JustWatch TV: Berlin streaming guide launches its own streaming service

JustWatch, the Berlin-based company whose app and website tell viewers where a film or show is streaming, launched its own streaming service, JustWatch TV, on Tuesday, October 20, 2026. The service offers free, advertising-supported films and series from 30 content partners, including Paramount, New Regency and Fremantle, along with a movie rental store and a paid ad-free plan. It is built into the existing JustWatch app and website and is available at launch in 11 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France and Australia.

JustWatch built its business as a neutral guide: people search for a title and the app shows which services carry it, for free or to rent. Becoming a streamer itself is a big change in model. The company already knows what tens of millions of people search for, which gives it a ready audience and useful data on demand, two things most new streaming services spend heavily to acquire.

The move also puts JustWatch into one of the fastest-growing parts of the industry, often called FAST (free ad-supported streaming television) and AVOD (advertising-based video on demand). Instead of paying a subscription, viewers watch free and see adverts, and the service shares advertising income with the studios that license the titles. Established names in this space include Tubi and Pluto TV. For a start-up, the appeal is clear: it can earn from advertising and rentals without paying for expensive original shows.

There are risks. A guide that also runs its own service may face questions about whether its recommendations stay neutral, since it now has an interest in sending viewers to its own catalogue. The free library is also modest at launch compared with large rivals, and the company will have to show that partners keep adding titles.

For Indian founders and investors, the launch is a useful case study in how a discovery product can turn its audience into a content business. India has a large and price-sensitive streaming audience, many free ad-supported apps, and several start-ups that aggregate content from different platforms. JustWatch's step shows one path such aggregators may consider: moving from pointing viewers elsewhere to keeping them on their own platform, with advertising as the main source of income.

Short-term: Viewers in the 11 launch countries can now watch free films and series directly inside JustWatch, or pay for an ad-free plan. Studios get another outlet for their older catalogue titles.

Long-term: If JustWatch TV grows, it could compete with established free streaming services for advertising money and partner titles, and push other guides and aggregators to try the same model. Whether it expands to markets such as India has not been announced.

Who is affected: JustWatch's users and advertisers; studios and distributors licensing titles to free services; competing free streaming platforms; and start-ups in India and elsewhere that build discovery or aggregation products for streaming.

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