Cut Your Streaming Costs With Help from the Library

Switching from pricey cable subscriptions to free streaming services can save you money without limiting what you can watch.

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Guide to Scoring the Best Deals in 2018

Fees for cable and streaming subscription services can add up. But many public libraries are branching out, partnering with streaming and other digital media services to offer library-card holders free access to tons of movies, TV shows, music and e-books. For example, Kanopy.com partners with more than 4,000 libraries and features more than 30,000 films. Its selection focuses on indie flicks and educational titles rather than blockbuster productions, but unlike most other free streaming services, Kanopy doesn’t show ads. And Hoopla (www.hoopladigital.com) offers patrons of more than 1,500 libraries free access, without ads, to movies, music, audiobooks, e-books and television shows.

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Kaitlin Pitsker
Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Pitsker joined Kiplinger in the summer of 2012. Previously, she interned at the Post-Standard newspaper in Syracuse, N.Y., and with Chronogram magazine in Kingston, N.Y. She holds a BS in magazine journalism from Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.