ROKU and Amazon Fire Stick owners have received a blockbuster summer boost with over 40 new films they can stream for free.
A fresh catalogue of films has been added to a popular streaming service that viewers can watch for free, as long as they watch some adverts.
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The streaming app is called Fawesome, and has a whopping 100,000 movie and TV show titles already.
It means viewers can watch some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters without paying a monthly fee.
Some of the top movies already available to stream include Baywatch, Drive, The Pianist and Insidious.
But here’s a taste of the new arrivals:
- No Country for Old Men
- The Mechanic
- Day of the Dead
- Shutter Island
- The Road
- Knock Knock
- Jeremiah Johnson
- Stagecoach
- The Fog
- Knight of Cups
- The Getaway
- The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
- Stephen King’s The Mist
- The Crow: City of Angels
- The Graduate
- Escape from New York
- Match Point
- Unlawful Entry
- The Libertine
The Fawesome app is available to download on both Roku and Amazon Fire TV Sticks.
Although if you don’t have either, you can also stream content Fawesome from your smartphone, PC, smart TV or Apple TV.
Illegal streaming crackdown
The recent boost to Fawesome’s free service comes as a crackdown on illegal streaming sweeps the UK.
In one of the largest operations to date, 40 illegal Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) operators have been found, investigated, and served with official warnings.
Cease-and-desist notices were delivered in person, through post and email by FACT, the UK’s IP protection organisation, and police.
FACT CEO Kieron Sharp, a former City of London Police detective, told The Sun: “This was a planned disruptive exercise for the month of July, so it’s still ongoing.
“We see substantial benefits from these types of operations in terms of getting people to stop their criminal activity.
“It’s something that we worked on in discussion with our members about how we could do that on a larger scale than we’ve managed before.”
Sharp stated that this is just the beginning of the enforcement.
“FACT and our partners are steadfast in our commitment to disrupt these criminal operations,” he added.
“This is just the start of our enforcement efforts, with more actions planned.”
FACT partners with Sky, Premier League, TNT Sports, Virgin Media, as well as police, fraud and trading standards bodies to squash illegal streaming.
What is a ‘jailbroken’ Roku or Fire TV Stick?
When a Roku or Amazon Fire Stick is ‘jailbroken’, it means a third-party media server software has been installed on it.
The software most commonly used on these gadgets is called Kodi.
It can grant users unrestricted access to new features and apps the normal version of the device wouldn’t allow – but it is not legal to use in the UK.
The government outlined in 2017 that adapted Amazon Fire sticks and so-called ‘Kodi’ TV boxes were illegal.
This is because they breach intellectual property laws in not paying for the media content being watched.
“These devices are legal when used to watch legitimate, free to air, content,” the government said at the time.
“They become illegal once they are adapted to stream illicit content, for example TV programmes, films and subscription sports channels without paying the appropriate subscriptions.”
If users are watching content that would usually be free, however, then they would not be breaking any laws.