Acorn TV

If you enjoy watching British, European, and Oceanic shows during elevenses (or at any other time for that matter), then video streaming service Acorn TV is a solid bet. It's cheap, presents shows without commercials, and has some exclusives and originals too. However, Acorn TV lacks some common technical capabilities, including 1080p streaming and offline downloads. Given that Acorn TV is a PCMag Reader's Choice winner, the service's intended audience seems willing to overlook these limitations.

What Can I Watch on Acorn TV?

Your geographic location determines exactly which shows you can watch on Acorn TV, so this review strictly concerns the US version of the service. Acorn TV includes shows from many countries, such as Australia (Network Ten, Nine, ABC Network), UK (ITV, BBC One, Channel 4, BBC Four), Canada (CBC), France (TF1), Italy (RAI), Ireland (RTE), and New Zealand (TVNZ). Not all shows are available from all these networks, but Acorn TV's geographic range is impressive.

You may also have come across BritBox, another British-television-focused streaming service. Acorn TV and BritBox share some of the same sources of content, such as ITV and Channel 4, but they are independent services operated by separate entities. Acorn TV is owned by RLJ Entertainment, a subsidiary of AMC, while BritBox is a joint venture of BBC and ITV. Acorn TV is also available in far more countries than BritBox. For instance, apart from the US, you can get Acorn TV in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, and Sweden, just to name a few countries. It's also available as an Apple TV or Prime Video channel, and several other subscription platforms. BritBox is only available in the US and Canada.

Popular shows streaming on Acorn TV at the time of writing include 19-2, Line of Duty, Jack Taylor, Midsomer Murders, Striking Out, The Indian Doctor, and The Secret Agent. Acorn TV lists the following shows as original series: Agatha Raisin, Finding Joy, Foyle's War, Keeping Faith, London Kills, Manhunt, The Detectorists, and The Level. Some of the current (full-run) exclusives on the service are Doc Martin, Hamish Macbeth, Hidden, Loch Ness, and The Commander. Note that some of these listed originals and exclusives may have run first on other networks.

Are Acorn TV's shows better than anything that Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney+ offers? That's up to the viewer. Certainly, the top shows from these services (Stranger Things, The Marvelous Ms. Maisel, and The Mandalorian) are better-known titles, but if you prefer British programming, then Acorn TV's entries are likely more compelling. If BritBox has the British series you want to watch, then you should choose that service instead. Hulu also has a growing library of British shows, though Amazon Prime Video has every season of Downton Abbey.

In terms of movies, Acorn TV has a small library of about 30 films at the time of publishing, few of which I recognized. The most high-profile films I saw were Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and The Way Back. Also, I found that out the title listed as Murder on the Orient Express is not the original film or the 2017 remake, but rather an extended episode of Hercule Poirot, a well-known TV series. The majority of other on-demand video streaming services I've reviewed, including HBO Now and Starz, offer a far more impressive movie library.

Note that Acorn TV is purely an on-demand service, which means there are no live sports on the service, such as Premier League matches. If you want to watch live broadcasts, sports, or both, check out our roundups of the best live TV and sports streaming services.

Costs and Platform

Acorn TV is $5.99 per month, but you can get a discount if you opt for the annual plan, which costs $59.99. The service also offers a seven-day trial, but you need to enter payment details during the signup process. Acorn TV's pricing is competitive with other services. For instance, Hulu matches Acorn TV's price, while the more expensive Netflix and Amazon Prime Video both start at $8.99 per month. Apple TV+ undercuts all of those services with a price of only $4.99 per month, while Disney+ costs slightly more at $6.99 per month.

Live TV services are understandably much more expensive, but if you want to watch live British channels such as BBC or live matches, you don't have a choice. Sling TV (starting at $30 per month) and fuboTV ($54.99 per month) are likely your best options for watching live international programming.

Acorn TV is available on lots of platforms, including Android and iOS devices; media streaming devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV (tvOS version), and Chromecast; and via a web browser (Acorn TV recommends Chrome). It does not, however, offer apps for gaming consoles such as the Xbox One or PlayStation 4.

Web Interface

Acorn TV's web interface looks clean, with a plain-looking mix of white and yellow accents on a dark blue background. It lacks personality though, unlike Shudder, which fully embraces its horror-based catalog with endearing effects. The interface is simple to navigate, though, in testing, I did notice that some screens took a bit longer to load than I anticipated. On the Home screen, the left-hand menu has a search bar, along with a few menu items: Browse, Schedule, Help, and Store. Acorn TV separates results based on series and individual episodes. In the upper-right-hand corner, The My Acorn TV menu, lets you see what you've recently watched, go to your watchlist, and view or manage your account details depending on how you signed up for the service.

The Home screen shows a few prevalent shows in a slideshow at the top, with sliders for other categories below it, such as Most Popular, Beautiful Escapes, Only on Acorn TV, Period Drama, and Feature Film. Under each category, you can click the View All button to see everything in that genre. The Browse section shows a list of all the titles in Acorn TV's catalog by category. The Recently Watched and My Watchlist categories are also in this section, which seems like overkill, given that those same options are available in the ever-present My Acorn TV menu. Oddly, the Favorites section from the mobile app does not appear anywhere. Category pages are sortable by alphabetical order and release date.

The Schedules section divides content into three areas: Recently Added, Coming Soon, and Leaving Soon. This is a helpful tool, but I wish every title had a date attached to it (only the ones in Coming Soon do). This section also demonstrates the limited range of Acorn TV's library, as only one show was listed as Coming Soon. Still, I'd like to see every on-demand video streaming service add a similar section, as many provide little to no advance notice of arriving and departing titles. PCMag maintains several monthly features detailing the shows and movies arriving on and leaving other video streaming services (Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, and HBO Now) for that very reason.

Acorn TV's help section is organized clearly and answers are written in clear language. The Store section is just Acorn TV's fancy way of marketing memberships and subscription gifts (for example, you can purchase a year of the service for someone else). CBS All Access's shop is more of an actual store, since you can buy themed clothing, apparel, and other household items promoting your favorite shows.

Mobile App

I tested Acorn TV's mobile app on a Google Pixel 3 running Android 10. The app has a sleek, dark interface with white and red accents, matching its logo. The app performed fine in my testing with no stutters or lags.

You navigate the app using three icons at the bottom: Acorn TV, Search, and My Acorn TV. You click the vertical ellipsis menu in the upper right-hand corner to access the app settings. Here, you can restrict video playback to when you are on a Wi-Fi connection, enable closed captions (CC) across the board, access messages (user notifications), and change the app language. You can also view your account info, change your password or your email, or access the service's FAQs on the web. Oddly, I was not able to view any account info beyond my email address, as the app pointed me to the website to make changes, informing me that I had signed up on the web. In reality, I had signed up via the mobile app.

The main Acorn TV section shows a few highlighted shows at the top of the screen, with horizontally scrolling lists of other categories (the same as on the web) going down the page. Clicking on a title takes you to a show's Detail page, where you can play any episode in the series. The show's trailer is also available for some shows. A plus button in the lower-left corner also lets you add a show to your favorites or watchlist. Many services only offer one or the other, but the flexibility of having both is a nice touch. Other services, such as Apple TV+, do a better job of showing more detailed show information like the cast, show rating, and release date.

The Search section supports series, episode, or cast member as query terms. The My Acorn TV area is divided into three sections: Recently Watched, My Watchlist, and My Favorites. As mentioned, the My Favorites section does not show up on the web interface anywhere.

Playback Experience

Acorn TV's playback screen is basic. Apart from the volume controls and a play button, you can enable and customize the Closed Captions (CC) as well as scrub through a video. I do like the Play From Start and Resume buttons at the bottom of the player, but would greatly prefer rewind and fast-forward buttons (these appear on the mobile app, but not on a desktop web browser), as well as resolution option. Acorn TV's playback screen at least shows the parental rating for the show as well as a list of major cast members. Netflix's playback screen lets you view future episodes in a series, while Prime Video's helpful X-Ray feature displays a list of actors in a scene and some background details.

Right-clicking on the video player itself reveals the playback resolution. I couldn't find anything that streamed above 720p, which is disappointing. Some older content didn't even reach that standard, instead streaming close to 480p. At the very least, most video streaming services support 1080p content, with some, such as Netflix, Prime Video, and Hulu growing their libraries of 4K titles too.

Acorn TV only requires a constant internet connection of 1.6Mbps (download), which is a very low threshold. That means that you should have very little trouble streaming over the vast majority of internet connections. I had no issues watching an episode of Doc Martin in Microsoft Edge over my home Ethernet connection (200Mbps download).

Accessibility and Features

You can customize the appearance of Closed Captions directly from the playback screen, rather than having to dig into the settings. Options include font size; text color and background; as well as the font family. You won't find any shows that support Audio Descriptions, as you can on Apple TV+, Netflix, and Prime Video.

Acorn TV does not support offline downloads, which is disappointing. Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, HBO Now, Showtime, and Starz all support offline downloads. Hulu even recently added an offline download capability, though only for premium subscribers. On the plus side, Acorn TV does support four simultaneous streams. This matches Netflix's top-tier plan and Disney+.

One last limitation is that Acorn TV does not support profiles or parental control tools. Profiles let different users customize their lists and potentially get more relevant recommendations. Acorn TV does not currently have anything in the way of ratings or recommendations, but a representative says the service has plans to add one.

Parental control tools are helpful for parents who may not want their children watching anything age-inappropriate, for example, anything with violence or mature themes. In Acorn TV's case, there probably isn't an overwhelming need for parental controls as most shows I saw had a TV-14 rating. However, for young children, this content may still be inappropriate, even though kids might not be the service's main audience. Further, I found at least a few shows with an MA rating that a parent might want to block even for older children.

Acorn TV and VPN

You should use a VPN to protect your internet traffic from the spying eyes of your ISP and anyone else who may be peering in on the network. A secondary benefit of a VPN is that it can help you spoof your location. However, many video streaming services block VPN traffic, since some content is restricted to certain regions due to licensing agreements.

I tried to stream content from Acorn TV with both my desktop and mobile phone connected to a US-based Mullvad VPN server. Acorn TV blocked me from streaming content on both the web and mobile.

Even if you do find a VPN that works with all of the video streaming services you subscribe to, you may find your connection is eventually blocked. Video streaming companies work continuously to find new ways to block VPN traffic.

Stream British and International Shows

If you want to watch some British, European, or Oceanic shows, then Acorn TV is worthy of consideration, even if it's not your only option for such programming. It gets you access to lots of complete seasons for a low monthly cost. We also like how it is clear about what is arriving on and leaving the service. However, Acorn TV has its fair share of technical limitations, including a maximum streaming resolution of 720p. It also lacks parental control tools, profiles, and the ability to download shows for offline viewing on mobile. If you already know and love British programming (and want to discover more content from Europe and Oceania), you'll likely look past these shortcomings, but Acorn TV needs to modernize if it is to attract broader audiences.