Top 3 Streaming APPs December 2020 (No ads / no bloat)

Crackle

Crackle is a free streaming service that offers on-demand movies and TV series. It also has a library of original content created for the service. Crackle was purchased by Sony back in 2006, and has carried the entertainment company’s name prominently since — it’s sometimes referred to as “Sony Crackle.” However, in March 2019 the controlling stake of the streaming service was sold to Chicken Soup for the Soul. The two companies now work together in the production of Crackle.

Popular On-Demand Movies

There is no shortage of big name actors on the movie menu for Crackle. Look no further than A Few Good Men, which is a classic film that stars Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson. There are several recognizable comedies, like Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg’s The Other Guys, available for streaming as well. Here’s a look at some of the popular movies available:

Zero Dark Thirty
A Few Good Men
The Other Guys
Seven Years in Tibet
28 Days
3:10 to Yuma
Friday the 13th series
The Karate Kid series
Rules of Engagement
Zodiac
The Longest Yard

Popular On-Demand TV Series

The television series selection on Crackle is not quite as extensive as the movies selection, but there are still some really well-known shows here. Some are a bit dated, but selections like All in the Family, Sanford and Bewitched are timeless classics. Ellen Degeneres’ The Ellen Show and Tony Danza’s Who’s the Boss? are also available on Crackle. Here’s a look at some of the popular TV series titles:

All in the Family
The Ellen Show
Charlie’s Angels
The Jeff Foxworthy Show
Sanford (Redd Foxx’s spinoff of Sanford and Son)
Bewitched
T.J. Hooker
Who’s the Boss?
Marvel Animated Series: Iron Man, Spiderman, X-Men
The Dana Carvey Show
Just Shoot Me!

Tubi TV

Tubi is an ad-supported free steaming service that many people are curious about, especially after Fox bought Tubi for $440 million.

Tubi offers over 20,000 older TV shows and movies to watch for free. Their library holds content from studios including Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate and networks including A&E, Lifetime and Starz. The company says it has 25 million active monthly viewers who spend over 160 million hours per month watching content on Tubi.

Xumo TV

Xumo organizes its content into about 180 different channels, but, as noted, the vast majority of these channels are not comparable to those you get with a cable subscription. Each channel features a currently streaming component (this is not a live broadcast in most cases) and at least some other on-demand content, be it clip shows, short features, movies, or shows. Categories of streaming content include Comedy; Entertainment; Food, Drink, & Travel; Music; News; Sports; and TV & Movies. For comparison, Pluto TV, another free live TV streaming service, has about the same number of channels (190), but more of them feature content from recognizable sources.

Starting with the News category, Xumo offers live streams of ABC News Live, Bloomberg, CBSN, Cheddar Live, NBC News Now, and The Today Show, just to name a few. These news channels are the closest thing Xumo offers to traditional cable channels.