If you’re looking for that extra dose of holiday cheer at any time of the year, Lifetime Channel and Hallmark Channel are must-haves.
Cassie from Good Witch said it best, “There’s real magic helping other people.” So, before we go any further, you need to know that Hallmark Channel isn’t available on most streaming services.
Unfortunately, you have only a few streaming services to choose from if you want both channels.
That said, Philo is the cheapest live TV streaming service on the market, and it has Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel. Philo is a really good value if you love lifestyle and entertainment channels—not to mention it has an unlimited cloud DVR.
fuboTV is also a great option for Lifetime Channel and Hallmark Channel streaming, with awesome news and sports coverage to boot. But its price point gets a little too close to traditional cable packages if cutting the cord to save some cash is your goal.
If you want a super-sized channel lineup (including Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel) and premium features, we recommend DISH satellite TV service. It will cost you a little extra, but it might be worth it.
Finally, if Hallmark and Lifetime movies are all you want, on-demand streaming services like Hallmark Movies Now and Lifetime Movie Club are your best options. FYI: you can no longer watch Hallmark on Netflix or Hulu (*single tear rolls down writer’s cheek*).
Now that we’ve given you an overview of what’s out there, let’s dig a little deeper into our top picks for watching Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel.
Philo is the cheapest option out there for livestreaming TV. For only $20 a month, you get 60+ cable channels, including Lifetime Channel, Lifetime Movie Network (LMN), Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
We absolutely love that most of the other channels included with your plan are popular favorites like OWN and Food Network. But we don’t particularly like that there aren’t any sports channels or local channels available on Philo.
What puts Philo over the top for most Hallmark Heads, in our opinion, is its unlimited cloud DVR. That means no bulky cable box and the ability to record everything you want from Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel.
And if you want the most Hallmark and Lifetime possible, pair Philo with Hallmark Movies Now and Lifetime Movie Club, and you’ll have the vast majority of Hallmark and Lifetime movies and shows currently available online for less than $30 per month.
With 110+ live channels, the fuboTV Family plan is a solid choice for streaming Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel. Plus, it’s our editor’s pick for streaming sports (your partner may thank us later).
In addition to the Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Drama, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, Lifetime Channel, and Lifetime Movie Network, you’ll get other popular cable channels like AMC, Bravo, and Oxygen.
Like we said earlier, not everyone in your life may jones for Hallmark and Lifetime movies and shows. Fortunately, if you have a roommate or partner who’s all about sports, fuboTV is the best bang for your buck. With ESPN, the NFL Network, Fox Sports, and more, fuboTV will help you catch plenty of games.
On the technical side, the fuboTV channel guide is a little tricky because it’s not ordered alphabetically or by channel number. So, streaming newbies beware.
We also want to point out that fuboTV’s Family plan ($64.99 a month) now includes Cloud DVR 250 (250 hours of storage, keep recordings until you delete them) and Family Share (for three simultaneous streams) free. That’s a combined monthly savings of $16.98, which makes Family a solid deal.
Bottom line: if anyone in your home has mixed feelings about Hallmark and Lifetime movies and shows, fuboTV is a moderately priced streaming option with okay features that might work for you.
DISH Network is all about the premium TV experience. Basically, if you’re looking for an ungodly amount of popular channels and some of the coolest features around, then DISH is for you.
For Hallmark and Lifetime, we recommend DISH’s America’s Top 200 package. This package gets more than 240 channels—including Hallmark Channel, Hallmark Movies & Mystery, Hallmark Drama, Lifetime Channel, and Lifetime Movie Network—for $84.99 a month.
One of the best things about DISH is the Hopper 3 DVR. For an additional $15 per month, the Hopper 3 allows for 16 simultaneous recordings and 500 hours of DVR storage. You’ll have room to record all 40 of this season’s new Hallmark Christmas movies—and plenty more.
The downsides of DISH are its two-year contract and higher price. While it’s not the most flexible way to watch Hallmark and Lifetime, we think DISH’s channel lineups and excellent DVR are worth the cost if you have the extra moola.
Streaming Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel on demand is an affordable way to scratch your comfort TV itch.
And the best way to stream Hallmark Channel or Lifetime Channel on demand is to go directly to the source (sorry Netflix and Hulu).
Hallmark Movies Now is the only place you can stream Hallmark movies on demand. At $4.99 a month, Hallmark Movies Now features tons of original Hallmark content, including favorite movies from the Hallmark Hall of Fame.
To see which Hallmark movies are currently available on Hallmark Movies Now, test it out with a 7-day free trial.
If you want Lifetime Channel movies on demand, you can stream plenty of them by subscribing to the Lifetime Movie Club for a very cheap $3.99 per month.
Or, you can stream a decent amount of Lifetime movies, shows, and clips for free using the Lifetime app on your favorite device.
Hallmark and Lifetime don’t currently have any movies on Netflix. There are Hallmark-like movies on Netflix, including Netflix Originals like A Christmas Prince and a ton of movies produced by rivals, such as Brain Power Studios and MarVista Entertainment.
Netflix does, however, own DVD.com, which has dozens of Hallmark and Lifetime movie titles on DVD. Plans start at only $7.99 per month, so if you don’t mind DVDs (and USPS), you may as well sign up for a 30-day free trial.
We don’t recommend Hulu as your sole source of Lifetime and Hallmark goodies. Why? Because you can watch only a small, rotating selection of Lifetime movies and shows on Hulu, and there aren’t any Hallmark movies and shows currently available on Hulu.
Likewise, you can stream Lifetime Channel on Hulu + Live TV, but you can’t stream Hallmark Channel. We said it once, and we’ll say it again: you can stream Hallmark Channel on only a couple of services (Philo, fuboTV, and Sling TV).
Lifetime Channel and Hallmark Channel movies and livestreams are not included with the purchase of a Roku streaming device. We can all dream, can’t we?
You have to download the Lifetime app or subscribe to Lifetime Movie Club and download the app to watch Lifetime on Roku.
Hallmark Channel on Roku is a little different. You have to subscribe to a TV provider and download the Hallmark Channel Everywhere app or subscribe to Hallmark Movies Now and download the app to watch Hallmark on Roku.
Whether you pick Philo for affordable livestreaming and unlimited cloud DVR storage or fuboTV for additional news and sports coverage, it’s easy to stream the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime Channel content you crave.
If you’re down with spending a little more money to get premium TV, DISH offers a great channel lineup and excellent DVR. Whatever your choice, sign up and start binge-watching today.
The Hallmark Channel isn’t “on” Amazon Prime, but you can stream hundreds of Hallmark Channel movies and shows on Prime Video with the Hallmark Movies Now add-on ($5.99 a month after the 7-day free trial). But here’s a pro tip: you can save $1.00 per month by subscribing to HMN directly. One caveat, however, is that HMN costs , but it costs $1.00 more per month on Amazon ($5.99 a month after the 7-day free trial). You can also rent or purchase Hallmark movies on Prime.
The Hallmark Channel app (a.k.a. Hallmark Channel Everywhere) is free to download, but you must have a TV provider subscription to use it.
You can watch Lifetime Channel live on the Lifetime app if you have a TV provider login.
There are too many Hallmark movies to count. If we had to venture a guess, it’d be somewhere around 500. But that won’t be the number for long. In fact, last season alone, Hallmark added 40 new Christmas movies to its roster. We’ll keep counting.
Everyone seems to like Hallmark movies so much that it’s hard to pick just one.
For example, IMDB’s Top 100 Hallmark movies lists the rom-com In My Dreams as number one, but we’d feel remiss if we didn’t mention the much more serious and beautiful Silent Night that takes second.
We suggest looking at Hallmark’s own Hall of Fame for more must-see movies this season.
In order to do this question justice, we need to break Lifetime’s movies down by category. For example, the best movie in drama is Speak, while Lifetime’s best crime movie is Death of a Cheerleader.
If you’re looking for romance, we like William & Kate, and the best Christmas movie is The Spirit of Christmas. As for just plain, overall popular, IMDB lists Blue Lagoon: The Awakening as the most popular Lifetime movie.
We’re not going to lie—there are a lot of similarities between Christmas Hallmark movies. Yes, in most, girl moves to a new area, meets boy, hates boy, learns about herself, falls for boy, kisses boy, understands Christmas, and lives happily ever after, but that’s part of the charm. Sometimes you need some down-home, feel-good, slightly predictable fun.
*For 24 months with a 2-year agreement and eAutoPAY
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