JustWatch TV review: Our intial thoughts on the new streamer
JustWatch TV review: Our intial thoughts on the new streamer
How does JustWatch TV stack up against other free streamers? Check out our review below!
The free streaming world is a pretty crowded place, with giants like Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, and Tubi attracting tens of millions of active users every month. But JustWatch is no stranger to the streaming world; its international guide and search engine have 50 million users worldwide, and it’s parlaying the popularity of that platform into a new streaming service called JustWatch TV.
The streamer is now available, and viewers can choose between free and paid subscription options. After a quick hands-on test of JustWatch TV, the platform clearly has potential, even if it’s a little rudimentary for the moment. Check out our in-depth review of the new JustWatch TV platform below!
Everything you need to know about the new JustWatch TV streaming service
What TV shows and movies does JustWatch TV have?
JustWatch TV has a mix of old and newer films from a variety of studios around Hollywood and around the globe. The streamer has launched with 30 content partners, including Cineverse and other big names. It’s mostly a mix of TV shows and movies that you can also find available on streaming services like Paramount+, but there’s no subscription needed to get started with JustWatch TV.
Movies that stood out during my first pass-through of JustWatch TV included options available for rental like “Good Will Hunting,” “Interstellar,” “Scary Movie 6,” and “Scream 7,” as well as free options like “Under the Skin.” JustWatch TV won’t be the place to find new blockbusters fresh out of cinemas for free, but it will connect viewers to well-loved titles in basically every genre.
The platform doesn’t have a large TV selection in the United States, with “The Beverly Hillbillies” being the highlight of the catalog. It does have some fascinating vintage TV, however — and I mean vintage. Shows like “The New Adventures of Tarzan” and “Zorro's Fighting Legion” — both from the 1930s — are available on JustWatch TV for free.
As much as I’d like to preview the ad experience on JustWatch TV for free viewers, I’m afraid I can’t. Every time I opened the title to start watching something, I was met with an error message, regardless of whether I tried a TV show or movie. Likely it’s just a launch-time bug, but obviously it’s something I’ll check back in on.
Keep in mind that when you want to turn on JustWatch TV, it only offers on-demand content for now. There may be plans to introduce free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels to the service in the future, but there are no such channels on the JustWatch TV app at present.
What’s it like to navigate the JustWatch TV app?
The JustWatch TV connected TV app is fairly rudimentary, with a left-hand menu featuring Search, Home, Popular, Library, and Settings. Each is pretty straightforward; the home page is packed with titles that JustWatch TV recommends, and the Popular page is populated with movies that other viewers are streaming.
The Library page is where you can find TV shows and movies that you’ve saved to your watchlist from that title’s details page. It even sorts titles into columns of likes and seen, so viewers can jump straight to the movie or series they want to start watching most, and can rewatch titles they loved the first time.
Title detail pages have everything the viewer needs, with buttons to add to their watchlist, mark the title as seen, like or dislike it, scroll through episodes of shows, and (of course), start watching or rent the movie in question. It’s easy to know which movies you have to pay for on JustWatch TV: they all come with a small cart icon in their card.
There’s nothing groundbreaking about moving around the JustWatch TV app, but that’s not a bad thing. The streamer doesn’t try to get too fancy or reinvent the wheel, and it’s nice to move around an interface that isn’t packed with AI agents trying to steer me to something flashy and new.
Does JustWatch TV use the JustWatch search platform?
Not on its smart TV app, at least not that I could tell. Using the JustWatch website allows viewers to look up essentially any movie or TV show and find out where it’s available to stream, with direct links to rent or buy some titles.
Thus far, the search engine is not in use on the JustWatch TV app. For now, the only content you can search through on the JustWatch TV app is content you can watch through that app, including titles you can rent. The JustWatch universal search may be added to JustWatch TV in the future, but it isn’t there now.
Is it easy to rent movies on JustWatch TV?
Absolutely. As I mentioned, JustWatch TV shows which titles viewers have to rent to watch by putting a shopping cart icon on its poster art. Clicking on that title’s detail page allows the viewer to rent a movie with the card of their choice.
Final thoughts
JustWatch TV only launched this week, so it’s fair to say it’s early days. The streamer has a small content library to start with, but that library will surely grow, and may begin to include options like FAST channels and features like the JustWatch search platform in the future.
Such additions would be major upgrades to what is now a fairly rudimentary platform. But JustWatch TV offers almost a vintage feel, both in its user interface and its library; the streamer offers a look from viewers who have access to the app on their device. JustWatch TV can be downloaded on Apple TV, Android and Google TV, LG TV, and Roku, on mobile devices, and on the web.
JustWatch TV
JustWatch TV is a new streaming platform launched by the popular streaming guide JustWatch that combines free ad-supported streaming with digital rentals and purchases into a single, unified interface. Beyond serving as a robust search directory for streaming services, JustWatch hosts a broad catalog of movies and television shows, featuring popular titles — including an extensive indie library and a variety of A24 releases — available to stream for free without a subscription.