This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer, who writes about online colleges for OnlineCollege.org. Karen has previously contributed to Poorer Than You with the post 15 Places to Find Free Books Online.
You don’t need a television, Blu-ray player, or cable package to watch all of your favorite TV shows, movies, and documentaries. There are plenty of sites online that broadcast this sort of entertainment. Some sites even provide downloads so that you can legally transfer files to your PC, iPod, or mp3 player. Here is a list of 20 sites to bookmark today:
Hulu – Hulu is a great place to find popular movies, television shows, clips, and documentaries. All of these things can be viewed for free online. Popular movies can also be downloaded for a small fee.
Veoh – Veoh offers millions of videos that can be watched for free online. Videos include full-length television shows and movies, documentaries, clips, trailers, and commercials.
Joost – This popular site provides free television shows, movies, and music. Joost not only allows you to browse the offerings, the site also offers suggestions for other movies you might enjoy.
PBS – The PBS site allows you to watch full-length episodes of PBS TV shows online. This site also broadcasts news, documentaries, and movies.
Babelgum – Babelgum is a free streaming video site that houses international movies, previews, and documentaries ranging from action adventure to shorts.
CWTV – The CW features high quality versions of several of the network’s shows online. Other viewable items include fall previews, clips, and interviews.
Internet Archive – The Internet Archive is a free public domain site with hundreds of movies, films, and videos. Most offerings can be watched online or downloaded for later viewing.
Docu-View – Docu-View is a free video streaming site with more than 300 documentaries.
Fox.com – Fox.com lets you watch new, new full length episodes of Fox TV shows eight days after their release. Whether you have missed an episode or just looking for something online to watch, Fox.com is a good place to find free television shows.
Retrovision – With more than 30 different movie categories to choose from, Retrovision is a great place to watch classic movies and television shows online.
OnlineDocumentaries – Online Documentaries offers more than 600 free documentaries that can be watched online. The site houses documentaries from HBO, BBC, PBS, and other high profile networks.
CBS – Nearly all of CBS’s normal season shows are ready and available for anyone to watch online. Simply click on the shows you like to view one episode or the entire season.
Fancast – Fancast is a good place to watch full-length movies and television shows. The site also offers clips, trailers, and other streaming video.
PublicDomainTorrents – This free movie site can be used to download or watch a wide range of classic movies and B movies.
FilmTalks – With some of the best titles on the web, FilmTalks is an excellent place to find high quality online documentaries.
Jaman – Jaman provides popular and classic films to view online. The Jaman library also includes documentaries.
Emol – This site, created by Entertainment Magazine, features several full length movies and clips for viewers to enjoy. All of the videos and films are available for download or instant viewing.
MoviesFoundOnline – MoviesFoundOnline hosts movies, cartoons, documentaries, TV shows and other media from the public domain. If you’re a fan of classics, MoviesFoundOnline is one of the better places to get your movie fix.
Guba – This online entertainment site allows viewers to browse, download, and share movies. Guba has a wide assortment of titles and videos to choice from.
Top Documentary Films – Top Documentary Films is a documentary site that offers a vast collection of free online documentaries. The site features several well known documentaries including, Sicko and The Naked Truth.
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23 responses to “20 Places to Legally Watch and Download Free TV, Movies, and Documentaries” 
I believe downloading is always legal? Uploading isn’t..
@Stefan: Not in the US (I realize you are in the Netherlands!) – here, both are illegal if you don’t have the permission of the copyright holder, but it’s very hard for them to catch you downloading, so people are usually taken to court for uploading. Although I’ve had a few friends (in college) receive angry letters from studios saying “STOP DOWNLOADING HOUSE M.D.!”
These documentary films are very nice. Thank you for this help.
I love Hulu and the networks that will post their shows online. We haven’t paid for cable or satellite t.v. for years. I honestly don’t feel like we are missing everything. Hulu and the networks posting stuff online make it easier to watch when I have a free minute. We also have Netflix and the Roku box, so we can instant watch a ton of videos that way as well.
Interesting list; I wasn’t aware so many places offered free downloads/opportunities to watch the shows. Are they all advertiser supported, or do some follow different profit models (if they’re making profits at all)? If they’ve found ways to offer content for free AND make a profit, it sounds like a good thing all around.
[...] 20 Places to Legally Watch and Download Free TV, Movies, and Documentaries [Poorer Than You] [...]
Some of them (the sites) thou are only for States dwellers.
As “me” pointed out, a number of these sites are only available if you are currently living in the US. (Our recent move overseas would lead to a sad breakup with Hulu, to our distress…) However, I haven’t tried all of these, so maybe we will have some insurance of being able to access US programming, after all! Thanks…
Jerry
[...] Last but not least, Stephanie provides us with 20 Places to Legally Watch and Download Free TV, Movies, and Documentaries. [...]
Hulu is probably my favorite place on the web to watch TV and Videos. Youtube has also gotten into the game.
Great list! Thank you for compiling and sharing.
good list for USA viewers that require free tv online ,well done.
Awesome list but as other posters have noted, alot of these sites are limited to USA customers only. I assume because they can target adverts to US viewers.
Thanks for the info… just been looking at publicdomain torrents.. great site.
nice article, thanks alot!
stefan
Great site , and their is one too
watch free movies
Great list ! But most of them don’t work in europe
Any tips for work ?
With the boom of the video sites it is very common now for users to watch movies online for free. There’s also dedicated free movie site that supply the links of latest movies. The viewing experience is awesome with latest movies posted in high quality. Uploaders frequently adapting new tricks to fool the producers and make good money on each download. Watching movies online is now a big growing industry.
FreeMovieManiac:
I guess it’s not bad……….but the
drawback is….you’re tied to a computer. That’s
the ONLY way you can watch those videos.
I’m in search of a download/purchase or DVD
purchase site that has 1950s Classic TV.
Gary S.
This is so cool!!!!!
I just want to watch a movie.
It can certainly be quite a minefield when you download movies. Even some of the larger download sites can’t control if the content you are downloading is actually legal.
I was wondering where I could obtain a copy of
those TV broadcasts from the 50s, those old
black-and-whites…….such names as Sky King
Jackie Gleason Show, Red Skelton…..to name a
few.
Gary S.