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With the likes of HBO and CBS All Access offering up their impressive libraries of movies and television shows during the coronavirus pandemic, here’s all the content you can access free of charge. The entertainment industry has undoubtedly taken a hit due to COVID-19. A number of major movie release dates have been delayed, while production has halted on various films and TV shows.
Hollywood has had to respond to this new reality where theaters are temporarily shuttered, and large swaths of potential customers are stuck at home. In this early stage of a situation that is constantly shifting, major studios have decided on early VOD releases for some major features. The available selection has been varied so far, ranging from Bloodshot to Pixar’s Onward. The fact that many are confined to their homes, in hopes that social distancing would help to slow the spread of COVID-19, has led to an increase in viewers for traditional television and for streaming services as well.
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During the week of March 16, Nielsen noted that consumers in the U.S. streamed 156.1 billion minutes of content. That’s up from 71.3 billion minutes during the same week a year earlier. It’s even up from the 116.4 billion minutes recorded for March 2 of this year. SiriusXM, which is offering free streaming for its radio programming until May 15, has also witnessed an uptick. Given these notable numbers, some services are beginning to offer free access to their platforms for a limited time. Here are all of those services, in addition to comprehensive list of which movies and TV shows you’ll find.
CBS All Access
CBS All Access made headlines on March 31 when Patrick Stewart, star of the streamer’s Star Trek: Picard, announced on Twitter that CBS All Access was offering a free month to U.S. customers starting immediately. The free trial can be activated by entering the promo code (GIFT) at checkout. After creating an account, you can get another free 30 days by heading over to the Subscriptions & Billing tab and entering the code (ENJOY).
As part of the deal, you can kick back with plenty of Star Trek content. That includes Star Trek: The Animated Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek: Picard. Or you can catch up on the current roster of CBS shows. You’ll also have the option of enjoying The Twilight Zone reboot and The Good Fight, which is the critically-acclaimed spinoff of The Good Wife. The catalog of CBS All Access extends to other well-known pop culture franchises and memorable movies. The library of CBS All Access is massive, but here are some of its most popular options.
Current TV Shows
- Evil
- FBI
- Star Trek: Picard
- Survivor
- Tell Me a Story
- The Good Fight
- The Twilight Zone
- Why Women Kill
- Young Sheldon
Archived TV Shows
- 7th Heaven
- BrainDead
- Beverly Hills, 90210
- Cheers
- Criminal Minds
- CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
- Cheers
- Elementary
- Everybody Hates Chris
- Frasier
- JAG
- Medium
- Melrose Place
- NCIS
- Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
- The Legend of Korra
- Twin Peaks
Movies
- A Clockwork Orange
- Eat, Pray, Love
- My Best Friend’s Wedding
- Rachel Getting Married
- Something’s Gotta Give
- Spider-Man
- Stand By Me
- The Exorcism of Emily Rose
- The Iron Giant
- The Ring
- The Social Network
- Zombieland
HBO
Cable outfit HBO has made 500 hours of content available to stream for free for a limited period of time, beginning April 3, 2020. The offer can be accessed by downloading HBO Now and HBO Max, providing potential subscribers with the opportunity to watch every episode of shows like Six Feet Under, The Sopranos, and Veep. More recent series like Barry and Succession will also be available. For those more inclined to watch a movie, titles like Detective Pikachu and The LEGO Movie 2 are among the options. HBO’s documentaries, such as McMillions, will also be free to stream.
Notably missing, however, are some of HBO’s biggest hits. The network’s all-time biggest show, Game of Thrones, isn’t listed as part of the trial period, and neither is 2019’s critically acclaimed Watchmen. Big Little Lies and Euphoria aren’t included, either. This is likely an attempt to incentivize audiences to pay to subscribe once the trial period has ended.
Complete TV Shows
Movies
- Arthur
- Arthur 2: On the Rocks
- Blinded By the Light
- The Bridges of Madison County
- Crazy, Stupid, Love
- Empire of the Sun
- Forget Paris
- Happy Feet Two
- Isn’t It Romantic?
- The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
- Midnight Special
- My Dog Skip
- Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase
- Pan
- Detective Pikachu
- Red Riding Hood
- Smallfoot
- Storks
- Sucker Punch
- Unknown
Documentaries
- The Apollo
- The Case Against Adnan Syed
- Elvis Presley: The Searcher
- I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter
- The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
- Jane Fonda in Five Acts
- McMillion$
- True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
- United Skates
- We Are the Dream: The Kids of the MLK Oakland Oratorical Fest
The WWE Network
In conjunction with WrestleMania 36, WWE has unlocked a vast portion of the WWE Network library for free access. That includes recent episodes of Raw, Smackdown and NXT in addition to a long list of pay-per-view events. The WWE Network is also home to documentaries such as Ruthless Aggression and The Monday Night War series, each of which examine different violate periods in the history of professional wrestling. This limited time offer is available worldwide and only requires creating an account.
