Redbox TV Streaming Services Review

Redbox's cheery kiosks are a familiar sight to American movie fans. The company started out about 20 years ago renting physical DVDs as part of fast food giant McDonald's strategy to draw more customers to its locations—and sell lots more burgers and fries. In 2020, Redbox, like pretty much every service we use nowadays, went digital. It now offers customers the opportunity to watch TV programming from about 90 stations and stream popular movies on demand.

The company offers quite a bit of content for free—if you don't mind watching commercials in exchange. Viewing is ultra-simple. You don't even have to open and account. Just point your computer, tablet, or other viewing device to Redbox and you can begin watching immediately. Free streaming titles are updated periodically. 

You can also purchase a Redbox+ membership, which, depending on the plan you choose, provides either 12 or 24 physical movie rentals from Redbox kiosks, extended return times, and other benefits. The plans are priced at $9.99 and $19.99 per year respectively, which is an excellent value if you're accustomed to leaving home to pick up a movie. But nowadays, most viewers prefer to access content from the comfort of a couch or armchair. 

Redbox does not offer a subscription for ad-free digital streaming. You can rent or purchase ad-free movies individually on demand through the service, Digital rentals start at $1.99.

One important distinction between Redbox and competitive streaming services is that the TV content the company offers isn't actual live TV from channels you recognize. You can't view live Sunday night football or the news of the day on CNN or Fox, or network TV shows on the day that they air, for example. TV content is limited to older programming  Redbook also creates its own channels. At the time of this review, customers had the choice of such channels as Redbox Rewind and Redox War and Westerns. Redbox offers a small selection of Spanish language programming. You can also view some lesser known series like Good Morning Vogue and Architectural Digest. The bottom line is that you can't watch ESPN live, but you can watch pre-recorded episodes of Fight TV, Karate Combat, and the World Poker tour. Again, all of this is ad-supported programming. Let's just say you'll have plenty of time to make popcorn when you stream content from Redbox.

Redbox may not amount to a full entertainment solution for most viewers. But it may be attractive as an additional resource for subscribers to more traditional streaming service. It's hard to argue with free, but viewers should bear in mind that when it comes to streaming, you usually get what you pay for.