• Streaming guide JustWatch is launching its own streaming service
• It will have both free and paid tiers, including an option to rent titles
• Paramount and New Regency are just two of the partners supporting its content launch

Entertainment guide JustWatch is every movie buff’s best friend, telling you where you can find movies, TV shows, and other content on the best streaming services — and now it’s launching a platform of its own.

Announced at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday (September 15), JustWatch TV will land in October (an exact date hasn’t been revealed yet) on the JustWatch app and website. It’s launching in the U.S., Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, and New Zealand first, with plans to expand to other regions in the future.

Unlike a standard subscription-based platform, JustWatch TV will offer both free and paid options for streaming titles, including a free ad-supported tier, a paid subscription tier, and the option to rent titles similar to Prime Video. While prices for its paid plan haven’t been revealed, I imagine this tier will give you additional perks such as the removal of ads, and possibly upgraded streaming quality.

Since it was founded in 2014, JustWatch has helped countless viewers find their favorite movies and shows when they don’t know where to start. When there’s a sea of hundreds, maybe thousands of streaming platforms globally, JustWatch is a godsend for narrowing it down. But don’t worry, this tool isn’t going anywhere.

If you find that a title isn’t available to stream on the new JustWatch TV service, it will still guide you to other platforms where it's available. So, even though JustWatch TV will house its own catalog of content, its ethos of helping you locate the titles you want to stream isn’t going anywhere.

A new free streamer on the block

Speaking as a movie buff, I use JustWatch just as much as I use my favorite streaming platforms (right now, I’m addicted to HBO Max), and it spares me a lot of disappointment when I head to a platform with the intention of watching a particular movie, and find out it’s no longer available.

The shift to launching its own service is a natural move for JustWatch, and having both free and paid options will not only set it apart from its rivals, but give users more streaming choices. As for its free version, I think it’s already matching Tubi and other best free streaming services for one particular reason, and that’s distribution partners.

As it stands, there are six partners backing JustWatch TV’s content launch, and they’re quite notable. Firstly, you have Paramount and New Regency joining the mix, the latter boasting Oscar-winning blockbusters such as 12 Years a Slave (2013) and Birdman (2014), not to mention iconic TV shows like Malcolm in the Middle. Additionally, you can expect to see titles from Fremantle, Bleecker Street, and Vortex Media coming to JustWatch TV.

Sure, Tubi is by far the most established free streaming service. It has a solid repertoire of programming partners (Paramount being one of them) and major-league distributors like Lionsgate — it’s also a Fox acquisition, so that’s one of the reasons why it can house an extensive library of movies, shows, sports, and current affairs programming.

But as far as JustWatch TV goes, it’s kick-starting with the support of some pretty impressive distributors already, which will serve the platform well for enticing more partners to join in the future. It’s a solid start to what could become the next best free streaming service.