Plex Quietly Adds 13 New Free Channels — Free Live TV Now 600+ Strong
Plex pushed 13 new ad-supported channels into its free FAST library on May 20, 2026. The expansion lands quietly — no big press push — but it cements Plex's place at the top of the free-streaming-app pile, just edging past The Roku Channel for sheer live channel count.
What's new
The May 20 drop covers a deliberately broad slice of taste — Plex is filling out genre gaps it didn't own before:
- WBtv channels — themed 24/7 channels for drama fans, classic cinema, adventure, medical drama, space exploration, and supernatural / sci-fi.
- Science & popular knowledge — a documentary-style channel pulling from popular science archives.
- Progressive talk — politics and commentary in the progressive lane.
- Gardening expertise — yes, an entire 24/7 channel devoted to gardening shows.
- Cooking — culinary how-to programming.
- Urban / complex lifestyles — city-life-themed lifestyle content.
- LGBTQ+ cinema — a dedicated film channel.
The honest take from Bear & Rick
Plex has been adding channels at a rate of roughly 10-15 per month all year. In March they added 11. In April they added six. May 20 brought 13. The cumulative effect is real: Plex's free Live TV catalog is now larger than The Roku Channel's and triple the size of Pluto TV's. We're not paid to say this, but if you have a Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or any smart TV from the last 10 years and you don't have the Plex app installed, you're leaving free entertainment on the table.
The free side of Plex doesn't require an account, a credit card, or a trial. Open the app, pick a channel, watch. The ads are lighter than what The Roku Channel pushes, and the channel guide is genuinely usable.
The bigger picture
FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) is now the fastest-growing tier of the streaming market. Households that finished cutting cable in 2024-2025 are realizing they don't need to replace it with $90/month of YouTube TV — they can stack a few free apps (Plex, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Tubi) with one or two paid apps and end up at $20-30/month. Plex's relentless channel adds are part of that shift.
What you should do
- Install Plex on every streaming device in your house. It's free.
- If you've been paying for Plex Pass monthly or annually for a while, strongly consider the lifetime upgrade before July 1, 2026 — it jumps from $249.99 to $749.99 that day. Full breakdown here.
- If you also use an antenna, Plex Pass + an HDHomeRun tuner gives you free over-the-air DVR — a cable-DVR-class recorder for one-time hardware money.