Paramount Plus Essential is a video-on-demand service that replaces its predecessor, CBS All Access, and is currently available in the US, Canada, and parts of Latin America. This ad-supported tier costs $5.99, while Paramount’s premium, ad-free tier costs $11.99 per month or $119.99 per year, with an optional 7-day free trial. 

Essential subscribers used to have the option to bundle the service with Showtime, but ever since the Paramount-Showtime merger in June 2023, the latter is now only available to Premium subscribers. But to its credit, Essential still has 40,000 episodes and movies to its name, plus live feeds on NFL on CBS and the UEFA Champions League. 

You can access Paramount Plus Essential via web browser, while the app is supported on a wide range of TV and mobile devices.

Founded by the Texas-based cinema chain Alamo Drafthouse, Alamo on Demand is a streaming service that lets you rent or purchase a good mix of mainstream and obscure films. Here, you’ll find blockbusters and indies, new releases and cult classics, grindhouse as well as arthouse. In Alamo’s own words, it’s the “Staff Picks section of a video store,” a curated set of films carefully handpicked by the people behind it. And this is apparent in how the streaming service is organized. You can sort the movies by directors, genres, and categories like “Weird Wednesday” and “Ozploitation.” If you feel like exploring even more, they have movie playlists made in collaboration with filmmakers like Paul Thomas Anderson and Edgar Wright, which follow different themes and moods. As of this writing, the platform doesn’t recognize credits and passes you may have collected with your Alamo Drafthouse membership, but it’s working on it. In the meantime, film lovers and patrons will find much to like in Alamo’s on-demand counterpart. 

iTunes is one of the oldest media apps currently in use. While many people know it as a music player, iTunes has since evolved to offer digital movies and TV shows for rent or sale. The bigger and newer releases can cost up to $20 to purchase, but iTunes also has past hits, modern classics, award-winning pictures, and even local films you can rent for as low as $2. Purchased films and TV shows are available for as long as the studio allows them to be, but rentals are a different story. Once you’ve rented a particular title, you have up to 30 days to start watching it. And after you start watching it, you’ll then have 48 hours before it expires. iTunes comes pre-installed on Apple devices, but it’s also available on Windows PCs and Android Smart TVs.

No longer just a physical DVD kiosk, Redbox has expanded to become an online space where you can rent and purchase films and TV shows as well as watch live channels for free. Like Vudu and Amazon Prime, Redbox gives you access to a plethora of movies, including fan favorites and indie gems (these can cost anywhere from $2 to $5) and movies currently screening in cinemas (these usually cost more, around $20). Redbox also has a live TV streaming feature that you can access even without a registered account. Although most of the channels are not that notable, they cover the essential categories: news, sports, and entertainment.

YouTube’s Movies & TV storefront (not to be mistaken with YouTube TV) allows you to rent and purchase thousands of films and TV shows. You can pick from the latest blockbuster releases, foreign films, award-winning staples, beloved classics, and even pre-order titles that have yet to be available elsewhere. A big draw here is that YouTube is already everywhere—it’s a tab on your browser, an app on your phone, a channel on your smart TV—so renting, purchasing, and later on accessing a title is as easy as entering your credit card or PayPal details. And as a bonus, YouTube also has a lineup of free movies it lets you watch with ads. Granted, they’re not as big or new as their rentable titles, but there are gems like Moonstruck and Cooley High hidden in there somewhere. 

Now, some things to note before heading to the storefront: you must be 18 years or older to watch these titles, and while buying a movie or TV episode allows you to access them indefinitely, you have only 30 days to start viewing a rental. Once you’ve started watching it, you usually have about 48 hours until it expires, but this can vary per title. YouTube also allows playback in HD and 4k, but these features are currently unavailable on web browsers.