I have been looking into streaming services and the name CouchTuner has come up in many a discussion.
The site seemed pretty exciting, with both movies and television shows ready to be streamed. There were also a lot of alternatives for foreign shows and movies.
As with any chance to add a tool to my cord cutting ways, I took a deeper look at CouchTuner and how it could help with finding the content I want.
Quick Navigation
What is CouchTuner?
Couch tuner is a series of websites that allow you to stream movies and television shows for free. Whoever is running the site seems to primarily focus on full seasons of television shows.
The formatting of the site is pretty disorganized. If you want to watch a season of a television show you will not have the option to auto stream from one show to the next. This means you will have to go back to a season listing and then click on the next episode.
There are a ton of Couchtuner sites and each one is organized a little differently. So even the description I just made may not apply depending on which Couch Tuner site you go to.
History
The original CouchTuner.com was started in 2010 and became a Reddit and video streaming underground favorite.
The site has since blown up into multiple sites ending in .rocks, .fr, and many many others.
Is CouchTuner Legit?
There is nothing legit about CouchTuner. It is a piracy website that steals content and streams it on the internet.
Each state and country has different rules for using pirated content, but in the United States you can be subject to the 6 strikes rule. This means if you get caught streaming pirated content your ISP can drop your access speeds to near dial up crawling type of speeds.
Is CouchTuner Safe?
This would also be a big negative. CouchTuner is highly susceptible to malware through the ads that people place on the videos.
The other problem that arises is that you have no idea whether you are hitting an actual CouchTuner site or some knock off that is only there to hit you with a phishing scam.
That being said, CT has a long history with people not having any problems. The biggest issue is that it is really hard to tell which sites are the safe ones and which ones are not. For this reason I cannot say that using any site labeled CouchTuner is safe.
CouchTuner Alternatives
In my experience the reason people get into pirated services like CouchTuner is that cable television has become so expensive that they cannot justify the expense. Here are some free and low cost alternatives to CouchTuner sites.
Free Alternatives
Nothing is totally free. You will have to watch ads to get the content. Fortunately most of them don’t hit you with a ton of them.
Yahoo View – Once upon a time Yahoo tried to compete with Youtube and launched a service called Yahoo Screen. While that was another colossal failure for the once great search engine, the remnants of that experiment created Yahoo View.
What we have now is a service that resembles what Hulu once was. You get five free latest episodes from the major networks and it is pretty easy to use. The interface is a little scattered, but you get used to it.
Kanopy – This is one the few services that is not ad supported. Kanopy is offered through you local library and is a great place to watch all sorts of movies.
The only downside is you will have to have a library card and there is a limit to the number of movies you can watch in a 30 day period. Think of it like you can only check out so many books at one time.
Crackle – This is where it all began for ad supported content. Sony actually owns this site and has been recently adding their big name to the brand.
Crackle’s goal is to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime video. They have their own studios and shows. They also have Sony’s library of movies to pull from. Overall this is a must have for free streamers.
PBS – PBS is completely free with no ads. The content is top notch, but is also mostly PG. If you are looking for something a bit more scandal to it then try some of the other options on the list.
Pluto.tv – There are actually more 75 live streaming channels through Pluto.tv. If you are into news there are a bunch of options from standard news to business, sports and weather channels.
Among the other channels are something for just about everyone in the family. What you will not get is on demand viewing. You will have to watch on Pluto.tv’s schedule.
Snag Films – If you are into indie films then Snag Films is going to be your go to free streaming service. The site’s focus is on documentaries and narrative films. Not my cup of tea but their collection is very large.
Go90 – In all my experiences Verizon rarely offers anything for free. That is not the case with Go90.com. This free streaming service is great for anyone looking for older shows. Think Babylon 5 and Veronica mars, not last season of what you are currently watching.
The site also offers original content that is all over the map on topic.
Cheap Alternatives
Hulu – Hulu has done a great job of updating their service and partnering with the right companies. The basic service, which includes commercials, is $7.99. You can get ad-free service for $11.99.
The newest addition to the Hulu lineup is Hulu Live. You get more than 50 channels for $40 a month. This includes sports and you can watch on two screens at the same time. The new Hulu Live is designed to replace your cable service for a much lower price.
Netflix – No list is complete without mentioning Netflix. If you don’t know how this one works you have been living under a rock.
PureFlix – Pureflix is completely focused on family friendly viewing. They have the largest collection of family friendly programming of anyone online. The service is $10.99 per month or $99 annually.
If you have kids and worry about what they are watching on other services. This one will work great. They even offer a one month free trial.
Recommendation
With the lack of security and legality of the CouchTuner sites I would definitely stay away. If you want to go free then bit the bullet and watch some ads, otherwise find a streaming service that you can afford and pay the piper.
If you are already using CouchTuner I would stop immediately. Not only are you opening yourself up to the potential of identity theft, but the government is getting better and better at finding people who are abusing these types of piracy websites.
