1. Netflix
The company that’s practically synonymous with cord cutting and streaming TV. Netflix stopped offering free trials in the UK, but once you subscribe, there are no long contracts – so you can unsubscribe and re-join at any point.
2. YouTube
Up until 2019, the YouTube app was absent from Amazon’s Fire devices, due to a feud between Amazon and Google. Thankfully, that was resolved, and you can now get the official YouTube app on your firestick.
With a big-screen interface, 4K videos and the ability to “cast” selected YouTube videos directly from your phone – this app will give you the ultimate YouTube experience.
3. BBC iPlayer
While the BBC’s TV-streaming app can’t quite compete with the likes of Netflix yet – it has certainly improved in recent years. Watch catch-up shows from all the BBC channels, get up to date with BBC News, and binge on a selection of box-sets from the vast BBC archives – if you love UK programming, this is the app to get.
Just don’t forget to pay for a TV licence. Also, remember that you can’t normally watch BBC iPlayer when you’re outside the UK – though there are ways around that geo-block.
4. Disney+
Disney’s streaming service is full to the brim with blockbusters and classics from the worlds of Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, as well as more “mature” content on the Star category.
With 4K streaming, up to seven user profiles, and a relatively low monthly cost of £7.99/month, it’s the ultimate service for the whole family. (See our full Disney+ UK review here).
5. ITVX
If you’re a fan of shows such as Love Island, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and Coronation Street, you can watch them all on-demand via the ITVX firestick app, which replaced ITV’s previous app – ITV Hub.
Just remember – the adverts are still there, and you can’t skip them, unless you get the paid Premium plan which removes the adverts and adds BritBox’s content.
6. All 4
Another popular commercial TV channel with its own on-demand app is Channel 4. With catch-up episodes of shows like The Great British Bake Off, and 100s of box-sets like It’s A Sin, you’re likely to find interesting things to watch – just remember, you can’t skip the adverts…
7. My5
Your selection of UK broadcast channels won’t be complete without Channel 5. You get catch-up episodes of brand new shows, as well as box-sets of past shows. From reality shows to popular Australian and American shows – the selection is quite vast. Though, again – adverts are part of the package…
8. Apple TV
Apple’s streaming TV service gives you the ability to purchase movies and TV shows on-demand, as well as watch the subscription-based Apple TV+, which offers original content, with shows like Ted Lasso and Severance.
Apple TV+ offers a 7-days free trial, or you can get three free months if you buy an iOS device.
9. NOW (Formerly NOW TV)
The streaming subscription service from Sky, and their answer to Netflix, offers several separate “memberships” – Entertainment (TV + Kids), Cinema and Sports.
NOW (they changed the name from NOW TV) was missing from the Fire TV for a long time – but in 2020, we finally got an app for it. Pricing differs depending on which pass you go for – but there are often ways to find cheaper prices for it – see our guide on NOW deals.
10. Paramount+
The American streaming service is finally available in the UK, with content from CBS, Showtime and Paramount Pictures, as well as several exclusive, original programmes (see our full Paramount+ UK review).
The service has more than 8,000 hours of content, including most of the Star Trek series and films, Yellowstone, Halo and more.
Paramount+ costs £6.99/month or £69.90/year in the UK (with a free 7-days trial), and you can sign up for it either directly, or as a Prime Video Channel.
11. UKTV Play
A set of channels (that now belongs fully to the BBC) – Dave, Yesterday and Drama – you’ll get on-demand boxsets of entertainment, comedy and reality shows like Taskmaster and even classic episodes of Eastenders.
12. Plex
Sometimes you want to stream and watch your OWN video files. From home videos you took with your camcorder 20 years ago, to old VHS and DVD tapes that you ripped to your computer (with a VHS to DVD converter). If you have the video as a file on your computer – you can stream it to your Firestick, with the Plex app. (You need their desktop app installed on your desktop, and the Fire TV app installed on your firestick.)
In 2020, Plex also added an ad-supported library of free movies and TV programmes – though, for now at least, the selection in the UK is not very impressive.
Note: While the app is “free”, you’ll need to pay for some of the premium features. See our full Plex review here.
Firestick Streaming Apps
Besides the essentials, there are so many more streaming services and apps these days, with an abundance of content for your Firestick. Here are some of the best ones.
13. Discovery+
A streaming subscription service that focuses on lifestyle and nature. Discovery Plus replaced Discovery’s Dplay streaming service (which was totally free), with a combined offering of both free and “premium” channels.
In the free tier, you can watch content from channels such as Quest, Really, HGTV and others, and on the Premium tier, you get content from Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, TLC and more. There’s also a tier that includes sports from Eurosport Player.
You can either sign up directly and watch via the app – or sign up for the Prime Video Channels version of Discovery+, and watch on any device that has the Prime Video app.
14. BT Sport
BT Sport, which is available in the UK and Ireland, broadcasts sporting events from around the world – from live Premier League games to UEFA Champions League, MotoGP, boxing and more.
If you’re a BT Sport subscriber via BT Broadband, BT Mobile or other means – this is a no-brainer (See our guide on how to watch BT Sport for free). But you can also subscribe to BT Sport Monthly, which is a contract-free month-by-month pass that currently costs £25/month. Once you subscribe, you can watch it on the Fire TV with this app.
15. BritBox
The subscription-based streaming TV service offers a variety of past and current British TV programmes from ITV, BBC, Channel 5 and Channel 4, as well as classic British films, originals, and 600+ episodes of Classic Doctor Who.
With BritBox’s content moving over to ITVX’s Premium tier, standalone subscriptions to BritBox are no longer available. But if you still have an existing one – you can continue using the standalone BritBox app – for now.
You can also still subscribe to BritBox on its own via its Prime Video Channel.
16. Freevee (Formerly IMDb TV)
This streaming service, owned by Amazon, is totally free (with adverts), and includes licensed films and TV programmes, as well as original productions – such as Leverage: Redemption and Alex Rider.
It was originally known as IMDb TV, but Amazon changed to name to Freevee.
At launch, Freevee’s on-demand content was only available in the UK via Amazon’s Prime Video app, as a Prime Video Channel – but now it’s also available via a standalone app, which also includes live linear channels that cover topics such as food, home improvement, true crime and more.
17. Pluto TV
If you miss the “live” TV experience, Pluto will be right up your alley. You get 40+ free streaming “live channels”, which you can flip through with an on-screen TV guide. From movies, true crime shows, sports and even poker – this is the ultimate screen saver, or something to watch when you really don’t know WHAT you want to watch.
18. STV Player
STV Player is the on-demand video streaming service of the popular Scottish broadcaster STV. But via broadband, it’s available UK-wide (except for their “Channel 3 Network” which is only available in Scotland), and, everything is free to watch – with adverts.
The streaming version has a long list of box-sets, documentaries and films.
19. Twitch
If you like watching other people playing video games, as well as esports, Twitch is the app for you.
It lets you watch people who live-stream their games, as well as recorded shows – and you can even join the chat (though don’t count on using the regular remote for chatting…)
20. Vevo
The ultimate place to watch official music videos and live performances. Although you can also find most of this content on YouTube, there are some exclusives – plus, it really is more convenient when you’re mostly looking to lose yourself in music videos and artists.
21. ROXi
A video-on-demand music app that features 70 million music videos, along with karaoke and musical games. While you can easily find the music videos on YouTube, ROXi is all about curation and discovery, grouping music videos into genres, decades and artists.
The Karaoke aspect is fun (and you can even order a branded karaoke microphone – with a built-in speaker and echo function), showing you the words on the screen as you hear the songs and singalong.
The basic version is totally free (with adverts), and there’s also a premium, £6.99/month option that removes the adverts.
22. Vimeo
The peculiar YouTube competitor, Vimeo is a video sharing service that’s ad-free and offers more control over who can watch your videos – so some creators prefer it over YouTube.
23. Amazing Classics
If you like old, peculiar films and TV shows (mostly American) – and we don’t mean the Oscar-winning classics, but weird, B-style horror films, sci-fi and comedies – then you’ll get your fix with the Amazing Classics app. It’s all free, and you’re likely to find some fascinating stuff – as well as a lot of oddballs…
24. TED TV
You’re probably familiar with TED, the non-profit organisation that posts inspiring talks, or as they call them – “ideas worth spreading”.
With the TED app for the Firestick, you get a convenient interface where you can scroll through and stream hundreds of short TED talks, in a wide variety of topics.
25. BoxNation
If you’re a boxing fan, you can now get to see all the biggest live and recorded matches on your Firestick – without needing a Sky/Virgin Media/etc’ subscription. The app itself is free to download, but you’ll need to subscribe to the ‘channel’ itself for £12/month.
26. hayu – Reality TV On Demand
Moving from boxing to a different type of on-screen fighting: reality TV. hayu offers UK viewers more than 200 reality TV shows, mainly of the… ehm… let’s call it ‘guilty pleasure’ type. From Keeping Up With The Kardashians to The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
You can start with a free trial, but going forward you would need to pay £4.99/month. You can also subscribe to hayu via Amazon Prime Channels.
27. Spotify
The Amazon Firestick isn’t just for TV watching – you can also use it to stream music, which you listen to via your TV’s speakers/soundbar.
With Spotify, which is one of the leading music streaming services, you can stream more than 50 million songs – either via the free, limited tier (with adverts), or with a monthly subscription.
28. Amazon Music
Amazon has its own streaming music service, Amazon Music, which is quite similar to Spotify. There are two tiers – there’s Amazon Prime Music, which you get for free with your Amazon Prime subscription, but only has limited functionality. And then there’s Amazon Music Unlimited, which requires a separate monthly subscription, with more than 50 million songs. (You can try it free for 30 days).
29. BBC Sounds
This app replaced iPlayer Radio back in 2018, offering live radio streaming from the various BBC Radio stations, as well as on-demand audio programmes from the BBC archives, and a selection of podcasts and audiobooks.
Some of the highlights available on BBC Sounds include 90+ episodes of the popular Desert Island Discs radio series, Grounded with Louis Theroux, popular true crime podcasts, standup recordings from BBC studios, and more.
30. TuneIn Radio
Listen to live radio stations from all over the world – more than 100,000 stations with music, talk shows, podcasts and on-demand shows. It’s not just a way to listen to stations from the UK – but it’s a great way to discover new music all around the world.
31. Audible for Fire TV
Build a library of top-notch audiobooks, from all types and genres, and then listen to them on your telly, with the Firestick. First, you should subscribe to the service (you can get your first free audiobook via this link), and then – if you keep it going – it’ll cost you £7.99/month for one additional audiobook credit every month. Read my full Audible review here.
32. Sky News
If you want to stay updated by reading and watching the news from the Sky News team, this app gives you a 24/7 live feed of the news channel, as well as top news stories.
Firestick Utilities And Misc. Apps
The Amazon Fire TV Stick isn’t limited to just streaming video/audio. It’s a mini-computer connected to your TV – so these apps help you do some unique things with it…
33. Facebook for Fire TV
It might feel a bit strange, at first, to browse Facebook on your telly. But we do it everywhere else these days, so why not on the big screen? The Facebook app for the Firestick lets you browse your regular feed, see photos, watch videos – and even post to Facebook.
34. NordVPN for Fire TV
There are several reasons to use a VPN app on your Fire TV device. First, it gives you more privacy – so your ISP, or someone trying to listen-in on your WiFi, can’t see the things you’re doing – and watching – on your device.
But also, a VPN can help you get over Geo-blocks with some of the streaming apps – so it can let you watch American Netflix in the UK (though that doesn’t always work on the Fire TV), watch BBC iPlayer from abroad, etc’. I usually recommend NordVPN, as it’s the one I use mostly, but you can also check out ExpressVPN.
35. VLC For Fire TV
While Plex is a much more robust streaming app, sometimes you don’t need all those options and features which make it a bit complicated. So VLC (which is also a popular desktop app) does one thing, which it does very well – it streams and plays video/audio files from your desktop/phone, onto the Firestick.
VLC supports almost every media file format, just remember you also need to run the VLC server software on your desktop PC.
36. NASA For Fire TV
Reach for the stars, right from your sofa! The NASA app on the Firestick lets you watch live NASA-TV streams, look at more than 16,000 space images, thousands of space videos, and even see what the Earth looks like from the International Space Station – in real time.
37. White Log Fireplace
This one might sound silly, but it’s perfect for those cold winter nights, or just for Christmas. It won’t ACTUALLY keep you warm – it just shows an endless loop of a fireplace on your telly – but it’s a wonderful, soothing screensaver.
If you want a few more options and a selection of fireplaces, you can try this Fireplace App – but it’s a paid one.
