What’s included: Unlimited ad-free streaming of the entire Crunchyroll anime library with a Fan subscription. Unlimited ad-free streaming and offline viewing. Stream on up to four different devices with a Mega Fan subscription.

Free trial or deals: 14-day free trial available before purchasing a premium subscription.

No funds, no problem: Free streaming services and alternatives

If you’re on a shoestring budget or simply don’t want to pay for what you watch, there are free (and totally legal!) alternatives available.

YouTube

YouTube is the most popular streaming service online, and it offers endless hours of videos. We covered the paid plans on the premium services above, but YouTube is a trusty, free choice for hours of entertainment—you may just have to endure some ads (some are skippable, though!). You can watch a variety of free videos through the YouTube Originals channel, such as Retro Tech, Liza on Demand, Rhett & Links Buddy System and Demi Lovato’s Dancing with the Devil. You can also watch YouTube stars, like Marques Brownlee, Liza Koshy and Rhett & Link from Good Mythical Morning. YouTube has also got you covered for free streaming of holiday movies with classics such as A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone 1 & 2 and many others available.  

Twitch

Into gaming? Twitch is the platform for streaming and watching gaming content. Watch for prominent gaming streamers, including h3h3productions, Ninja, auronplay along with staple gaming channels such as IGN and GameSpot. Ninja is the top streamer on the platform with 17.1 million followers, and auronplay is in the second spot with 10.8 million followers. Twitch also features holiday-themed emotes (or emoticons) of Santa, reindeer and snow people you can download and use. Creators also stream holiday movies and games. You don’t need to register an account to watch streams on the desktop version of Twitch, but you’ll need to sign up for an account if you’re streaming through the app. 

Dailymotion

While nowhere near the size of YouTube or Twitch, Dailymotion has features worth checking out. The site has four dedicated verticals: News, sports, entertainment and music. Prominent news publications like the Canadian Press, Vogue and Teen Vogue have channels. Check out the Home Alone series, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Miracle on 34th Street and others. 

How each streaming service sources its content

So, where do all these platforms get their content? Short answer: It differs for each service. While streaming giants like Netflix, Apple and Crave do produce original programming through their own production houses, they also procure the rights to stream various television shows and movies on their platforms. Other services, like Crunchyroll and Paramount+, don’t produce original shows or movies; they only procure rights for what they stream. And sometimes those rights are limited, which is why you may have heard that Prime had Superstore, but it’s now it’s only available on Netflix, for example. Streaming services will also buy the rights to stream exclusively on their respective platforms (like when Friends stopped being available on Netflix and was then it was released for streaming on Crave).

The country you’re watching from matters, too. What’s available to Canadians to watch can differ in other countries, even on the same streaming service provider. So, you should always check the streaming service’s website to be sure you’ll be able to get the shows and movies you want to watch.

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