Tubi, a free-to-watch (ad-interrupted) film and TV streaming site
December 1, 2022 4:13 AM   Subscribe

In the US and some other countries, Tubi is an ad-supported streaming service where you can watch some movies and TV for free, without having to log in. The catalog of course includes a lot of "that looks like dreck" stuff, but also 16 seasons of Columbo, classic films such as Stalag-17 and Fail-Safe, and other stuff you may have been meaning to watch.

Caution that selecting a film and loading the page will automatically start playing the movie, including audio. This doesn't seem to happen for TV shows, just movies.

Search, categorization, and filtering isn't very good, and the content is interrupted by commercials; this is a service worth checking if you prefer to spend time and patience rather than money. In my experience the ad breaks are, like, every 20 minutes or so, and vary from about 30 to 120 seconds of pretty mainstream ads for laundry detergent, cars, and stuff like that.

Tubi is owned by FOX (the Murdoch company).

I watch in a web browser. It's also available on a bunch of devices and smart TVs; here's the list within the US (except for Puerto Rico) and here's the list for other supported areas: Puerto Rico, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panama.

It's worth checking the page of Tubi TV/movies that are leaving the service soon, which currently (in the US) includes Requiem for a Dream, 12 Angry Men, Hackers, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Cutting Edge, Carol, Tank Girl, UHF, and Desperately Seeking Susan.

Some more movies in the Tubi US catalog that I figure folks here might want to know about:

It Happened One Night

Kiss Me, Stupid

Ghost World

Saved!

Koyaanisqatsi

Powaqqatsi

Impromptu

Antitrust

La Cage Aux Folles

Miracle Mile

Purple Rain

Guys and Dolls

The Dawn Wall

Mother (the 2009 Bong Joon-Ho thriller)

Waiting to Exhale

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum

Citizenfour

Transamerica

Set It Off

Fruitvale Station

Heathers

The Blair Witch Project

We Need To Talk About Kevin

Das Boot

Joint Security Area

The Fog of War

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night


Television series include:

Season 1 of The Goes Wrong Show

All 4 seasons of Farscape

All 3 seasons of Batman (the 1966 tv show starring Adam West)

All 5 seaons of The Dick Van Dyke Show

All 4 seasons of ALF

The first 16 seasons of Project Runway (yes! including the early good seasons like Season 3, yay!)

31 seasons of The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross

Seaons 37-41 of This Old House

Two seasons of Grand Designs

Both seasons of Anthony Bourdain: A Cook's Tour

And of course you can talk about any of these on FanFare.
posted by brainwane (59 comments total) 45 users marked this as a favorite
 
It seems to be the only way to watch Bobcat Goldthwait's 2006 film Sleeping Dogs Lie.
posted by rikschell at 4:44 AM on December 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


This is a fantastic post. Tubi is very difficult to search and I can’t wait to just get actual recommendations on what good stuff is there from fellow MeFites.
posted by wittgenstein at 5:22 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Love Tubi (and Pluto TV). As a longtime cord-cutter it’s a good replacement for that low energy Sunday afternoon where you’d be parked in front of a marathon of House Hunters or whatever. A real gem I discovered there is the British show Travel Man, Richard Ayoade and a guest celebrity taking a weekend trip together to a big European city.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 5:25 AM on December 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


Tubi was how I watched the Westminster Kennel Club dog show last year while making Christmas dinner, and yet I never really used it after that. Time to check back in!
posted by mittens at 5:27 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I hate that it’s owned by Fox, but getting nicely toasted and watching fun trash on Tubi is what got my wife and I through the darkest days of lockdown (films in the American Ninja franchise, ranked: 2, 4, 1, 3). My wife is a huge fan of cheesy erotic thrillers and we thought we’d seen most of the best ones, but Tubi showed us how wrong we were.
posted by The Card Cheat at 5:32 AM on December 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


Tubi is the court of last resort for niche, semi-obscure, or otherwise unfindable genre films. I can't count the number of times I've gone looking for whatever ghosts & goblins nonsense flick inexplicably involving, like, five Big Names, only to find it was never released in the U.S./never made it to DVD/is streaming on no major service... but Tubi has it.
posted by cupcakeninja at 5:37 AM on December 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


Surprisingly full LGBTQ section on Tubi as well. It's truly the secret treasure trove.
posted by wellifyouinsist at 5:48 AM on December 1, 2022


Alas, still not available in the UK (I really like how it redirects to gdpr.tubi.tv because, y'know, it's that gosh-darned data collection that's just making it SO HARD), but all of Columbo is available on Freevee, again with ads, and I've been burying myself in rich people making terrible 1970s' murder and design choices.

(I also love PlutoTV, which, in the UK, has an Unsolved Mysteries channel, a Deadly Women channel, an original Iron Chef channel, and occasionally a Beyond Belief channel. My gawd, this is how I'll die, surrounded by bad TV...)
posted by Katemonkey at 5:50 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


justwatch.com will let you find out what streaming service a movie or TV show is on, and at what price. Including telling you if something is on Tubi or Pluto (free/ad supported) or Hoopla or Kanopy (may be accessible with your library card).
posted by fings at 6:21 AM on December 1, 2022 [16 favorites]


I got a new smart tv a couple weeks ago where Tubi was one of the pre-loaded apps (previously had a Roku and had never heard of Tubi). So far I've watched the entire John Wick series (which disappears very soon if it's not already gone) and Doctor Sleep; and Cabin in the Woods is on there. As are replays of World Cup matches (if you do the free sign-up).
posted by LionIndex at 6:32 AM on December 1, 2022


I'm working my way through Columbo at the moment. I was also able to watch season 21 of Midsommer Murders since it's disappeared from everywhere else (that I can determine). My only gripe, and it's a minor one at that, is the commercials aren't placed where they were in the original shows.
posted by tommasz at 6:40 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Ballast.
posted by infinitewindow at 6:46 AM on December 1, 2022


Ublock Origin skips the ads, I was surprised to find while watching Columbo (on the suggestion of many MeFites!).
posted by brook horse at 6:56 AM on December 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


If you don't like giving ad revenue to Fox, I happen to know that using a browser-based ad blocker (such as uBlock) will eliminate the ads entirely.

Also, I just noticed that Tubi has Farscape which is my favorite sci-fi series and you can't find anywhere else at the moment.

The More You Know...
posted by Laura Palmer's Cold Dead Kiss at 6:57 AM on December 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


thanks to Tubi I watched a season of "Attack on Titan" and thanks to AoT I was introduced to omni-directional gear and thanks to ODG I've learned that there is never a plot device too inexplicably complicated or outrageous to make it into an anime

will someone for the love of god explain the physics of ODG
posted by elkevelvet at 6:57 AM on December 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Seasons 9-12 of Q.I.
posted by calamari kid at 7:11 AM on December 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Shout Factory is another. It seems to have gone heavily into Farscape lately, which is never a bad thing. I came across it ages ago as it happens to have the Roger Moore version of The Saint up for watching. Like the one mentioned in the post, it's got a lot of dreck but it's also got a lot of old black and white westerns, 1960s and 1970s comedies (Dick Van Dyke, Rowan & Martin, Carol Burnett), sci-fi and genre (Highlander, Space 1999), talk shows Johnny Carson, Dick Cavett), etc. For Canadian fans, it's got The Republic of Doyle (which is worth watching even if you're not Canadian.) The movie selection doesn't seem to be the greatest, but I haven't dug too deeply into that.
posted by sardonyx at 7:13 AM on December 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


I also have found that many movies I've sought out are only available on Tubi. And Justwatch will no longer let you browse by country of origin (unless you pay them…gotta monetize it somehow, I guess). At least on Tubi they have a 'foreign' category.
posted by jabah at 7:17 AM on December 1, 2022


They have a surprising selection of classic movies, plus every Gordan Ramsey show I've ever heard of and then some. I've found quite a few shows I've enjoyed, or that I meant to finish but didn't; this is going to keep me busy over the winter break!

Some items that caught my eye:
- Odd Thomas with Anton Yelchin - he was SO good as this character.
- Lego Masters UK
- Classic Scooby Doo
- Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo
- Battlestar Galactica (the original 70s version)
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
- The Color of Magic (Terry Pratchett)
- Hogfather (Terry Pratchett)
- Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda - Robert Hewlett Wolfe (DS9) was the head writer & executive producer for the first two seasons; I found it quite interesting despite Sorbo, even if things got weird later.
- Dresden Files
- Sanctuary - I always felt this was a bit of a hidden gem. Christopher Heyerdahl plays multiple characters throughout the series and nails them all.
- Sleepy Hollow
- And of course Farscape, as linked previously!
posted by Ann Telope at 7:26 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I looked at Shout Factory and wondered why everything was so slow. Their thumbnails for the shows are up to 2.5 MB in size. What a waste of bandwidth. On the plus side, they have Farscape: the Peacekeeper Wars, which Tubi does not have. That's where they tried to tie up the loose ends after the show was cancelled.
posted by jabah at 7:31 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


"No sign up" is almost as enticing as the catalog. Stg I'm at my lifetime limit for logins, anywhere. I can watch Farscape again without sending anyone else my email address? Amazing.

will someone for the love of god explain the physics of ODG

ODG works on similar principles to Spider-Man's webs, which attach to whatever they need to for as long as they have to for the entire paragraphs long conversation or monolog to play out as scheduled. Newtonian physics reactivate as required for the action scenes.
posted by EatTheWeek at 7:36 AM on December 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


My biggest beef with Tubi is that most of their HK and Japanese offerings are dubs not subs. But otherwise I love it.

I follow this twitter account which regularly will dive into Tubi's newest releases to find the gems
posted by thecjm at 7:37 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Tubi is the court of last resort for niche, semi-obscure, or otherwise unfindable genre films.

Huh.

I've been hearing rumors that Netflix is going to kill its DVD plan next year - which would screw me over royally, since a huge number of the films I have yet to see for my blog are not available on the main streaming services; far and away the biggest source for films has been the DVDs via Netflix.

I've been quietly checking out options for replacements if this comes to pass, and this looks promising.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:52 AM on December 1, 2022 [3 favorites]


Tubi has the entire run of The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr., in case you don't have enough Bruce Campbell in your life... and really, can anyone have enough Bruce Campbell in their life?
posted by SansPoint at 8:00 AM on December 1, 2022 [7 favorites]


"My only gripe, and it's a minor one at that, is the commercials aren't placed where they were in the original shows."

Tubi doesn't take any care with where they place the ads in movies, and it can be super annoying. It's interesting to me how streaming has mostly replaced television for many of us and that we are back to watching commercials again. Their selection is fun though! (Full disclosure: I work for a streaming service).
posted by cakelite at 8:13 AM on December 1, 2022


Okay, Tubi has some things that Netflix's DVD service doesn't have or has on "standby". But I'm struggling to understand its search - at least that's what I'm assuming, because I just did a search for AMERICAN GRAFFITI and it didn't come up. (AMERICAN GRAFFITI!!!!) Is there a trick I should know?
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:16 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


> My biggest beef with Tubi is that most of their HK and Japanese offerings are dubs not subs.

Depending on the flick, this actually enhances the viewing experience for me; I've watched a few movies (HK, Japanese and otherwise) which were clearly rips from a VHS tape*, tracking lines and all, which really added to the "watching in someone's basement back in high school" vibe.

* plus a couple which included the DVD home menu before the movie started and at least one which started off with colour bars
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:18 AM on December 1, 2022


Also, for those of you who grew up in Canada (or at least Ontario) during the VHS era; I've been describing Tubi to people as the Jumbo Video of streaming services, because for whatever reason that was the chain which had the best selection of random trash from all over the world, even in my hometown of 50,000 people.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:22 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Empress, American Graffiti isn't currently available on Tubi. Justwatch is a useful tool, but not always 100% reliable.
posted by cakelite at 8:34 AM on December 1, 2022


I use JustWatch to find out where movies or TV are streaming. If you're pretty sure a movie is available on Tubi, I suggest you search for it on JustWatch, find the Tubi icon in the search results, and then click that icon to get to the Tubi page for that movie.
posted by brainwane at 8:35 AM on December 1, 2022 [2 favorites]


Doing that for American Graffiti gets me to this page on Tubi saying the content is unavailable. Maybe JustWatch hasn't updated their data since it got taken down.
posted by brainwane at 8:37 AM on December 1, 2022


My question was more prompted by the idea of them not having AMERICAN GRAFFITTI just seemed....silly.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:45 AM on December 1, 2022


Can you help me understand why it's silly?
posted by brainwane at 8:51 AM on December 1, 2022


There are lots of reasons a film might not be available on Tubi. The payout for free ad-supported VOD like Tubi is pretty minimal, so my company only puts films on Tubi if we feel that it's run its course with SVOD and transactional VOD (and some of our filmmakers don't want anything on Tubi at all, because they see it as devaluing the film). American Graffiti is a very beloved movie that's widely available to rent on VOD, so if American Graffiti is still pulling in rental sales, it might not make sense to have it on a free site. I think most distributors put movies up on Tubi when they are at the "looking for spare change in the sofa cushions" stage of monetizing a film, which is why you can find so much oddball stuff.
posted by cakelite at 8:52 AM on December 1, 2022 [4 favorites]


All 4 seasons of ALF? What an age we live in.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:54 AM on December 1, 2022 [5 favorites]


It's interesting to me how streaming has mostly replaced television for many of us and that we are back to watching commercials again.

Except now the commercials are just plonked randomly into the shows instead of happening at natural break points in the stories, which were written to fit commercial spots.
posted by kirkaracha at 8:55 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I have been watching classic Scooby Doo (as mentioned above); Dark Shadows; MST3K and RiffTrax/Cinematic Titanic; and most recently, falling asleep to various 60’s Hercules / Samson / Maciste sword & sandal flicks. The search is bad but once you find one of something you like, it will show you two dozen similar things.

I’m not in the US but a VPN works fine on my iPad for viewing (via the app.)
posted by profreader at 8:57 AM on December 1, 2022


Can you help me understand why it's silly?

AMERICAN GRAFFITI is rather a "name" film, wouldn't you say?

I could see them not having something like surrealist Czech films from 1966, but them not having a George Lucas-directed film starring Ron Howard with Harrison Ford in a supporting role seemed like an odd oversight for a company that was trying to provide a catalog catering to the widest possible audience. Especially since it apparently has EAT MY DUST, another film starring Ron Howard, which to my understanding fared less well amongst critics and at the box office. Similarly, I did a search for Orson Welles films - and while it did have THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI and THE STRANGER, it didn't have THE THIRD MAN or CITIZEN KANE.

The payout for free ad-supported VOD like Tubi is pretty minimal, so my company only puts films on Tubi if we feel that it's run its course with SVOD and transactional VOD (and some of our filmmakers don't want anything on Tubi at all, because they see it as devaluing the film).

Okay, see, that makes sense. Thanks. But it's still a bummer.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:10 AM on December 1, 2022


I really enjoy streaming Columbo in the background when I am working. I've been doing it on FreeVee, however, and there the streaming ad breaks never line up with the (very obvious) ad break point from the original broadcast. Does anyone know if Tubi's ads on them is any better in that regard?

It looks like they keep their catalog cycling too, since I am pretty sure I streamed the worst of the Texas Chainsaw movies on Tubi as I was going through the whole franchise in October, but they don't seem to be there now.
posted by 3j0hn at 9:46 AM on December 1, 2022


I looked at Shout Factory and wondered why everything was so slow. Their thumbnails for the shows are up to 2.5 MB in size. What a waste of bandwidth. On the plus side, they have Farscape: the Peacekeeper Wars, which Tubi does not have. That's where they tried to tie up the loose ends after the show was cancelled.
posted by jabah at 7:31 AM on December 1


I'll grant you the interface is annoyingly slow to load, but I've found the streaming aspect quite good, and I say that with the explanation that most of what I try to stream cuts out at least once on other legitimate services, and so far, I've never experienced that with Shout Factory. I can't say I recall seeing any ads, but I don't know if that's due to the service itself or to the ad-blocking software I'm running.
posted by sardonyx at 10:34 AM on December 1, 2022


For viewers in many parts of the globe, there are two library-supported free streaming services. These services may be available in your area with a library or university account. They are both well-curated, well-organized and include many independent films.

Hoopla also can be sorted by decade; films of note from the 2010s: The Neon Demon, The Florida Project, Loving Vincent and Mandy

Holiday Horror is one current curated Hoopla catalogue, including P2 (corporate executive trapped in a closed parking garage during Christmas) and Better Watch Out, with a babysitter battling a home invasion.

Kanopy is another free service that may be available, if your library system has a subscription. Films of note: Columbus, The Death of Stalin, and the entirety of the Criterion collection (The Lady Vanishes, Scanners, Police Story 2).
posted by JDC8 at 11:19 AM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


Watched the not arf bad* Ian Dury biopic Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (2010) on Tubi. Pretty decent, except the ads just show up any old how. Still, this is amazing that it works at all in Canada, the country that region-locks certain movie based on the ISP you use and stopped having Netflix dvd-by-mail probably a decade ago since we don't have flat-rate national shipping for anything bigger than a letter

---
* = good
posted by scruss at 11:29 AM on December 1, 2022


I discovered Tubi about a year or so ago when I discovered they had all of NewsRadio - it looks like it’s not there anymore (if you’ve never seen it, run don’t walk), but it made me so happy at the time!
posted by Mchelly at 12:55 PM on December 1, 2022


Pluto TV (in the US, anyway) has a "Classic Dr. Who" channel and a "Joy of Painting with Bob Ross" channel. (These are "live" channels, not on demand shows.) This got me through A LOT of 2020.
posted by soundguy99 at 1:43 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think most distributors put movies up on Tubi when they are at the "looking for spare change in the sofa cushions" stage of monetizing a film,

I have noticed that once a flick shows up on one ad-supported streaming service, it tends to show up on a lot of them - like, if you look through the top 50 "recently added " films on Pluto, Tubi, Crackle, and Vudu, 30 of them will be the same.

But I don't think every film that hits the free services is quite on its last legs? The John Wick series, just as one example, has bounced on & off the free services over the last year or so. Which makes me think there's some package deals going on; a distributor wants to squeeze a few more pennies out of a bunch of 1980's teen comedies, but Tubi (or whoever) will only take the deal if they throw in a John Wick or Mission: Impossible flick.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:19 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


"Which makes me think there's some package deals going on"

Yes, distributors make package deals for digital streaming. A lot of distributors will even just outsource this to a third-party company to make these deals, basically just giving a "get us the best bang for our buck we can get" directive. But I'd bet that the label already received their big payout for the John Wick movies from a streaming deal with HBOMax or one of the other big companies before going to Tubi. Lots of times companies will put films on AVOD when they have already cashed in on other, more lucrative deals.
posted by cakelite at 2:27 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


“but Tubi (or whoever) will only take the deal if they throw in a John Wick or Mission: Impossible flick.“

Sorry, I missed this part! Speaking from experience, Tubi is happy to take whatever content they can get their hands on (at least for now). They are focused on creating a voluminous selection more than anything else. If you see something like John Wick on Tubi, it’s because the studio decided it was time to open the monetization floodgates.
posted by cakelite at 2:47 PM on December 1, 2022 [1 favorite]


I watched most of Mr. Show on there last month, before it expired. Old school Kids in the Hall is still there, along with a fair amount of standup comedy specials.
posted by delfin at 4:06 PM on December 1, 2022


It also has tons of the Saturday morning serials too, from the famous ones like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers to the hideously racist Batman to more obscure ones like Don Winslow of the Navy.
posted by Billiken at 4:49 PM on December 1, 2022


Some of my faves on the platform:

The Love Witch (youtuber Kyle Kallgren did a critical piece on it)
Soderbergh-Terence Stamp thing The Limey
Altman-Elliot Gould take on Chandler The Long Goodbye
For action they have both The Villainess and Chocolate
posted by juv3nal at 4:58 PM on December 1, 2022


I found my favorite ever cartoon on Tubi, an adaptation of the novel Momo by Michael Ende.

Momo

It's very charming, bafflingly European, and beautifully philosophical.

I wish the animated film version it's based on was available in English somewhere. I think there might be one Spanish DVD edition with an English language track but I'm not $20 on eBay willing to take a flyer on that. It doesn't help that it's impossible to search for the title.
posted by Small Dollar at 6:25 PM on December 1, 2022


If you need a reality show where the only way to win is to wow the judges with your ability to dunk a basketball you need Dunk League
posted by I paid money to offer this... insight? at 8:42 PM on December 1, 2022


TUBI has been our outlet for following the World Cup matches. All available for free (add supported). They’re released some time later in same day that the match was played, and format makes each game easily findable. The adds are minimal and don’t interrupt game play.
There’s also extended highlights and a short 90 second reel from each match, but the “playing next” pop up inconveniently interferes with the last part of each highlight reel.
So this odd incongruous streaming service has suddenly become clutch for our family as we’ve been able to renew our interest in futbol.
posted by GrandPunkRailroad at 6:52 AM on December 2, 2022


Looks like Pluto just launched in Canada. I HATE the interface. I can't close down the little box that is streaming whatever the channel feels I should be watching as I try to look through what else is available.
posted by sardonyx at 4:27 PM on December 2, 2022


Looks like Pluto just launched in Canada. I HATE the interface. I can't close down the little box that is streaming whatever the channel feels I should be watching as I try to look through what else is available.

Completely agree. That makes Pluto unusable for me.

brainwane, Thank you for this post and very long lists of things to watch on Tubi.
posted by cynical pinnacle at 4:00 AM on December 3, 2022 [1 favorite]


On Tubi US right now and leaving soon, I noticed La La Land, Apocalypse Now, Moonstruck, Thelma and Louise, The Lobster, The Iron Lady, Six Degrees of Separation, and Best of Enemies: Gore vs. Vidal.
posted by brainwane at 4:47 AM on December 10, 2022


My sister-in-law and her spouse used to save money by waiting till a movie arrived at the dollar theater near them (as in, going to see the movie cost one dollar, I think?), which was usually months after its initial cinema release but before it went to DVD, and seeing it then. I have begun to think of Tubi (and probably Freevee and similar platforms) as akin to the dollar theater, but interestingly stretched over time differently. The hot film of the moment will not be there, and some movies will probably never show up there, but an "oh right, I kinda wanted to see that" movie may show up for a month, a year or 60 years after its initial release.
posted by brainwane at 6:10 AM on December 10, 2022




Available now: "Red Dawn" and "Freddy Got Fingered"
posted by brainwane at 6:58 AM on December 27, 2022


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