Free Entertainment on YouTube
Written on May 24, 2026
One could argue that all of the videos on YouTube are considered free entertainment. They would be if not for being supported by advertising at the free tier. Free movies and video series are available without ads when subscribing to YouTube Premium.
I've been subscribed to YouTube Premium since January of this year. I subscribed in the Philippines, where it's only 189 Philippine pesos per month. At the current exchange rate, that's equivalent to a little over three United States dollars.
The free movies and video series are not available to me when I'm in the Philippines unless I use a VPN. That won't work if Google starts blocking it. It's not a big deal to me because I've seen most of what they have to offer.
I can watch any or all of them when I'm in the United States, like I am right now, without needing my VPN. Americans have to pay $15.99 for a premium subscription to get what I'm getting. That's still less expensive than a single night out for a couple at a movie theater.
Movies and Video Series
There are more movies available than I care to list. I want to watch some of the ones I haven't already seen. There aren't many video series, and I've seen "Andromeda", "Dead Like Me", "Farscape", and all but the last season of "Z Nation".
I don't know if I'll ever watch any of the other series or any of the movies I haven't seen. My attention span isn't what it used to be. I have to really want to watch something before I'll go to the trouble of finding it.
Podcasts and YouTube Shorts
Podcasts and YouTube Shorts tend to occupy more of my time than anything else. My wife, Josie, scrolls Facebook Reels for hours at a time. While I'll watch YouTube Shorts for some time, it's never for as long as her scrolling sessions.
I enjoy watching podcasts, and there are several channels that I follow regularly:
- Dropping Names with Brent and Jonny (Star Trek alumni)
- First We Feast
- Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum
- PowerfulJRE
- Professor of Rock
- The D-Con Chamber (more Star Trek alumni)
- Valuetainment
I'm lucky they don't all produce podcasts every single day. Some of those podcasts can be more than a couple of hours long. I can only watch one or two podcasts per day when I'm in the mood to watch anything at all.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay