Smash-hit Roku app with ‘hidden’ trove of 50,000 movies and shows adds bonus live TV channels if you know where to look
A POPULAR Roku app is packed with a vast treasure-trove of free television that you may have missed.
If you’re sick of paying over the odds for TV streaming apps, you might want to try a different tactic.
Plex is available as a free download on your Roku TV.
But it’s very possible that you had no idea Plex served up free content.
That’s because Plex wasn’t always an ad-supported streaming service – it began life as a way to share your saved content to other screens.
So you could store media files and create your own personal Netflix that you could watch elsewhere using the app.
Plex still offers this service, but it’s now a much better offering.
At the end of 2019, Plex began serving up free television, all supported by ads.
It means that you can tune in without paying a penny – you just have to be willing to sit through commercials.
The catalogue of content is also enormous, with more than 1,100 live TV channels around the world
And over 800 of those are available in the United States, and more than 600 in the UK.
Plex just added eight new channels, as follows:
- Action Hollywood Movies
- RCM
- Women’s Sports Network (WSN)
- La Fiebre Del Jade
- Edelweiss
- Historias a Bocados
- Mi Casa
- Local Chicago Channel 2 CBS
There’s also a great selection of on-demand movies and TV shows, with over 50,000 titles available.
The only catch is that you’ll need to watch commercials, but Plex says it’s not awful.
“Our goal is to bring a wide assortment of content—from big studios, independent producers, and more—from around the globe to you for free,” Plex explains.
Stream swapping – the easy way to cut your bills?
Here’s what Sean Keach, The Sun’s Head of Technology and Science, thinks…
It’s no secret that TV streaming apps are costing more and more.
Not only are prices shooting up, but we find ourselves asked to pay for an increasing number of apps and services.
And when you combine those TV bills with your music streaming, mobile and internet fees, and every other drain on your bank account, it all starts to get a bit much.
One of the best ways to cut your TV bills is to simply cancel all of your streaming subscriptions and only sign up to one per month.
Pick an app like Netflix, Disney+, or Apple TV+ and smash through all of the content you want to watch on that app.
Then the next month, swap to something else.
And once you’ve done them all, you can cycle back to the start again.
It’s an easy way to avoid forking out for a rolling library of streaming apps with more content than you could possibly watch.
Also don’t forget that paid-for streaming isn’t the only game in town.
There are loads of apps that don’t cost a penny to enjoy, and downloading a few will unlock thousands of live TV channels plus tens of thousands of movies and shows.
Try apps like Tubi, Amazon Freevee, The Roku Channel, Plex, and Pluto TV to get some ad-supported television without having to pay any monthly fees.
“In exchange, we’re asking for a bit of your time to watch some ads.
“Even so, you can expect a notably lower ad-to-content ratio than you’d experience with typical broadcast television.”
If you create a free account then you can set up a universal watchlist for content.
That means even if you’re watching on other devices, you’ll still have the same list.
FREE STREAMING! Apps offer no-cost TV
Here are some of the most popular apps that offer at least some free streaming content...
- Tubi
- Amazon Freevee
- Plex TV
- The Roku Channel
- Sling Freestream (via Sling TV)
- FilmRise
- NewsON
- Fawesome TV
- Pluto TV
- Local Now
- Haystack News
- Red Bull TV
- Free Movies Plus
- PBS Kids Video
- PBS
- Xumo Play
It’s possible to set up user profiles, including managed users for children with parental controls.
And it’s also worth noting that the paid-for Plex Pass doesn’t affect how the free content works.
“To be clear up front, having an active Plex Pass subscription does not change what content is available on the free service in any way,” Plex explains.
“You don’t suddenly get access to more or newer titles.”