Saving Money, TV, and Movies
4 Free Streaming Services That Can Save You Money
Watch some popular and highly rated TV shows and movies for free
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My wife and I typically restrict our television time to one hour on weeknights and a single movie on weekends. Some of our favorite recent TV series include Poldark, Endeavour, early seasons of The Crown (I have never been a fan of Princess Diana, in real life or a television drama), Line of Duty, All Creatures Great and Small, and The Blacklist. While these programs are available only on paid streaming services, you can watch plenty of highly rated television series and films on free streaming services.
To save money, many people have “cut the cord” with cable TV. However, subscribing to multiple streaming services can cost as much or more than a monthly cable TV subscription. To illustrate, here are recent monthly costs in the US for some of the most popular streaming services:
- Netflix — $6.99 for Standard at 1080p resolution with ads and watching on two devices simultaneously, $15.49 for Standard at 1080p resolution and watching on two devices simultaneously, and $22.99 for Premium at 4K+HDR resolution and watching on six devices simultaneously
- Amazon Prime — $139 per year or $14.99 per month. Students can sign up for $69 per year or $7.49 monthly. Amazon Prime offers many benefits beyond the ability to stream TV series or movies, of course. One of the biggest benefits is free shipping on thousands and thousands of items.
- Max — Max, formerly HBO Max, offers several subscription levels, including $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year with ads, $14.99 per month or $149.99 per year of ad-free, and $19.99 per month and $199.99 annually for Ultimate ad-free. Lucky for us, our mobile phone service provider, AT&T, offers us the ad-free level of Max at no cost to us.
- Peacock — $5.99 monthly or $59.99 annually for Premium and $11.99 monthly or $119.99 annually for Premium Plus.
- Disney+ —Basic for $7.99 per month with ads or $13.99 for Premium per month without ads.
- Apple TV+ — $9.99 per month.
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