NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, October 2009
Watch TV Shows and Movies over the Net for Free
By Ira Wilsker, APCUG Director;
Columnist, The Examiner, Beaumont, TX; Radio & TV Show Host

Iwilsker@apcug.net
(click to email author)

WEBSITES: http://www.hulu.com
http://www.casttv.com/shows
http://www.clicker.com
http://www.slashcontrol.com
http://www.fancast.com

About two years ago, I wrote in this column about a small new service with the strange moniker “Hulu” that was just being introduced. At that time, Hulu (http://www.hulu.com) had hundreds of old TV episodes and movies available for free online viewing. Over that same period Hulu has become one of the major players in free online TV and movies, with tens of thousands of full-length TV episodes, trailers, and clips, as well as thousands of full-length movies. Hulu has become such a powerhouse that many of the major networks release their full-length current shows for posting on Hulu as soon as they have been shown on the air. As I type this in the evening, news shows from today from such diverse sources as ABC, NBC and Fox are available online for viewing. Newly released full-length shows available range from the most recent Jay Leno show, to General Hospital, this weekend’s Saturday Night Live, to several of the just completed college football games.

Hulu TV and movies are viewed through most popular internet browsers, and require a broadband connection. Hulu claims that its content can be viewed with Internet Explorer 6.0 or above, Firefox 1.5 or above, or Safari 2.0 or above. Although it is not listed as a supported browser, Hulu TV shows and movies loaded and played fine on Google’s new Chrome 3 browser. Hulu content plays in Flash format, and requires that Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115 or above be installed; for users who do not have a late version of the Flash player, it can be downloaded free from Adobe at http://www.adobe.com. Much of the website is dependent on Java, so it is necessary that the browser have JavaScript and cookies enabled. Hulu will work on computers with a variety of operating systems including Microsoft Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista, Macintosh OS X and Linux. While not yet listed as supported, Hulu plays well on the new Windows 7.

For those who are interested in watching the most recent TV shows that are released to the web, several websites continuously track the latest postings. One such website is CastTV, http://www.casttv.com/shows. As I type this, CastTV is showing a hyperlinked directory of the most recently released TV shows, including NCIS Los Angeles, Law & Order SVU, Mercy, The Office, The Mentalist, Medium, America’s Most Wanted, COPS, and many others. Adjacent to each individual listing is an icon representing the location of the selected show, which may be the websites of Hulu, ABC, NBC, CBS, or other website. While almost all of these current episodes can be viewed free, there are some websites that have a paid membership required to view the episodes on that particular website. It is not just the most recent episodes that can be viewed through CastTV, but many entire series are available for free viewing. One of my favorite shows is “CSI: New York”, and 116 episodes are available, mostly free, on pages that are linked to CastTV. CastTV does not just include a directory of TV shows, it also has a directory of hundreds of free movies that can be viewed online, some as current as 2009 releases.

CastTV does not just provide a directory of TV shows and movies, it also provides an entertaining list of the most popular viral videos and movie trailers, mostly from YouTube. Number 2 on the list as I type this is the hysterically funny YouTube video of “Baby Dancing to Beyonce”, which has had well over a million views. This listing, which is frequently updated, is an excellent way to keep track of what others are watching online.

Another section on CastTV is the “Specials” section which has videos of British “Talent” star Susan Boyle, as well as American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, the 2009 Oscars, the 2009 Superbowl commercials, and the 2009 NCAA Basketball “March Madness”.

A newcomer to the field that intends to be a direct competitor to Cast TV is “Clicker” http://www.clicker.com. Clicker is currently in pre-release beta, and requires pre-registration to access the site as a beta tester. Clicker staff reviews each of its postings to verify it for quality before posting it. According to the official Clicker blog, “Clicker aims to provide the most comprehensive, unbiased and user-friendly way to navigate what’s available (and just as importantly, what’s not) to watch online, where and when you can find it, and finally, what’s worth watching amongst your infinite choices. We have made it our mission to make it dead simple for you to find the RIGHT SHOW, RIGHT NOW.” Another posting in the blog says, “From day one, Clicker has mapped more than 300,000 episodes, from over 5,200 shows, from over 1,200 networks – in addition to 1,200 movies (soon to be 14,000 movies with the addition of Netflix), and 50,000 music videos from 20,000 artists. All of this programming is organized by episode, show, network, media type, title, and artist, as well as over 1,000 categories and sub-categories.” Once it becomes publically available, Clicker may be a power to reckon with.

AOL, which has morphed into a content provider from an ISP, has its own movie and TV service, which anyone can freely access. This service is “SlashControl”, available at http://www.slashcontrol.com. This AOL service claims to have 81,352 free videos online, including the very recent (tonight’s) segments from the CBS show “60 Minutes”. SlashControl has an impressive list of free TV shows from many networks, including A&E, ABC, Bravo, CBS, CNBC, Comedy Central, CW, Fox, Fox Business, FX, History Channel, MSNBC, National geographic, NBC, Syfy (SciFi), USA, and WWE. For those looking to watch a full-length movie, SlashControl has about 400 free movies available, including some recent releases, as well as older classics.

Another comprehensive site with a wide section of TV and movies is Fancast, at http://www.fancast.com. Fancast is owned by cable provider Comcast, which says on its site, “Fancast is THE top entertainment site dedicated to celebrating television. Fancast gives fans instant access to an extensive video collection of television shows, movies, trailers and clips, so they can tune-in, catch-up and critique their favorite television programming. Fancast also offers comprehensive editorial and blog coverage with in-depth recaps and analysis on what's hot and happening everyday in the world of television and entertainment.” Fancast has hundreds of TV shows available as full episodes, including such classics as Adam-12, to new episodes of 90210. Some of the TV shows are drawn from Hulu, with the Hulu logo appearing in the corner of the display. Full-length TV shows are available from dozens of networks, including BET, ABC, CBS, Fox, Military History, Nick, and many others, providing for a wide assortment of shows for our viewing pleasure. Fancast also has about 500 movies available for viewing, listed by genre’, or alphabetically, and can satisfy most viewers. While all of the content is available to anyone free, some of the advanced features of the Fancast service, such as personal profiles, are only available to Comcast subscribers with a Comcast email address. Due to content licensing requirements, Fancast movies and TV are only available in the US.

Some bloggers have written that there is enough fresh TV and recent content available online that they have “cut the cable” and watch TV and movies exclusively on the net free. While I still prefer to watch live news shows and new episodes of shows on TV, there is an enormous collection of TV shows and movies available online. I will admit that when there is nothing interesting to me on TV that I have watched shows and movies on Hulu, and have used Hulu while in a hotel room, and the selection of TV channels is inadequate such that I cannot watch my favorite shows. I have caught up with many of my favorites the same night as they are broadcast, and this applies to both entertainment and news shows. I also watch some shows, especially business and news, which I do not get on my local cable. These free TV and movie resources are an excellent way to be entertained while on the net, and are worthy of a try. Just like live TV, it is easy to change channels and view other shows. Unlike live TV, there is a much wider selection of shows to watch that are always available, and not set to a rigid schedule. This is a convenience and benefit to the viewer that is typically not available on live TV. Now that broadband internet is approaching universal availability, I can foresee many more people watching TV and movies free over the net.

Click here to return to top



==================================================================