period at https://www.ctv.ca/
- If a title or episode does not have either a Sign in to Watch or a Lock icon, it can be watched for free.
- CTV's more popular shows are Grey's Anatomy, The Good Doctor, This is Us, MasterChef Canada, Shark Tank, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, W5, The Dr. Oz Show, and Dr. Phil.
- All CTV Movies at any time at https://www.ctv.ca/movies
- Close to one thousand Hollywood movies.
- All CTV Throwback shows at any time at https://www.ctv.ca/throwback
- Episodes of popular throwback shows like Corner Gas, Magnum, P.I., Knight Rider, The Facts of Life, Bewitched, Flying Nun, The Jeffersons, I Dream of Jeannie, Who's the Boss, Community, Dawson's Creek & more.
- All MTV at any time at https://www.ctv.ca/mtv
For more help, see CTV Support.
Global
Access via:
- https://watch.globaltv.com/
- Global Mobile Apps
- Global TV Apps
Watch for free:
- All Global prime-time shows for seven days after broadcast.
- Some of Global’s more popular shows are Survivor, New Amsterdam, NCIS, S.W.A.T., Saturday Night Live, Late Show with Stephen Colbert, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hours.
- After 7 days of free access, most shows require a sign-in with a TV service provider username and password.
- A limited-time collection of shows from Food Network and HGTV Canada.
- News from all Global’s local and national news feeds.
NFB (National Film Board)
Access via:
Watch for free:
- All content except CAMPUS films and a few films which need to be purchased as DVDs or DTOs (Download-to-Own).
The NFB collection includes over 3,000 productions. The focus is on "films that take a stand on issues of global importance that matter to Canadians—stories about the environment, human rights, international conflict, the arts and more." The collection is grouped into:
- Films
- Documentaries
- Animation
- Interactive works
- Education (Most - but not all - of this content requires a CAMPUS subscription)
To browse the collection, try using Channels or Subjects .
NFB also has a substantial Indigenous Cinema collection with films made by First Nations, Inuit and Métis directors from across Canada. There are more than 300 films in this collection, with the first film produced in 1968.
Knowledge Network
Access via:
- https://www.knowledge.ca/
- Knowledge Mobile and TV Apps
Knowledge Network is British Columbia’s public educational broadcaster. It is different from many free video streaming sites in that:
- There are no ads.
- It requires a free account to watch all shows.
Watch for free (with free account):
- Everything. Content includes dramas, numerous documentaries, Knowledge Originals, performing arts, and a Knowledge Kids collection.
- Live stream of Knowledge's TV programming. If you miss the live stream of a program, it will be viewable at midnight on the same day as it was broadcast and, then (typically) for 30 days from the television broadcast date (depending on online streaming rights).
For more help, see Knowledge Network Help Centre.
YouTube
Access via:
Movies and Shows - Free To Watch
YouTube has free, ad-supported content in addition to its content that is purchased or rented. YouTube offers a Premium subscription which provides ad-free viewing and the ability to watch YouTube videos offline. (Note that YouTube Premium does not give access to more content than the ad-supported YouTube.)
At last count, YouTube had 400 free movies and documentaries.
Note that all free movies have the caption "Free with ads."
Other Free Streaming Services
There are so many free video streaming sites that it is very difficult (if not impossible) to keep track of all of them. Below are a couple you may want to check out.
- Filmocracy - Free streaming of independent films.
- Internet Archive - Feature Films and TV Shows in the public domain. The most popular TV shows are found in the Classic TV Shows category.
AVOD vs SVOD vs TVOD
Have you ever wondered what all the VODs (Video On Demand) - stand for? Below is a brief explanation of each:
AVOD - Ad-Supported. This is the category for most of the sites listed here. Includes FAST (Free Ad-Supported Television).
SVOD - Subscription. Streaming sites you subscribe to such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Crave, Apple TV, Disney+, and others.
TVOD - Transactional. Streaming sites where you pay for each movie or TV show you watch. TVOD has two sub-categories: electronic sell-through (EST), where you can permanently access a title once you have purchased it; and download to rent (DTR), where you can "rent" a title or season for a limited time.