For most college students, watching a favorite movie or television show online is no strange concept.
But for a college student’s budget, the availability of free content online is somewhat limited. Now, MUTV and the Residence Halls Association have created a no-cost option for movie streaming.
The service offers a selection of movies on its live streaming website, mutvstream.missouri.edu, for students on campus to access for free.
MUTV and RHA are working together along with St. Louis company Swank Motion Pictures, Inc. to offer the movies, MUTV Student Media Coordinator Mark Johnson said.
“Swank recently released an on-demand service that allows the same selection of movies we get for each month on closed-circuit TV to be streamed on-demand,” Johnson said in an email.
The contract RHA and MUTV signed with Swank allows them to add the streaming option without additional cost, although the movie selection will be slightly smaller over the summer and winter when fewer students are on campus, Johnson said.
Johnson also said almost all movies shown on MUTV channel 23-1 are also available on the website, noting that any HBO content is an exception to this rule for licensing reasons.
“RHA works closely with MUTV in the selection of the movies that are streamed each month,” RHA public relations coordinator Julie Larsen said in an email.
Students can vote on the RHA website for which movies they would like to be streamed each month, Larsen said. She said students can also make suggestions for the movie choices on MUTV’s Facebook page.
The movie-streaming service, however, isn’t available to students living off campus.
“Due to the licensing rules by Swank, mutvstream.missouri.edu is only accessible on campus and in all residence halls,” Johnson said.
The movies MUTV plays on television and online are paid for with RHA funds, so the students that live in the residence halls are their main focus, Johnson said.
Sophomore Ree Schilling, who lives in Gillett Hall, is a fan of the service so far.
“I’ve used the online streaming and I really liked it,” Schilling said. “The site had a nice selection and the quality of the movie I watched was great. So long as they keep adding new movies, I’ll keep using it.”