Quick Links
YouTube isn’t just for watching content made by your favorite creators and streamers. It also features heaps of legal movies and TV shows—and you don’t even need YouTube Premium to benefit!
How to Browse YouTube’s Movie Library
Rather than risk watching a movie illegally on YouTube, it has an entire library of movies and TV shows available. It’s the official way, in other words.
Now, if you watch a free movie, it will have ads, similar to Netflix’s ad-supported tier. However, if you have YouTube Premium, you can enjoy movies and TV shows without interruption. Whether that makesYouTube Premium worth the costis still up for debate, though.
The selection is decent enough, especially under the primetime movies and TV shows section. That’s where you’ll find content you’ve actually heard of. However, you’ll quickly notice, like I did, that many newer releases are only available to rent or buy.
How to Find YouTube Channels With Free Movies
Other than YouTube, plenty of channels host movies and TV shows legally, and it all comes down to licensing. you’re able to quickly check if a channel is legitimate by checking a few key characteristics:
That’s not to say every channel with these characteristics is legitimate, but it does add credibility. You really want to avoid channels that host movies with no credits or licensing, poor quality, and ads. Those are almost always YouTube channels committing copyright infringement.
However, even with those tips, finding free movies and shows on YouTube is often difficult. There are severalYouTube channels featuring heaps of free movies and shows, includingMovie Central,Horror Central, andPizzaFlix. Furthermore, you’re not limited by YouTube; there are many othersites where you can find free legal films to watch.
How to Find Movies You Purchased on YouTube
With Google and YouTube being linked, any movie or TV show you buy (or rent) on Google Play is also available for streaming on YouTube. It’s pretty handy if you’re using a device that doesn’t support Google Play but supports the YouTube app.
Anything you own will be available right there for you to watch—free of ads.
Overall, YouTube is a handy way to watch entire movies and TV shows, completely legal and even for free. It’s not a bad option if you need to cancel your subscriptions for a month or two and need some entertainment to keep you sane. And if you want a change of pace, there are plenty ofradio stations on YouTubeto vibe to.
