Free streaming: All the very best content you can watch for free
Washing your hands and participating in social distancing are about the only “coronavirus cures” the world has right now. While washing your hands as often as possible is relatively simple and painless, social distancing has a more felt effect on the lives of people.
Never heard of it? Social distancing is the act of staying at least five feet away from other people at all times in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. This basically means things like going to a movie theatre or local sporting event are out. In this time of great separation from other people and traditional ways of entertainment, it’s easy to feel isolated and very, very bored.
Luckily we have the scoop on a coronavirus boredom cure. Here’s a list of the best ways you can stream free (and legal!) content:
Pluto TV
Pluto TV is a good option for free movies. They favor dividing their content into unique channel categories such as the 007 Channel or the Black Cinema Channel. The cool thing about Pluto TV is that they’re even streaming live news coverage on their homepage right now, so you can get the latest updates on the coronavirus.
Hoopla
Your local library may have shut its doors to in-person checkout, but it may give you access to this awesome coronavirus boredom cure. Hoopla is a streaming service where you can “check out” movies for 72 hours and a lot of libraries have partnered with them, so it’s worth asking yours. It even has the option to download titles to view offline.
Kanopy
Kanopy is yet another streaming service that may partner with your library. This service is also commercial-free. Kanopy boasts a selection of mainstream titles but holds a good amount of documentaries and indie films as well. Have kids? Then their Kanopy Kids section is the family-friendly section for you.
Vudu
No, not that kind of voodoo. Vudu is a streaming service that you can choose to pay for, but it has a pretty good amount of titles you can stream for free as well. You’ll have to sit through the commercials to help the platform fund itself, and a lot of the free movies tend to be older, but some people consider this one of the streaming services with the most amount of free content.
Early Blockbuster Home Viewing?
If you’re in the market for more recent titles and don’t mind paying to view them, The Walt Disney Company and Universal Pictures both have you in mind.
Disney announced that it would release Frozen II for home viewing on Disney+. That’s three months earlier than they originally planned. They said they were doing so in an attempt to alleviate some stress on “families during these challenging times.”
Universal Pictures then quickly followed suit and has decided to test drive an unconventional release schedule of their own. They have decided to make their movies available for viewing in the home at the same time that they are released in the theatres!
That means movies like Trolls World Tour, originally releasing to theatres on April 10th, will also be available for viewing at home the same day! Universal Pictures movies will be available for on-demand on Comcast as well as these platforms: iTunes, Google Play, Amazon Prime and FandangoNow.
There you have it, our coronavirus boredom cure. Have ideas for streaming services we missed? Tell us in the comments.
