Free Apple TV channels you'll actually watch

Key Takeaways

Apple TV 4K offers top-notch HDR support, snappy performance, and a sleek aluminum remote.
Quality content can be found for free on Apple TV when you know which apps to download.
YouTube, Pluto TV, Tubi, and Plex offer a range of content from professional to cult classics.

The Apple TV 4K is one of the more expensive add-on media streamers you can buy, with some justification — it’s snappy, supports all the major HDR standards, and has access to a wealth of apps. These days, it even comes with a tough aluminum remote you can charge via USB-C. Splurging on the top-end version gets you Thread, Ethernet, and extra storage.

Just because you’ve spent a lot on the hardware, however, doesn’t mean you need to pay a lot for the content. In fact, there’s plenty of quality material you can view on an Apple TV for free. It’s just a question of knowing which apps to download.

How to pair a remote to your Apple TV

You’re not stuck with Apple’s default remote.

4 YouTube

Don’t overlook the obvious

YouTube / Pocket-lint

YouTube

notable shows: Kitchen Nightmares , Merlin
notable movies: Clueless , Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) , How to Train Your Dragon , Mean Girls , Star Trek

It’s easy to take YouTube for granted, especially if you’re only familiar with it from MrBeast or whatever your kid watches after school. In truth, there’s a mountain of professionally-produced content on the platform, some of it as good or better than the material on paid subscription services. That’s particularly true if you want something informative or educational. Some skepticism is warranted, of course, and you should always consider the credentials of the creators you’re watching — whenever possible you should get your science content from practicing scientists, for example.

The toughest part is discovering the right channels. Below are some of my personal favorites, with short descriptions and presented in no particular order.

I made my TV’s picture quality better using these 5 tricks

Smart TVs aren’t always intuitive, but there are ways to get the best image possible.

3 Pluto TV

When you need something to watch right now

Pluto TV / Pocket-lint

pluto tv

notable shows: The Andy Griffith Show , Sanford and Son , The Twilight Zone , Charmed
notable movies: Top Gun , Trading Places , Mission Impossible , Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark

Some people still crave the format of broadcast TV. That’s not me, usually, but even I’ll admit that there’s an appeal to clicking a button and getting a constant stream of movies and TV shows interrupted only by ad breaks. Pluto TV tends to scratch that itch, in the rare case I get it. The service’s best version is probably in the US, mind. Since different streaming rights apply elsewhere, you may get fewer and/or inferior channels.

Thankfully, you should always be able to find plenty of news, comedy, drama, and other genres on offer. Pluto seems to specialize in classic and kids’ TV shows, so it’s the place to be if you want to binge things like Frasier, I Love Lucy, or Naruto. The entire app is organized like a cable provider’s TV guide, so it’s easy to flip between themed channels and see what’s coming on next.

I changed these 4 settings on my TV for instantly clearer dialogue

Crispy, audible dialogue is often a casualty of modern TV default settings. Here’s what to change so you can hear clearly.

2 Tubi

Finding that diamond in the rough

Tubi

notable movies: Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead , Child’s Play , White House Down , Knives Out , It
notable shows: Hemlock Grove , Babylon 5 , Spartacus , Gotham , Columbo

I’ll be blunt: most of the titles on Tubi are terrible. You can watch anything it hosts on-demand, supported by occasional ads, but the company has clearly shoveled in a lot of B- or Z-grade material to pad out its library. There are some recognizable A-list titles to watch, however, and you’ll sometimes stumble across cult classics that are difficult or impossible to find anywhere else. As of this writing, for example, it’s hosting several Werner Herzog classics, including Cobra Verde and Aguirre: The Wrath of God. I keep Tubi around because I never know when these opportunities will come up.

5 thrilling movies you should stream on Tubi right now

Tubi’s movie catalog is so big it can be easy to lose some of the best titles. We’ve got you covered regarding what you need to watch next.

1 Plex

More than just local media libraries

Plex

notable shows: Broadchurch , The Kids in the Hall , The Fall
notable movies: Warrior , A Walk to Remember , Heat , Halloween (1978)

Plex is best known as a media server platform that lets you watch your own locally-hosted videos, and that’s still the main reason I’d recommend it. Movies come and go from third-party services, so if you can find the storage to build a local library, it’s sometimes the best and most consistent way to find something to watch. Heck, you can import your old DVD and VHS collections with the right conversion tools.

Plex has been gradually expanding the amount of content it hosts itself, to the point that it’s now challenging Tubi, and to a lesser extent Pluto TV. Those apps are still preferable in their respective arenas, but having live and on-demand content alongside local files makes Plex pretty convenient. You can set up DVR recording of digital TV broadcasts too, with a little work.

I should note that Plex offers a subscription service, Plex Pass, but it’s only meant to enhance your local library with features like offline caching and remote access. You don’t need it for any of Plex’s on-demand titles or TV streams.