TCM is frustrating for me. We had it with Comcast (Xfinity) but canned that because of the very high price. We have it on Spectrum internet streaming tv (“TV Choice”), but apparently it is only available when I’m on our home network. It isn’t available remotely when traveling.
My TiVo recorded a lot of TCM movies before I shut off Xfinity. I was ready to sell the TiVo box just yesterday when I realized I have a trove of TCM movies on it. I plugged it back in and will watch the movies before I sell it. It may take a while.
Criterion and TCM are great services!
TCM is available on sling tv and includes the on demand feature which always has about 100 movies you can watch on your own schedule.
A few thoughts. I cannot understand why XFinity charges such a premium for TCM. You are not alone in your frustration. Yes, the Watch TCM app only lets you watch it if you already get TCM on cable or satellite. It primarily shows what is currently showing on TCM for that month. I still like it in case I lose the TCM picture due to thunderstorms (I have DirecTV) and it enables me to find it on the app which I stream with an Apple TV.
Since the Criterion streaming service plays a lot of classic films, some of the TCM fare shows up on that service. The HBO Max streaming app has a TCM "hub", but it is very limited and has way more modern films than TCM usually does.
There are ways to record from satellite and streaming boxes. I use a Hauppauge device which connects between my DirecTV box and my PC. The movies record in HD as they looked on TCM, and I can burn them to blank Blu-ray discs, AVCHD DVD discs or regular blank DVD discs.