YouTube is not just a service that lets people watch videos from content creators and streamers they like. That’s also filled with heaps of legal movies and TV shows—and you don’t even have to be subscribed to YouTube Premium to get it!
How to Browse YouTube’s Movie Library
Instead of waiting for its favourite show and watching a movie through an unauthorized link on YouTube, it has a library full of movies and TV shows. It’s the official way, that is to say.
1. Open YouTube either using your browser or start the YouTube application on your system.
2. With a browser, left-click on the selection Your Movies & TV.
3. If you’re using the YouTube app, choose the profile icon and tap Movies & TV. From there, you can filter to movies that are available for purchase, rent, or free streaming.
Now, if you watch a free movie, it will be interrupted by ads like Netflix’s ad-supported plan. The plan is out. However, if you are subscribed to YouTube Premium then you can watch all movies and TV shows with no interruptions. Whether that makes YouTube Premium worth it is up for discussion, although.
The so-called ‘selection’ is enough to watch some paid programming under the primetime movies and TV shows category. That’s where you will find content whose names you at least know. But you will find, as I did, that many more recent movies are only to be rented or purchased.
How to Find YouTube Channels With Free Movies
However, many channels stream movies and TV shows legally, and it’s all about licensing other than YouTube. You can quickly check if a channel is legitimate by checking a few key characteristics:
- It contains information such as the movie or TV show’s official licensing for example “Licensed from [Company Name].
- Especially so, if said channel also has official licensing and contracts listed in its About section.
- The second restriction, which this site does not impose, is that the movies and TV shows available in the public domain are all fair game.
Of course, not all of the channels that possess these qualities are real, but any of them will add some authority. You want to disassociate yourself from channels that air movies with no credit or license, poor quality and many commercials. That is almost always a YouTube channel guilty of copyright violation.
Still, with all those tips in mind, searching for free movies and shows on YouTube is not always possible. The Recommended sites to watch heaps of free movies and shows that we gather include Movie Central, Horror Central, and the PizzaFlix YouTube channel. Also, you are not restricted to YouTube only, there are tons of websites out there where you can easily get free legal movies to watch.
How to Find Movies You Purchased on YouTube
Since Google is connected with YouTube, every movie or TV show purchased (or rented) on Google Play is also accessible on YouTube. It certainly proves to be quite useful if the used device doesn’t support Google Play but does support YouTube.
1. Open the website by typing the YouTube URL through a browser or opening the application of YouTube.
2. When using a browser, go to Your Movies & TV on the left side of the page; when viewing from the app, go to your profile icon and choose Movies & TV from the menu.
3. If you are logged into the store, scroll up to the top, click on the Explore option, and then on the Purchased tab.
Whatever you possess will be there readily watchable without ever coming across an advertisement.
In other words, YouTube is an accessible method to watch entire movies and TV shows, legal and sometimes even free. Well, it’s not a terrible alternative if you have to get rid of your subscriptions for a month or two and want to keep yourself a little more occupied. And if you want more, you can turn to YouTube to get your hands on popular radio stations to turn up to.
