45 Best Streaming Free Trials on Apple TV

Formerly Kino Now, which only offered rentals, Kino Film Collection is an on-demand streaming service featuring films that could rival the catalogs of Criterion and Mubi. Here you'll find indie darlings, hard-to-find classics, and international gems by the likes of  Jean-Luc Godard, Jafar Panahi, Jia Zhangke, Joanna Hogg, and Alfred Hitchcock. Some examples of their carefully curated collections are "Cannes Winners," "New York Times Critcis’ Picks," "Visionary Black Directors," and "Women Filmmakers." You can watch the Kino Film Collection on major streaming devices.

IndieFlix is an online streaming service dedicated to independent filmmaking and is available in 85 countries. In the US, you can access IndieFlix for $4.99 per month, or a one-year subscription at a discounted $39.99. Patrons of IndieFlix may access IndieFlix free of charge.

The History Vault has all the best of The History channel: excellent documentaries, informative series, travel shows, and of course, historical specials. The difference is that the streamer offers all this on-demand and ad-free, with curated collections and exclusive titles to boot. Some programs that are no longer available on the cable channel can also be found in the Vault. If you're a fan of quality deep dives on everything and anything related to history and humanity, then this streamer is for you.

A sure treasure trove for history buffs, History Hit TV is a dedicated service featuring original documentaries, series, dramas, interviews, and films spanning all sorts of time periods and eras. It was founded by renowned historian Dan Snow, who hosts a hit podcast of the same name and whose other content can be found in the streamer. History Hit TV also claims that 10% of its profits go into history education projects around the globe.

Haystack News (formerly Haystack TV) is an independently-run streaming service that delivers live and on-demand news, 24/7. It's ad-supported so it's somewhat free, but if you want to get rid of the commercials and dive straight into the latest news, you can subscribe to Haystack Premium for $4.99/month or try it for free for 30 days. The convenient thing about Haystack is that it allows you to navigate not just by channels but by topics as well. It also picks up news from more than a hundred TV stations around the US (check if they cover your area here) which saves you the trouble of switching services when looking for local news.

Cord-cutters only interested in Spanish-language content will find much to like in Fubo Latino. Instead of the usual lineup, the Latino plan carries more than 65 channels in Spanish, including Unimas, Univision, BeinSports, Nat Geo Mundo, Sony Cine, and Discovery en Español. And since Fubo started as a soccer streaming service, it also has live sporting events featuring leagues like the UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, and MLS. At only $33/month, it's Fubo's most affordable plan yet, but it still has base features like 250 hours worth of cloud DVR and two simultaneous streams. If you already have a Fubo base plan, Fubo also offers these channels as an add-on for $20/month.

FlixFling is a flexible video on-demand streaming platform available in the US. A subscription costs $7.99 per month (or $95 per year) and includes streaming access across 5 different devices and access to movies and shows on the on-demand library. Without a subscription, you can still access on-demand rentals/purchases that range from $0.99 to $7.99. Meanwhile, on-demand subscribers have to pay for some titles that are available only as premium rentals. FlixFling works across devices, smart TVs and media services.

Flix Premiere is a subscription-based service that streams underrated and hard-to-find independent films. Founded in 2015 by Martin Warner, Flix Premiere is a treasure trove of fresh but forgotten gems—movies deemed too small or unprofitable are finally given a fighting chance here. The company states that it sources much of its content from prestigious festivals like Berlinale, Cannes, TIFF, and more. The streamer, currently available in the US and the UK only, is for hardcore cinephiles and anyone who prefers films over TV shows. The subscription is at $6.99/month, and the service offers a 30-day free trial.

Formerly Bally Sports+, FanDuel Sports Network is a streaming service that lets you access live and on-demand content from your local teams, including those from the NBA, WNBA, MLB, and NHL. Since it depends on RSNs, availability depends on where you live (you can check FanDuel availability on this website). Apart from letting you watch live games cordless, the platform offers on-demand replays, mobile viewing, and up to two concurrent streams. It's also available on most streaming devices.

Fandor is a paid subscription streaming service that curates independent, foreign, award-winning, and classic films, as well as documentaries from all over the world, making it a standout option for cinephiles. Depending on your location, it also offers a number of free movie titles. But Fandor doesn't only cater to fans; rookie directors also get some love as the service allows them to debut their work on the platform. It's a great option for film lovers and makers alike.

Docsville’s focus is on documentaries sourced from around the world, originally launched by award-winning documentarian Lawrence Elmen and his business partner, Nick Fraser, who worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation. This streaming service is for those doc junkies who can’t get enough of real-world exploration and have a thirst for knowledge about many different aspects of our planet and the human race. Topics include climate change, inequality and racism, inspiring real-life tales, and true crime. Most of the documentaries offered are independent films.

Dekkoo caters to the queer community and offers exclusively gay content. Their website claims to provide access to the largest selection of gay entertainment offered anywhere. Dekkoo has a 3-day free trial, then charges $9.99/month. If you’re craving more queer in your life and love gay films and TV series, then this service is for you. Dekkoo was launched in 2015 by Derek Curl and Brian Sokel.

If you have a taste for Black-oriented films, particularly those made in the late 20th century featuring funky settings and action sequences, then Brown Sugar just might be for you. The streaming subscription service mainly curates titles from the so-called Blaxploitation era, while also offering newer content such as a documentary about Beyoncé and a movie starring Denzel Washington. It has a wide array of titles thoughtfully dedicated to those who appreciate this kind of content, and at only $3.99 a month, it's a niche service seriously worth considering. 

BFI Player Classics is a subscription service that makes the best of British cinema available to users around the world. These films are, according to the site, "widely loved and rarely seen,"  handpicked by the British Film Institute itself. They are carefully curated into collections that you can pick and choose based on your mood or interest. The streamer may not have the most extensive titles, only carrying a little more than 300 at a time, but it's sure to have some of the highest quality libraries out there, perfect for cinephiles and Anglophiles alike. As of this writing, BFI Player Classics also offers a 14-day free trial, after which you're charged $5.99/month.

BBC Select is a streaming service dedicated specifically to all things culture, politics, and ideas. It houses the best of the BBC's non-fiction content—namely, widely-acclaimed documentaries and docuseries—but it also occasionally sources titles from other channels, like the UK's Channel 4. While it can seem like BBC Select is competing with Acorn TV and BritBox, which are the go-to UK channels in North America, it's actually closer to the likes of CuriosityStream and Discovery Plus in its specialization of documentaries. The only downside is there are currently only three ways to watch BBC Select: through Apple TV, Amazon Prime Channels, or The Roku Channel.

Arrow is a streaming service for cult cinema, with a particular focus on horror and classics. If you love niche films and hidden gems, then this is for you. You'll also appreciate Arrow Player if you're into hand-picked content as it boasts a highly curated and carefully refined selection of titles. Quentin Tarantino has recommended the service a few times!

Amazon Prime Video has nearly 100 channels you can stack onto your subscription, and their specialties range from news to sports to education. But if it's pure entertainment you're after, then the Starz and MGM+ bundle might be of interest to you. The entire bundle costs $26.98/month, saving you about $3/month versus getting each of them separately. Amazon Prime already has a constantly replenished trove of originals, but Starz adds even more comedies, like Party Down and P-Valley, while MGM+ (formerly Epix) adds slick dramas like Godfather of Harlem, FROM, and A Spy Among Friends. It's a bundle made for serial TV fanatics.

Following a multi-year deal signed by both parties, Amazon Prime is now the exclusive home of PBS Kids and all the entertaining and educational shows it carries. This bundle allows you to pay for Prime and PBS content under one bill while giving you all the useful perks of the former platform, namely, parental control and offline downloads so you can supervise what your kid watches and have episodes ready on the go. It's the perfect bundle if you're looking to have both mature content for the adults and appropriate shows for the young ones.

While programming depends on your geographical location, Acorn TV in the US focuses on TV shows from dozens of international networks in countries of the Commonwealth, from British channels like the BBC and ITV as well as Oceanic shows from Australia and New Zealand. Aside from British shows, there’s also a solid selection of content from other major European networks from France, Italy and Ireland.