YouTube Added 1,500 Free Movies, But Good Luck Finding Them (mashable.com) 30
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Mashable: YouTube recently added a bunch more movies and TV shows for its U.S. users to stream for free, provided you're willing to sit through some ads. Unfortunately, actually finding them all isn't easy. While YouTube has offered free, ad-supported movies before, this is the first time it has branched out to TV shows. Announced last week, YouTube's updated catalogue of free content now includes over 1,500 movies and 100 television shows, such as 10 Things I Hate About You, The Sandlot, Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Legally Blonde, two seasons of Kitchen Nightmares, and a decent number of more obscure titles such as 1970's Western The Return of a Man Called Horse.
However, YouTube has also made browsing its free titles much more annoying than it needed to be. The platform won't just show you all its free titles and let you scroll through them to find your next binge watch. It certainly won't let you filter them, so you can't narrow your search to all of YouTube's free action movies, or free romantic comedies. Rather, YouTube's algorithm selects a few hundred ad-supported titles to show you in its "free to watch movies" section, hiding the rest. Mashable only counted 360 ad-supported films available in this category, despite YouTube stating it offers over four times that number. Mashable also counted 100 free TV shows.
YouTube noted that viewers can use its search bar to look for titles, as well as browse through content in genre-themed sections which contain a mix of free, hire, and purchasable content. However there's no section only listing all of YouTube's free films or television shows, giving users no option but to trust that YouTube knows best what they should watch. [...] It seems like a strange lack of functionality, but then again, YouTube's bread and butter is in user-uploaded content rather than blockbuster films. "YouTube is personalized to users, so instead of seeing the entire library at once in the links, users see personalized selections for them," a YouTube spokesperson told Mashable. "Once users begin watching or when new titles cycle in or out, the makeup of the selection in the shelves will change."
However, YouTube has also made browsing its free titles much more annoying than it needed to be. The platform won't just show you all its free titles and let you scroll through them to find your next binge watch. It certainly won't let you filter them, so you can't narrow your search to all of YouTube's free action movies, or free romantic comedies. Rather, YouTube's algorithm selects a few hundred ad-supported titles to show you in its "free to watch movies" section, hiding the rest. Mashable only counted 360 ad-supported films available in this category, despite YouTube stating it offers over four times that number. Mashable also counted 100 free TV shows.
YouTube noted that viewers can use its search bar to look for titles, as well as browse through content in genre-themed sections which contain a mix of free, hire, and purchasable content. However there's no section only listing all of YouTube's free films or television shows, giving users no option but to trust that YouTube knows best what they should watch. [...] It seems like a strange lack of functionality, but then again, YouTube's bread and butter is in user-uploaded content rather than blockbuster films. "YouTube is personalized to users, so instead of seeing the entire library at once in the links, users see personalized selections for them," a YouTube spokesperson told Mashable. "Once users begin watching or when new titles cycle in or out, the makeup of the selection in the shelves will change."
Use tubitv.com instead (Score:1)
Lots (many hundreds) of tv shows, movies, all free and all searchable by genre, actors or pretty much whatever you want.
https://tubitv.com/home [tubitv.com]
Re: (Score:2)
There is also Hoopla [hoopladigital.com] (supposing you have a library card) and a few other niche free streaming sites.
My understanding of "content! content! content!" is keeping the most amount of eyes glued to your site regardless.
But as the major players are whiffing to a degree, either by over curating or attempting to monetize, it is leaving space for others, and even the deeply buried idea there might be a better use for your time than watching another cat video.
Re: (Score:2)
Tubi is great, so is Crackle. Crackle is especially good if you're looking for real low budget, obscure horror movies. No, most of these aren't very good. But they're great if you're throwing your on MST3K parties.
What's next, A Clockwork Orange? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It's becoming the radio. A flux you don't control, but you occasionally call and ask for something special if you know the exact name, and they will play it once in between some ads.
Related news: Waymo self driving captive audience (Score:2)
Guess what the real goal is?
Well in fairness they volunteered to me (Score:2)
by design (Score:1)
This way, if you search for a free movie and find a 'free' movie, they don't have to pay royalties to the studio.
"YTs bread and butter is in user-uploaded content" (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
YouTube has to pay a lot more for the movies.
Re: (Score:2)
You still see ads on youtube? Younoob.
There's an app/service in there somewhere (Score:2)
However, YouTube has also made browsing its free titles much more annoying than it needed to be. The platform won't just show you all its free titles and let you scroll through them to find your next binge watch.
An enterprising person will figure out how to spider youtube, build a searchable catalog and put it on a website. I find it interesting that google, which started as a search engine, can't figure out how to search youtube. I wonder if they're more interested in monetizing countless of hours of monkey-phlegm, errr, "content".
Why would you even... (Score:2)
...watch on sub-par GUIs that bombards you with ads?
I rip my media collection to a NAS and stream with Jellyfin all around the world.
I use both uBlock Origin and Sponsor Block on youtube. I also use the Piratebay because in my country, I'm free to do so. Technically uploading is forbidden but the free policemen responsible for copyright infringement haven't gotten around to me so far.
Is this selfish? You bet. But fuck the rest of the world. The last time someone has been nice to me without being paid for it
Re: (Score:2)
*three policemen
By the way not being able to edit a post and then having to wait over a minute to write another one REALLY is what is keeping the content quality of this site up, Slashdot. You're doing SUCH a great job... say, does the site support unicode these days?
Re: (Score:2)
> Is this selfish? You bet. But fuck the rest of the world.
DSM tags this as sociopathic behavior. YouTube has some fascinating videos about the personality type.
Netflix has so much you, won't see it all (Score:1)
It's not that difficult, really (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Thanks. Direct link two clicks down is here:
https://www.youtube.com/feed/s... [youtube.com]
Robin Hood: Men In Tights (Score:2)
When the spoof is 10 times better than the movie it is spoofing.
Re: (Score:2)
Personally, I found the lack of pantsless foxes to be a huge negative.
Just like movie previews... (Score:2)
This is a time honored tradition in Hollywood, so it doesn't surprise me that others would pick up the baton and run with it; just like movie previews which show you the very best parts of the movie -- and in some cases, that's the only good parts in that movie -- Google is just showing potential viewers the very best that they have... because the rest of the (ahem) undiscovered gems* that they managed to license probably aren't even worth watching.
* otherwise known as "cheap crappy B movies"
Re: (Score:2)
No, no much like it at all. Content access searches are nothing like previews of recently released films. The idea that what YouTube is "suggesting" for you is their "best" material is questionable to say the least.
You should be able search for, and find, what you want to watch. What YouTube's algorithms think are best is no more than a possibly helpful suggestion, it is fundamentally anti-viewer to make their recommendation engine the only way to find content.
Re: (Score:2)
False story (Score:2)
I mean, I went to all those links and there were nothing there to see... ...unless you're in USA, so, nothing new for the rest of the world.
We Know Better Than You... (Score:2)
"YouTube is personalized to users, so instead of seeing the entire library at once in the links, users see personalized selections for them," a YouTube spokesperson told Mashable. "Once users begin watching or when new titles cycle in or out, the makeup of the selection in the shelves will change."
Yeah: "Our algorithms know what you want to watch better than you do. So, no convenient research tool for YOU!"
Much more about maintaining monetization - it is essential that you only see content they push at you.
user-uploaded content (Score:1)
Which is why they censor user-uploaded content so thoroughly, and demote it in relationship to their bigger channels on people's feeds? They are totally asleep at the wheel it seems if this is the case.