What Happened to Viewster?

Viewster was a free online movie website with thousands of Hollywood and independent movies, including a limited number of free TV shows.

The website shut down in 2019 and now redirects to another streaming service, called CONtv, which is offered by the same company that purchased Viewster.

The good news is that you can still watch some of Viewster's movies on YouTube, as you'll learn below. There are also lots of other similar, free movie streaming sites you can use instead.

What Was Viewster?

Viewster had free movies, TV shows, and other videos from partners like STARZ, 20th Century Fox, BBC, and HBO. It was completely legal to use and was free because it was supported by ads. You could watch these free movies and shows from their website, the mobile app, gaming consoles, and smart TVs.

Some of the categories you could browse through included Anime, Sci-Fi, Action, Horror, Comedy, Drama, Korean Drama, Documentary, Animation, and Romance.

Why Did Viewster Shut Down?

It's unclear why Viewster shut down, but there are two likely reasons...

Given that it was powered by ad revenue, it's possible that the money just wasn't coming in like they needed it to, and so instead of taking a loss, they closed down.

Another reason might be because of new owners. Viewster was acquired by Cinedigm in early 2019, and that company also owns CONtv, another movie streaming website.

CONtv is similar to Viewster—it has a decent list of free movies and works from their website and mobile app—so redirecting Viewster.com traffic to their other service makes sense.

Viewster Alternatives

There are many other sites where you can watch free movies and shows, some with far more programming than Viewster ever had. Crackle, Vudu, Yidio, and Popcornflix are a few examples, but there are others in this list of free movie sites.

If there were titles in Viewster's 12,000+ movie collection that you can't find elsewhere, you might have luck locating them on the official Viewster YouTube channel. There are dozens of full-length films there. Plus, YouTube, specifically, is a great way to watch those movies on your TV, computer, or phone, and even has its own collection of free movies.

If watching from your mobile device is what you're after, see these free movie apps that function much like Viewster's app did. They pull movies from sites that add fresh content often, so they're the best ways to enjoy movies from your phone for free.