If you’re looking for something to entertain yourselves or the kids this weekend, and you have a VPN, then why not check out a bunch of free movies on YouTube.
According to a report from AdAge, YouTube began showing the movies in October but it’s only just been noticed.There are 100 movies available, with the only rider that you have to endure ads during the film just like on TV.
There’s some pretty great titles included such as The Terminator, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and even series of movies like Legally Blonde, Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde and Rocky, Rocky II, Rocky III and Rocky IV. The kids aren’t forgotten either with titles including All Dogs Go to Heaven, Igor and Agent Cody Banks, Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London.
Rohit Dhawan, director of product management at YouTube said of the new ad-supported streaming
We saw this opportunity based on user demand, beyond just offering paid movies. Can we do ad-supported movies, free to the user? It also presents a nice opportunity for advertisers.
It could be possible for advertisers to ‘sponsor’ a movie, giving users access to complimentary viewings or even exclusive screenings says Dhawan.
No mention was made of whether YouTube is looking to roll-out the ad-supported movie streaming to other countries, but for now you can short-circuit this by using a VPN. For us here in Australia there’s no access, with the movie channel in YouTube simply showing films you can purchase. Once you turn on a VPN with the output node in the US you will find you can now watch them however.
We’d love to see this here in Australia without the geo-restrictions, but until that happens at least we have an option.
VPNs also work with Netflix and stuff too. I’ve been using ExpressVPN to watch different country catalogs.