If you don’t want to pay for your video streaming entertainment, you have more options than you might think. IMDb TV is a free, easy-to-access service that’s available on many platforms. It boasts a decent collection of movies, too. However, it has a lackluster array of original content and the navigation experience could use some improvement. While IMDb TV doesn’t top our list of the best free streaming services, it’s still serviceable—especially if you’re a fan of the show Schitt’s Creek.
What Can I Watch On IMDb TV?
IMDb TV’s has a varied selection of movies available for streaming, but the choice of TV shows could be better. In terms of total library size, IMDb TV can’t compete with Peacock’s 13,000 hours’ worth of streaming content for free members. Crackle has more than 700 movies and 100 TV shows and Pluto.tv has 250+ channels of free TV and 1000’s of on-demand movies and TV shows. Tubi, Plex, and Vudu also offer substantial libraries of free streaming content.
Perhaps the most exciting and recognizable show on IMDb TV is the Emmy Award–winning comedy Schitt’s Creek. Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty are also available in the comedy genre, while Charlie’s Angels and The Dresden Files lead the action and adventure TV section.
Again, this lineup doesn’t hold a candle to what you can find on Peacock. 30 Rock, Blindspot, Cheers, Everybody Loves Raymond, Frasier, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, King of Queens, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, and Will and Grace are all on Peacock.
There are some originals on IMDb TV, but they haven’t yet attained cult status. One original that looks promising is You’re Not a Monster. This animated show follows the struggles of a para-therapist who takes on patients like the ghost girl from The Ring and a succubus. It’s perfect for a realistic, insightful Halloween and for those who want scary inner truths instead of actual horror, which you can find on Shudder. Special Skills with Jay Pharoah is another IMDb TV original, but, as with You’re Not a Monster, episodes clock in at less than 10 minutes long.
In comparison, Crackle’s original sci-fi series Spides has lengthy 50-minute episodes packed full of action and intrigue. Lennox Lewis is a Crackle original movie that has Dr. Dre narrating the life of the heavyweight champion. I would choose Crackle over IMDb TV for originals.
Paid services offer much higher-quality originals. For example, Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black, Mindhunter, BoJack Horseman, Stranger Things, The Crown, and Russian Doll are all highly acclaimed and popular shows. Netflix original movies such as El Camino: A Breaking Bad Story, Roma, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and The Irishman all enjoyed mainstream success, too.
IMDb TV’s library of content nevertheless has a few notable titles that set it apart. For viewers looking for family-friendly material, VeggieTales content is abundant. In October, IMDb TV added 19 new episodes, including Bully Trouble and The Star of Christmas (holiday shopping already kicked off, so it’s not too far off the mark).
IMDb TV’s movie library is more competitive. For instance, it includes all four movies in the eye-catching The Hunger Games series, from The Hunger Games to Mockingjay Part 2. IMDb TV also recently added Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2, which joins family friendly entries such as Charlotte’s Web and Rudy. Other entries include the true-crime Mafia story Donnie Brasco, which stars Al Pacino as a mobster, and LA Confidential, which depicts a 1940s film noir story with Russell Crowe.
Some recently added titles at the time of review include Black Beauty, Lincoln, Midnight in Paris, Our Idiot Brother, Pinocchio, Real Steel, Rock Dog, Scream 4, Starship Troopers, Step Up 2: The Streets, Step Up Revolution, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, The Adventures of Milo and Otis, The Big Wedding, The Dictator, The Hurt Locker, The Natural, The Ring, Tombstone, True Lies, and Urban Legend.
Our list of best movie streaming services includes Netflix, Hulu, Peacock, and Tubi. Netflix distinguishes itself for its original content, Hulu for its extensive movie library, Peacock for its popular NBC network shows, and Tubi for its extensive library of ad-supported movies. The Criterion Channel and Mubi are excellent choices for cinephiles.
There’s not a lot of diversity highlighted in IMDb TV’s movies or TV shows. Check out the best video streaming services for celebrating Black art for better options.
IMDB TV doesn’t offer live TV or live sports streaming. If you want full access to Amazon’s sports content and extensive library, including the award-winning The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, you have to pay for Prime Video.
Pricing and Platforms
You have nothing to lose by trying IMDb TV: The service is ad-supported and free. All you need to do is sign up for an account.
Peacock is still one of our top picks in our roundup of the best free streaming service, with many more beloved shows and movies than other free streaming platforms. Crackle, Tubi, Vudu, and Plex, also offer free on-demand content, while Pluto TV and Xumo offer free preprogrammed TV channels.
Paid streaming platforms offer better originals and a wider library of content, but they can get pricey. For instance, Prime Video is $8.99 per month, Hulu costs $5.99 per month, and Disney+ is $6.99 per month. On the higher end of the pricing spectrum, Netflix’s Standard tier (the minimum we recommend) is $12.99 per month and HBO Max costs $14.99.
IMDb TV is available on the web; mobile devices (Android and iOS); gaming platforms (PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360); streaming media devices (Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, and Roku); smart TVs; set-top boxes; and Blu-ray players.
For Windows 10, Prime Video, Hulu, and Netflix have dedicated apps on the Microsoft Store, but IMDb TV does not. Peacock doesn’t either.
IMDb TV’s Web Interface
I tested IMDb TV’s web interface in the Google Chrome browser on a Windows 10 desktop. I used IMDb TV’s website for testing, instead of going through Amazon Prime Video’s section with the same content. I opted to sign in with my Google account, but you can also sign in with Amazon or Facebook. Otherwise, you need to create or use an existing IMDb TV account. All the methods are simple to use. Although it’s free, you cannot access the service without an account.
The backdrop for the carousels of IMDb TV’s content is all black, with buttons such as Learn More and Get the IMDb App in a dark yellow. It’s a straightforward design, with colors consistent with the IMDb brand. There’s a search bar at the top and a sidebar menu breaks down the library into six sections: Movies, TV Shows, Watch, Awards & Events, Celebs, and Community.
The movies and TV shows aren’t categorized by genre, but instead by top ratings and popularity. There is a Hidden Gems section however, which includes titles such as Closer, which tracks a journey of deceit between two couples, The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp, Iverson, which follows the NBA legend, and The Hunt for the Zodiac Killer, a true-crime show.
When you hover over a movie or show, there’s a plus sign at the top-left corner: Click that button to add the item to your Watchlist. The Watchlist is located in between the IMDb Pro icon and your account icon on the top-right corner of the screen. Once you find something you want to watch, just click the play button to start watching a show or movie.
The website is easy to navigate and pages loaded quickly. The only problem is the lack of genre division. Unlike other streaming services, IMBb TV doesn’t have an option to access, for example, all of the service’s movies in the Action and Adventure section. Instead, I have to go to the main page and scroll down to that section every time I want to see it. The same problem persists with IMDb TV’s section within the Prime Video interface. You have to scroll up and down the page to find content by genre. The menu doesn’t have many subcategories.
While I was browsing through movies and shows, I noticed that clicking on a title brought me right to its IMDb page, which has trailers and a summary. I didn’t like the sheer amount of information I had to look through or the need to navigate away from the streaming service just to get more information. On services such as Peacock and Netflix, the streaming experience is seamless. Apple TV+ is also great about including details on selected content. On IMDb TV, you have to navigate back and forth between the TV site and IMDb’s main site.
You can’t add a review or rating directly on the TV site, similar to Peacock. Shudder, Mubi, Sundance Now, and Prime Video all allow users to add their thoughts on what they watch.
IMDb TV’s Mobile Apps
When I searched for a specialized streaming app in the Apple App Store, I found there isn’t one. There is an IMDb app though, so I downloaded it onto an iPhone 11 and hoped that the streaming service was a part of that app; it was. After logging in with my Google account, I scrolled down, past Featured today and What to watch sections until I got to the IMDb TV section.
Streaming services such as Peacock include an overflow menu on the mobile app that allows you to quickly access the More Episodes, Continue Watching, and Watchlist sections. IMDb TV lacks that: The Watchlist, for example, rarely makes an appearance unless you specifically navigate to it. There’s also little room for user feedback: There’s no thumbs-up or down buttons on content to better personalize your recommendations, for instance.
There’s still no offline download feature, but the offerings were more distinguishable by genre, which was lacking in the web experience.
Playback Experience
IMDb TV’s playback interface on the web is missing a few expected features. It has the volume, playback quality, and subtitles tools, and 10-second rewind and fast forward buttons. However, there isn’t a More Episodes feature for TV shows, only a Next Episode button. The service also lacks an info button for a summary of the episode or movie. The mobile app screen is similarly oriented, only containing an additional Share option.
There are three levels of video quality: Good (uses about 0.38 GB per hour), Better (uses about 1.40 GB per hour), and Best (uses about 6.84 GB per hour). Even with my video quality set to best, I still thought the colors could be punchier and that the picture quality could be sharper. I tried getting in touch with the service to determine the resolutions that corresponded to the Good, Better, and Best settings, but didn’t receive a response before the time of publishing.
I didn’t see Prime Video’s IMDb-powered X-Ray sidebar, which pinpoints the cast members in each scene, along with music tracks and random trivia, on most of the IMDb TV shows and movies I clicked on. However, it did show up on the web interface for the show 10 Cloverfield Lane.
I tested IMDb TV’s streaming performance by watching Donnie Brasco. Playback started immediately, with only a five-second IMDb logo introduction. For that movie, which clocks in at two hours and seven minutes, there were nine sets of ads, each totaling 60 seconds. So nine minutes of ads for 127 minutes of the movie. Not bad. I decided to test a TV show to see if the ad experience was consistent. For one nearly 22-minute episode of Schitt’s Creek, there were two ad breaks, each about 90 seconds. I also watched an episode of the original show, You’re Not A Monster. The stream had great HD quality and I could easily move to the next episode by clicking on the Next Episode button on the bottom-right corner of the screen.
Accessibility and Parental Controls
All of the content I looked at offered closed captions and you can customize the size and presentation of the subtitles. You can even go with an IMDb theme—dark yellow letters on a black background. None of the content supports Audio Descriptions. Apple TV+, Netflix, and Prime Video, all have this feature, which gives an audio narration of scene changes and character actions.
There’s no specified number of streams per account. Peacock, HBO Max, and Disney+ allow for three simultaneous streams. BritBox supports five concurrent streams. But since you aren’t paying anything, it doesn’t cost you anything to create a new account for every family member or friend, if necessary.
Even though there are many family-friendly titles on IMDb TV, there aren’t any parental controls or a profile option for kids. You also don’t know what ads you’ll get or if they’ll be kid-friendly. We recommend Disney+, HBO Max, and Netflix for parents looking to restrict their kids’ viewing options. These streaming services allow for multiple viewing profiles with individualized content restrictions.
IMDb TV and VPN
A virtual private network (VPN) is an easy way to secure your data online. When you enable a VPN, it routes all of your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel between you and a remote server controlled by the VPN company, thus effectively masking your identity and location. That last benefit, in particular, can be troublesome for some video streaming services with geographic-restricted content. That’s why they may block VPN traffic altogether.
I tried to stream content from IMDb TV from my desktop PC which was connected to both a US- and Sweden-based Mullvad VPN server. The US-based server presented no problems, but I was unable to access the site over my connection to the Sweden-based server.
Even if you find that your VPN and video steaming service work for now, that’s no guarantee that they will continue to do so. Video streaming services are always finding new ways to block VPN traffic.
Free, But Limited
IMDb TV offers a free streaming experience with some notable titles, including Schitt’s Creek. Its main drawback is that it lacks features found in other streaming services, such as Audio Descriptions and parental controls. Its library might entertain you for a time, and the ads aren’t too lengthy or intrusive, but users might find themselves drawn to other platforms for a better overall experience.
Our Editor’s Choice for on-demand video streaming services is Netflix; its collection of popular original titles is unmatched. For streaming live TV, which IMDb TV lacks altogether, go with Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV.
