Wow. Today is the day we’ll start streaming thousands of free movies, TV shows, extreme sports films, music documentaries, Bollywood musicals, and more. Some super familiar stuff (Hey there, Nic Cage! Looking good, Tom Cruise! You’re totally Overboard, Goldie Hawn!) and super obscure stuff too (welcome to Plex, Squid Man!). All of this goodness is ready to go as soon as you open Plex.
While there might be, oh, one or two other streaming services already out there 😉, we’re building on our decade of extreme passion for media to deliver the best experience possible, while also giving you the control and customization to stream it your way. So dip your toes in and give it a whirl! As with all the Plex content offerings, you can move the free movie source up and down your sidebar or even hide it forever—you’re always in control of your own destiny, or at least your own interface.
Over time, we’ll be adding more stuff from different studios and creators—from Oscar-winning Hollywood movies to the latest from India, Russia, China, Japan, Africa, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe to really cool independent movies fresh off the festival circuit. For those who are into acronyms—looking at all you SCUBA heads and NASA geeks—this type of offering is known as Ad-supported Video On Demand, or AVOD. Our hope is that Plex becomes your favorite source for free shows and movies, which will all be available across the vast expanse of Plex-enabled devices. And all, you know, for free.
Okay. So how exactly does this new free service work?
1. If you already have content inside Plex: Congrats! Your mediaverse just got a little bit bigger. New free movies and series content will be available in your navigation and homescreen just like all of your other media in Plex, which you can customize or turn off. We’ll also be able to recommend content based on your media collection, just like we do with your music library and TIDAL. You decide whether you want to watch any of the recommended free titles.
2. If you don’t have content inside Plex: It’s now easier than ever to experience the highest-rated media app around. Enjoy our best-in-class interface for streaming the movies, TV shows, podcasts, documentaries, and music you love. No hard drive or personal media collection necessary. We’ll bring all the good stuff directly to you.
So, about those little ad-breaks in the free movies and TV shows
Our goal is to bring this great content from big studios and independent producers from around the globe to you for free. In exchange, we’re asking for a bit of your time to watch some ads. We think it’s a fair deal, but of course, you’ll be the judge.
Besides—you gotta go to the bathroom sometime, right?
Wait, are you going to be putting ads in my personal content?
Absolutely not! That would be a really terrible idea for many, many reasons. Your media collection—including your recorded movies and TV shows, home videos, photos, music collection, and more—will continue to stream to all of your devices ad-free. Unless, of course, you just happen to collect TV commercials in your personal media collection 😉.
Boldly streaming where no other company has streamed before
While there are certainly other free streaming services out there, we’re the first to offer a vast, free, diverse collection of content for a truly global audience. Starting today, Plex will deliver more content to more countries than any other free streaming service to date. We wanted to offer more entertainment—both classics and new favorites—and do so in a way that is high-quality (for those who care about encoding quality) while serving only about one-third the amount of ads you’d expect on cable television.
Basically, we wanted to build a free streaming service that we would want to watch ourselves. And of course, Plex isn’t only a free streaming service. We provide you and your family a single, beautiful place to curate and stream all your stored videos and photos, favorite podcasts, movies, web shows, news, live TV, and even your carefully curated music collection. In other words, with Plex you become master of your mediaverse.
At Plex, we stream it your way
So give it a spin. Prioritize the types of content and the sources you want to see, or even re-organize your app’s interface to truly make it your own. Discover our dozens of new free collections like “ Anime movies that make Sumo wrestlers cry.” Or re-discover those guilty pleasures in “Movies you hate to love.” If you’ve got the emotional intelligence for it, why not try our “Feel like some feels” collection. Or dive deep into the Kung Fu movies and 80s-action classics with our “Fight Night” collection.
Besides, who doesn’t want to watch Michael J. Fox surf on top of a van dressed up like a werewolf for free?
More goodness to come
And rest assured, we’re working on improving this new source all the time. Some upgrades to keep an eye out for in the short term include improved subtitle support around the globe, additional discovery and browse features, and an enhanced watch list to keep track of everything you want to watch!
Learn more about accessing the new, free content as well as answers to other common questions on our support site.