Skip to main content

Plex adds Crackle library to its free movies and TV service

Plex is adding the full Crackle library to its selection of free movies and TV shows, the company announced Friday.

Plex originally launched as a way to keep private media content organized and accessible on all of your devices, but last year, the company debuted a separate-yet-related free movie and TV streaming service called Plex Free Movies and TV.

Plex Free Movies and TV — which is supported by ads — already had a decent, if not top-tier selection of content thanks to its partnerships with companies like Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Lionsgate, and Legendary. With the addition of Crackle, the service expands its selection of title considerably, while increasing the variety of content types.

Notable movie additions include Captain Phillips, Patriot Games, The Illusionist, and Failure to Launch. New TV shows include series such as Hell’s Kitchen, Snatch, and Roseanne.

Plex will also feature a number of Crackle original productions like On Point, a basketball docuseries following three high school players as they move toward their goal of an NBA career, and Yelawolf: A Slumerican Life, a journey through the life of Cherokee rapper and Alabama artist, Yelawolf.

At the moment, the additional Crackle content is only available within the U.S. but Plex says it is working hard to bring similar partnerships to the more than 200 countries where Plex Free Movies and TV can be streamed. Plex in the U.S. now has a wider selection of movies to stream than Netflix, according to Plex’s blog. Netflix, however, is ad-free.

Editors' Recommendations

Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like spatial…
Apple TV’s tvOS 17.2 beta adds a sidebar to the TV app
The new sidebar visible in the TV app on Apple TV in the tvOS 17.2 developer beta.

The new sidebar is visible in the TV app on Apple TV in the tvOS 17.2 developer beta. Phil Nickinson / Digital Trends

One of the messier pieces of the Apple TV experience on Apple TV 4K hardware has long been Apple's TV app. It's where Apple has attempted to aggregate all the things you can watch on your Apple TV, from Apple TV+ to any number of installed applications. (Another seriously messy piece is the myriad things Apple has named "Apple TV." But that's another problem for another time.)

Read more
Apple TV+ and other Apple One services get a price hike
A hand holding an iPhone with the Apple TV+ and other services in a menu.

Subscribers to Apple TV+ are about to get a big surprise as Apple today raised the price of its Apple TV+ streaming service for the second time in its four-year history, hiking it from $7 to $10 per month. Its annual subscription rate also goes from $69 to $99.

The new prices quietly appeared on the company's website today, but Apple TV+ isn't the only service in its roster to see a price increase: Apple's gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, has gone from $5 per month to $7 per month and its news subscription, Apple News+ goes from $10 per month to $13 per month. This is the first time either of those services has had their prices increased.

Read more
The Digital Trends guide to FAST streaming services
Amazon Freevee.

When you talk about the best streaming services, you typically talk about video-on-demand (VOD) services like Netflix. Or Disney+. Or Amazon Prime Video. Or Hulu. And for good reason — they have a ton of paying subscribers. Netflix alone is closing in on a quarter-billion. Disney+ is about halfway there.

And while the numbers drop off a good bit from there, another flavor of streaming should constitute a good bit of the discussion. FAST services — that's the industry acronym for free advertising-based streaming television — continue to grow both in numbers and in popularity. Think of FAST like the streaming version of broadcast TV, or your cable box. Shows are on at the same time for everyone, and everyone is watching the same thing, with ads. Only unlike YouTube TV or Hulu With Live TV, you don't have to pay anything upfront. It's all supported by advertising — you just don't get the "good" channels like you will on the paid services.

Read more