How to watch Framing Britney Spears for free: Watch the revealing documentary that has spurred the #FreeBritney movement
Watch the exposing New York Times documentary that pulls back the curtains on the life of Britney Spears in the UK for free
If you’ve recently come across news articles about Britney Spears or seen #FreeBritney trending on Twitter, it’s most likely because of an exposing New York Times documentary called Framing Britney Spears that aired in the US on 5 February 2021.
Until last week UK viewers had limited means of accessing this show, but you can now watch Framing Britney Spears live on Sky Documentaries if you have Sky TV. Alternatively, you can also stream the show on Now TV Entertainment Pass (free seven-day trial for new users) or Hulu (US-based website with a free month-long trial for new users)
Britney Spears needs no introduction, especially if you grew up in the late nineties or early noughties. Often referred to as the “Princess of Pop”, Spears took the music world by storm when her debut album … Baby One More Time – that released in 1999 – held a longtime record for the fastest-selling album by a female singer in the United States.
What’s even more impressive was that Britney was only a teenager when the album and its eponymous title track propelled her to overnight stardom. She proved she was pop music’s new tour-de-force by delivering another smash hit with her second-album 2000’s Oops!… I Did It Again that swiftly joined its predecessor as one of the best-selling albums of all time.
Entering the new millennium, Britney Spears ticked off most boxes associated with being a cultural pop icon: more albums, numerous awards and accolades, high-profile relationship with a pop singer, Hollywood movie, star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and so on.
But unlike most pop stars who have gently traded being in the limelight to nurture their family, or resort to television or social media and other means of staying relevant when they’re not making music, Britney Spears’ back story in the last dozen or so years has been very compelling – mainly because of her troubled personal relationships, most notably that with her father, which is primarily what the Framing Britney Spears documentary intricately delves into.
How to watch Framing Britney Spears for free in the UK: Sky and Now TV
Sky just added the documentary to its already-impressive list of Sky Documentaries. Those who have Sky TV will be able to instantly download and watch Framing Britney Spears at their convenience. Sky TV contracts start at £27/mnth for an 18-month contract for both Netflix and Sky Q. New Sky customers may also be charged an initial one-time setup fee.
Interested in watching Framing Britney Spears for free without paying anything at all? Then your best option is to get a Now TV Entertainment Pass. This lets you enjoy everything that Sky Entertainment has to offer, but all new users get a free weeklong trial of the service with Now TV Boost, that upgrades your streaming experience to Full HD.
You can cancel at any time during your free week, which should be more than enough to watch the exposing documentary and other great content on Sky. If you choose to continue, you’ll be charged £10/mnth for Now TV Entertainment Pass and £3/mnth for Now TV Boost.
How to watch Framing Britney Spears for free in the US: Hulu
Framing Britney Spears is the sixth episode of The New York Times Presents series of documentary films that takes an investigative journalism approach into various cultural topics, including The Killing of Breonna Taylor (episode three) and The Teenager Who Hacker Twitter (episode five).
If you’re in the US, you’re in luck because Framing Britney Spears is available to watch on two platforms – FX and Hulu. To watch the documentary on the former, you’ll need to select your US TV provider and then sign in to your account.
Hulu, meanwhile comes with a one-month free trial, after which its cheapest plan will cost you $5.99/mnth. Apart from the documentary, Hulu has other hit US TV shows, including This Is Us, Little Fires Everywhere, Keeping Up With The Kardashians and even lets you stream award-winning films like Parasite.
How to watch Framing Britney Spears for free in the UK: Hulu
We just checked and found out that we could access the US Hulu website in the UK and register for an account reaching as far as the billing page that rightly informed us of our free month-long trial, after which we would be charged $5.99/mnth.
You have the option of making a payment via any international credit card or PayPal. Of course, you can cancel your subscription at any time within the first month without being charged if you don’t want to continue using the streaming service.
What is Framing Britney Spears about?
Framing Britney Spears in a documentary film produced by The New York Times. The film premiered on 5 February, 2021, on FX and Hulu and has since cast new light on the singer, her rise to global superstardom, followed by a troubled past and her perplexing relationship with her father, Jamie Spears.
After Britney experienced a highly-publicised mental breakdown in 2008, her father Jamie was appointed as her conservator, which is basically a legal guardian for those incapable of making their own decisions.
This is something that’s usually implemented for people with mental disabilities and seems to be unusual for someone as young as the pop star who was then in her late twenties. Based on agreed-upon arrangements, it was decided that all of Britney’s personal assets and finances would be controlled by her father and an attorney.
Last year, the singer lost two appeals to remove her father from the conservatorship, both of which were subsequently declined. Many people think that these conservatorship rules are holding the pop icon against her own free will, which has resulted in the #FreeBritney movement on Twitter, encouraging support from celebrities and fans around the world who are advocating for the end of her conservatorship.
The documentary delves into the complicated narrative surrounding this conservatorship, but it doesn’t include any exclusive interviews from Britney, her father, Jamie, or any members of their family, relying instead on older footage and exclusive interviews with other people close to the pop icon to piece the relevant facts together.
Why did Justin Timberlake apologise to Britney Spears and Janet Jackson?
From 1999 to 2002, Britney Spears was in a high-profile relationship with singer Justin Timberlake and two were one of the – if not the – biggest young celebrity couples of their time (think the US-version of David and Victoria Beckham). During that time, Britney was clearly the bigger solo star as Justin was still part of US boyband NSYNC.
Framing Britney Spears has shone a light on an older interview where Timberlake revealed details about their private life. His hit song Cry Me a River, released shortly after their break-up, is also supposedly about their relationship. Meanwhile, Britney seems to have stayed relatively quiet about their break-up, which – in retrospect – made her look like the victim.
Since the airing of the Framing Britney Spears documentary, Timberlake – who has since successfully forged a music and movie career of his own – came under immense scrutiny for comments he made at that time and received public blacklash, with many fans demanding that he apologise to the singer for his past actions.
A week after the documentary aired, Justin Timberlake took to social media platform Instagram to issue a public apology to both Britney Spears for the comments he made about her shortly after their break-up. In the same post, he also apologised to singer Janet Jackson for what he did to her at the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show back in 2004.
How to watch Framing Britney Spears for free abroad: use a VPN
If you live in the UK or US and are travelling outside the country for work or any other emergency during this time, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to watch Sky TV, Now TV Entertainment Pass, FX or Hulu – and the Framing Britney Spears documentary – regardless of where in the world you are. The best way to do this is by using a good VPN service.
In today’s remote-working day and age, VPNs are not only recommended but slowly becoming mandatory because of the number of security enhancements that they instantly provide to all your devices. VPNs basically work by encrypting your internet connection so that no one – no hackers or even your ISP – can see what you do whenever you go online.
Because good VPNs, including both mentioned below, let you access thousands of servers generously dotted all over the world, you can simply connect to the US server, connect to Hulu and watch Framing Britney Spears or any other TV shows or documentary available on US channels that are geo-blocked in your own country.
READ NEXT: Best VPN services
ExpressVPN: While there are several VPNs you can choose from, we’ve tested and confirmed that both Hulu and FX work on ExpressVPN. You’ll obviously need your login details to then access the documentary but ExpressVPN makes this process fast and easy. It’s one of the few VPNs that have been independently audited to prove they don’t log or store any identifiable user data whatsoever and our readers get three months free when you choose the one year plan.
NordVPN: A close second to ExpressVPN is NordVPN which boasts a similar feature set and impressive speeds. You can use the service on up to six devices at the same time and its long-term plans work out to be a budget-friendly option if you’re looking to dip your toes into the VPN waters. Both these VPN services also have 24/7 customer support who can guide you with any connection issues and they =also have a 30-day moneyback guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by signing up and trying it out for yourself.