Some of the free streaming apps on my Roku are pretty good. A few are like cable/sat with a lot of live channels (history, nat get, movies, hundreds of them) along with some on demand streaming. Others are mostly movies. Sure, not new releases. Of course, you can setup an account for free and stream movies rather inexpensively. Unless they're new.
These free stations all have commercials, but IMO, they're MUCH less obtrusive than regular tv. The movies aren't cut or bleeped either.
Again, dissapointed that Netfix raised my rates twice (twice?!) this year while most of the shows I've been watching have been saying new episodes/season coming soon over this time period. I read they've been disappointing share holders. IMO, it seems they're trying increase profits with rate hikes rather than pulling in new users with better content.