“I don’t know where to stream my favorite movie.”
It's like Kayak for streaming services
Agency
Urban Pixels
PROJECT
SaaS product
Role
Creative direction, UX/UI, strategy
OVERVIEW
In 2011, streaming was exploding, but no one had solved the question every viewer kept asking: where can I actually watch this? Built as an internal side project at Urban Pixels, Can I Stream It? became a cross-platform streaming search engine indexing 30+ services, helping users instantly discover where titles were available to stream, rent, buy, or track. The product launched across web, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Chrome, earned 27 press placements including TechCrunch, CNET, USA Today, and Vanity Fair, and became an early go-to tool for cord-cutters before streaming aggregation was mainstream. I led creative direction, UX/UI, and product strategy, owning the design vision from concept through multiple platform expansions.
PROBLEM
We heard the same frustration repeated constantly, from our own team, and from the people we built this for.
“Searching multiple platforms is frustrating and time-consuming.”
“I want a single place to search across all services.”
These weren't edge cases. By 2013, the average cord-cutter subscribed to three or more streaming services, and had no way to query all of them at once.
SOLUTION
We built a search engine, not a recommendation engine, a distinction that shaped every product decision. While competitors focused on “what should you watch?”, Can I Stream It? focused on “where can you watch what you already want to see?” The challenge wasn’t personalization, but clarity: surfacing multi-source availability data, handling dead ends gracefully, and making stream, rent, and buy options instantly scannable. We launched a universal search experience powered by real-time integrations across 30+ services, plus title alerts, a Chrome extension, and a PRO tier that filtered results by a user’s subscriptions. Over two and a half years, the platform expanded across five products with TV support, iPad optimization, and broader streaming coverage as the market evolved.
The friction in detail
The friction had a specific shape. A user would think of a movie, open Netflix, not find it, close Netflix, open Hulu, not find it, search Google, find a result from 2011 that was no longer accurate, try Amazon, discover it was available, but only for purchase, not streaming. Total time: eight to ten minutes. No guarantee of accuracy at the end of it. If the title wasn't available on any service that week, there was no way to know that upfront, and no way to be notified when it changed. The problem compounded with every new service that launched: more places to check, more licensing complexity, more outdated search results, more wasted time. The user wasn't doing anything wrong. The information just didn't exist in one place.
"It used to take me 10 minutes to look at each one."
Mike, App Store user review, 2014
The friction in detail
The friction had a specific shape. A user would think of a movie, open Netflix, not find it, close Netflix, open Hulu, not find it, search Google, find a result from 2011 that was no longer accurate, try Amazon, discover it was available — but only for purchase, not streaming. Total time: eight to ten minutes. No guarantee of accuracy at the end of it. If the title wasn't available on any service that week, there was no way to know that upfront, and no way to be notified when it changed. The problem compounded with every new service that launched: more places to check, more licensing complexity, more outdated search results, more wasted time. The user wasn't doing anything wrong. The information just didn't exist in one place.
“It used to take me 10 minutes to look at each one.”
Mike, App Store user review, 2014
We recognized a clear need
What if there was a single search engine that aggregated streaming availability in real time?
The Solution
A one-stop streaming search engine
Helping users instantly find where to watch movies and TV shows across multiple platforms.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.
Sarah Perez
Tech Crunch Consumer News Editor
Tech Crunch Consumer News Editor
"If you watch a lot of movies on different sites, Can I Stream It? will definitely save you some time. It's a great way to find what you're looking for, and maybe even a few things you're not."
Streaming video has definitely changed how we watch movies and television shows, but with the constantly growing number of services out there, it can be hard to keep track of who’s got what. Who’s got Disney now? Starz? Netflix? Who knows.
Can I Stream It? user
Thank you for trying to make lives of cord-cutters a little bit easier!
— Colin
Understanding users & the market
The idea for Can I Stream It? came from our own frustration, so we started by validating whether others had the same problem. Through informal interviews and surveys with movie fans and cord-cutters, we found users were repeatedly Googling titles or checking streaming apps one by one just to see where something was available. Existing solutions were fragmented, incomplete, or difficult to use, revealing a clear gap in the market.
Our research identified a core audience of tech-savvy streaming users who valued speed, simplicity, and convenience over platform loyalty. They regularly jumped between services to find content and wanted a faster, more unified experience. These insights shaped the product vision: a comprehensive, intuitive search tool that made streaming availability instantly accessible.
Target users & personas
PARENTS
Find family friendly movies quickly
Kids lose patience while parents search.
College Students
Find something to watch on a budget
Too much time spent scrolling, tight budget.
Movie Buffs
Track down obscure titles
Hard to find niche films, too many services.
Digital Consumers
Find the best streaming deal
Paying for multiple services, need better recommendations.
Core features
User flows
“
Kudos for making one of the coolest, most useful websites and apps I've seen in ages. I love them and I'm spreading the word like it's gospel. Have a swell weekend!
— Cheers! Susan
By the numbers
Launched November 2011 as an Urban Pixels side project, Can I Stream It? grew into a cross-platform streaming search engine spanning 5 platforms (web, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Chrome extension) and indexing 30+ streaming, rental, and purchase services at its peak. Over 2.5 years of active development, the product earned coverage in 27 press placements across publications with a combined monthly readership of 200M+ — including Gizmodo, TechCrunch, CNET, USA Today, Vanity Fair, Consumer Reports, and Lifehacker. 500,000 registered users used CISI to find where to watch movies and TV shows without bouncing between services. The product ran from 2011 through 2014, a period when the streaming fragmentation problem we solved went from niche frustration to mainstream crisis.
Launched 2011
5 platforms at peak
30+ services indexed
500k monthly active users
Scaled Can I Stream It? to approximately 500K monthly active users, with an estimated 50K+ daily active users at peak.
$
7-10k
Generated approximately $7K–$10K/month in recurring affiliate revenue through streaming partner referrals.
75-150
K
Powered an estimated 75K–150K streaming searches per day across movies and television content.
Successfully operated during the early streaming platform era before large-scale search integrations from Google reshaped the category landscape.
Press & reception
"It's like Kayak for streaming services. Search one spot and get results from all the major players."
— Gizmodo
Can I Stream It? wasn't pitched to press. It was a side project we built because the problem was genuinely frustrating us. The coverage came because we solved a real thing, and the breadth of that coverage, from entertainment trade press to consumer advocacy to a Snapchat founder's app list, tells you who the product resonated with and why.
“I texted my sister to see if she had any cool apps that I didn’t know about.
She likes watching TV and has this app called Can I Stream It?, which is totally genius.
It lets you know where to stream your favorite shows and movies.”
Evan Spiegel
CEO Snapchat
“Add this site to your bookmarks because I guarantee you, at some point, you’re going to need it.”
Sarah Perez
Consumer News Editor – Tech Crunch
“If you watch a lot of movies on different sites, Can I Stream It? will definitely save you some time. It’s a great way to find what you’re looking for, and maybe even a few things you’re not.”
Gabrielle Taylor
Gadget Hacks
“A great service that lets you quickly find an online stream of your favorite movies as well as sources for e-rentals, digital purchases and of course venues to procure the old-fashioned DVD or Blu-ray.”
“If you often find yourself paralyzed by choice with the many options available today, Can I Stream.it? can help. Whether using their website, iPhone app, or Android app, the service lets you search across multiple platforms to find the movie or TV show you want.”
