Marooned at home for a while Watch free movies and shows on Tubi now - Android

With the coronavirus outbreak, you may be stuck inside for at least several weeks, if not longer. Streaming video services are available but many of them cost money after their free trials are over. If you want to save some cash, but also watch some movies and TV beyond the antenna, you can. Tubi offers tons of free movies and TV episodes to stream right now.

What is Tubi?

Founded in 2014,  the service streams 20,000 movies and TV shows free from a variety of platforms. It’s currently available in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Mexico. In early 2020, Fox announced plans to acquire the Tubi TV and movie service for $440 million. That deal is expected to close by the end of June.

Does the service run commercials?

Yes. In order to support itself, Tubi TV shows and movies do run ads before and during their content. However, on average the amount of commercials is below that of broadcast and basic cable TV shows.

What platforms does Tubi support?

You can stream Tubi TV shows and movies from a variety of different platforms. You can download the Tubi apps for iOS and Android to watch its content on mobile devices. It’s also available on Roku streaming sticks, set-top boxes, and TVs that have the Roku OS installed and the same goes for Amazon Fire TV-based sticks, set-top boxes, and TVs. The service also is available on Android TV-based devices such as the Nvidia Shield set-top box.

Tubi supports casting to TVs via Google Chromecast and devices that have Chromecast built-in. It’s available on the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony Playstation 4 game consoles and for the Apple TV set-top boxes.  You can stream the service on Samsung, Sony, and Vizio smart TVs. PC owners can use their web browser to surf over to the TubiTV.com site to sign up and watch content. Finally, Tubi is preloaded on TiVo set-box boxes, and on cable the Xfinity and Contour boxes from Comcast and Cox cable TV systems, respectively.

What other features does the service have?

If you register for free at the Tubi TV Activate web page, it offers users a few more features. They include creating a queue of upcoming videos to watch and recommended content to stream. The big feature for a Tubi TV Activate registration is the ability to keep watching a previously paused video where you left off, no matter the device.

What download speeds do I need to stream Tubi TV and movies?

You will need at least a 1Mbps download connection for streaming Tubi content. The service recommends at least a 4Mps connection for the best experience.

Does the service have 4K video content?

Not at this time. The TV shows and movies on Tubi max out at HD resolution.

Tubi TV show lineup

The lineup of Tubi TV shows includes full seasons of classic and more recent television series. Some of our personal favorite series to stream include:

• Merlin – The latest retelling of the King Arthur legends focuses on his wizard mentor Merlin as a young apprentice magic user.
• The Saint – Before he was James Bond, Roger Moore played the gentlemen thief Simon Templar in this classic series.
• The Prisoner – One of the best TV series ever made, about a spy who resigned from his organization. He then gets kidnapped and placed in a new location known as “The Village”.
• The Greatest American Hero – Long before today’s superhero trend in movies and TV, this TV series was spoofing it. A man gets selected by aliens to wear a supersuit to help save the world, but he managed to lose his instruction manual.

Tubi movies to stream

The Tubi movie lineup tends to be somewhat more fluid, as new movies pop up monthly and older ones are retired. At the time of this writing, here’s just a sample of what’s available to stream on the service right now.

• Minority Report – Tom Cruise goes on the run in the near future after a trio of psychic “precogs” claim he will murder someone in just 36 hours.
• Black Hawk Down – The true story of the US Army’s bloody and ultimately tragic raid of Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993.
• Memento – Director  Christopher Nolan’s breakthrough film, about a man who can’t remember anything past 15 minutes. He tries to figure out what happened to both him and his murdered wife.
• National Lampoon’s Van Wilder – Ryan Reynolds had a star-making turn in this college-themed comedy film. He’s a “seventh-year” student who wants to help struggling undergrads.
• What We Left Behind – A documentary about the Star Trek series that many believe was the best show of the sci-fi franchise, Deep Space Nine.

That’s our look at the free Tubi TV and movie service. Looking for more free streaming content? Be sure to check out Crackle or even the free movie selection on YouTube. Another good option is Pluto TV, which offers tons of unique “channels” that are free to watch.