Streaming Services

[knives]

Warner Discovery is loading tons of their classic film catalog onto Tubi, the free add-supported television (FAST) streaming service owned by Fox Corp. (the TV company, not the movie studio now owned by Disney). And these are not minor titles — mostly high-profile films like North by Northwest, Bullitt, A Streetcar Named Desire, Goodfellas, 2001, The Band Wagon and so forth. They’ve also announced that their DC films and TV series will be added, including the most recent stuff like The Batman.

Not exactly a cinephile’s dream what with the standard-def resolution and ad breaks, but they already have an incredibly deep catalog (some 40,000 titles), and you can’t beat the price. I’ve caught many movies and shows on there that aren’t available anywhere else.

I read an article recently (can’t remember where) that said FAST services are currently the only money-making streamers. The kind of catalog depth we all thought we would see on vertically integrated services like Max or Paramount+ is now actually happening on free services like Tubi and Pluto.

Too bad Pluto’s interface is so frustrating. That said, Tubi is legit. I’ve seen so many films I might not have otherwise through it. For example next up I have ‘90s Dutch comedy Little Tony.

[Drucker]

I watched the movie Joe on Pluto the other week, as I had never heard of it and me and some friends thought it looked good. An insufferable way to watch the film, with ad breaks every 5 minutes.

[Matt]

Yes, Pluto is pretty bad for movies. I only use it to watch old network TV shows on their live channels and they stick to the built-in ad breaks.


A fun thing to do on Tubi when you’ve finished a movie is to let the autoplay run the next suggested movie. Their recommendation algorithm is somehow actually good and it’s fun to see what it will pick. I had an accidental, highly enjoyable Amicus film marathon that way recently.

[Adam X]

As someone who was finally going to start using Tubi soon, it’s reaaallly disappointing to learn Fox Corp. now own them.

[ando]

Speaking of Tubi, The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez by the recently deceased Robert M. Young is currently streaming. Highly Recommended.