LibGuides: Film and Video: Streaming Video Sites

Paid Subscription Sites

Netflix
For a monthly fee, this service allows you to watch movies and TV shows online on a PC or Mac, or stream them right to your tablet, smartphone, smart TV, or game console. Netflix also offers a subscription DVD service.
Hulu
For a monthly fee, this service allows you to watch TV and movies online, or to stream them to your tablet, smartphone, smart TV, or other device. Hulu also offers a wide range of free content, including TV clips and recent full TV episodes.
Disney+
Disney's streaming service, featuring an extensive library of classic and contemporary Disney films and television shows, alongside content from Marvel and National Geographic.
MUBI
Subscription site with a large selection of well-known contemporary and classic films, as well as a database and a digital magazine called Notebook.
The Criterion Channel
A streaming service offered by The Criterion Collection, a company "dedicated to publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements."
Fandor
Subscription streaming site for select classic and contemporary films, including indie films and documentaries.
Shudder
A subscription streaming service devoted entirely to horror and suspense films.

Free Streaming Sites

General Streaming Sites

YouTube
Popular site providing streaming video content of all kinds, including full-length films. Users should be careful to make sure the content they view has been uploaded legally.
Internet Archive: Moving Image Archive
Streaming video library containing public domain digital movies uploaded by Archive users, ranging from classic full-length films to daily alternative news. Many are licensed with Creative Content licenses. Make sure to check the permissions for each item that you intend to use, since what is allowed will vary.
Prelinger Archives
A collection of ephemeral films from a number of topical areas (part of the Internet Archive Moving Image Archive).
The Open Video Project
"The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities."--From website

Classic and Contemporary Feature Films

Crackle
Offers free feature-length streaming movies in a wide range of genres. Content includes commercial interruptions.
Popcornflix
Offers free full-length streaming movies and original web series.
SnagFilms
This site offers free access to a wide range of films, including many documentaries relating to important causes and social issues.
Open Culture’s 500 Free Movies Online
This website provides a list of links to movies available to stream freely from a variety of different sites around the web.
Classic Cinema Online
Site offering free streaming of classic films, including silent films and serials.
Black and White Movies
This site offers free streaming of black-and-white classic films. Users can search by genre or by decade (1910s-1960s).
Retrovision
This site offers free streaming of classic movies and television shows.

Documentaries and Educational Films

PBS Video
Online store featuring videos from numerous PBS series such as Frontline, American Experience, Nature, NOVA, Independent Lens, and Great Performances.
Folkstreams
Free streaming source for documentary films about American roots cultures. The site also offers essays about the traditions and filmmaking, as well as study and teaching guides and lists of suggested readings.
Top Documentary Films
Site offering free documentaries on a range of topics.

American Politics, History, and Culture

Library of Congress National Screening Room
This resource provides access to over 200 films from the Library of Congress's moving image collection, "offering a broad range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning."
C-SPAN Video Library
Searchable archive of all C-SPAN programs since 1987.
Library of Congress American Memory Project
This site hosts collections of early American motion pictures and recent video related to significant events in American history.
Civil Rights Digital Library
Provides access to online films, texts, images, and audio recordings related to the civil rights movement in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s.
WGBH OpenVault
Online archive of historical content from WGBH, the Boston public television and radio station.
American Rhetoric
Collection of text, audio, and video versions of over 5,000 speeches, including famous speeches from classic and contemporary movies.

Science Videos

Bio-Alive
Source of streaming life sciences videos.
ScienceCinema
Offers videos highlighting leading-edge research from the U.S. Department of Energy and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).

How to Tell If a Streaming Video Site is Legal

The free streaming sites mentioned on this page are all recommended, but they represent only a portion of those that are available on the web. With so many streaming sites out there, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether the content on a given site is pirated. Here are a few things to look for when judging the legality of a streaming site. Please keep in mind that these are not the sole determining factors, and that if you are unsure about the legality of a site, it is best to find a legitimate alternative.

1. Legitimate free sites are unlikely to feature new releases.

Most free streaming sites feature older films. The newest films on these sites are often at least two or three years old. If you find a free streaming site that features titles that are still in theaters, or that have just been released on DVD and video-on-demand (VOD) services, the site is most likely illegal. A useful maxim when it comes to free streaming sites is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

2. Legitimate free sites should state where they get their movies.

Some free sites feature only titles that fall under public domain. Other sites have an agreement with, or permission from, a studio or distributor. Look for an "About Us" page that will state where the site gets its content.

3. Legitimate free sites often feature advertisements.

Since these sites are not charging subscription fees, they often make their money from advertisements. These ads might be banner ads or click ads, or, in the case of sites like Crackle and Hulu, the ads may play intermittently during the films or television episodes you are watching.

4. Legitimate free sites should list contact information.

Legal sites should make their contact information easy to find. Look for the "About Us" or "Contact Us" link on the website.