Streaming services are slowly taking over, as the preferred choice of watching TV shows and favorite programs. You don’t even need to have access to a TV. You can watch TV online using your smartphone, computer, or tablet. When it comes to watching TV online, you can do it either free or pay for some services that are not freely available in some countries.
Free to Watch Channels
There are numerous legal means that you can watch TV online free. The main problem with free online TV is the commercials that keep interrupting your normal viewing. However, the free TV has to be paid for, which explains why the commercials have to disrupt normal viewing. Another problem with the free option is that you will most likely watch older shows. New shows or new episodes of existing shows are rarely broadcast on the free channels. However, if you don’t mind, this is how you can access free TV online.
HitBliss
This is a new service. It is more of a store where you can purchase movies and TV shoes similar to iTunes from Apple. However, HitBliss also gives you the choice of watching targeted ads and receive credit. You can use this credit to watch streaming movies and TV shows. Watching two minutes of targeted ads will give you credit that is enough to pay for a movie or TV show episode. Therefore, HitBliss has fewer advertisements, when compared to traditional television.
Hulu
This is a well-known service in the US. It provides viewers with a means of watching recent TV shows. Hulu, unlike others like Netflix, offers its viewers with a recently airing season of TV episodes. However, some shows require you to pay for Hulu Plus subscription, including older seasons of some popular shows. However, Hulu Plus gives its viewers a free trial that lasts for a whole week. During this time, you can watch TV online for free.
Amazon, Lovefilm and Netflix Free Trials
Amazon Prime Instant Video, Netflix and Lovefilm are all common ways of watching TV online. However, they are not free. What most people forget is that Netflix, Amazon and Lovefilm provide a free trial that lasts thirty days. During this time, you can watch absolutely everything that you wish. When the trial period is over, you can simply cancel the subscription, if you don’t wish to pay for the service. When using Amazon, you will need to subscribe to Amazon Prime. This gives you a free instant video catalog.
Crackle
Crackle is a service from Sony provides that offers some movies and TV shows for free streaming. However, they are just a small number. To access all the content, you will have to be a resident of the USA although there are some catalogs that are available in Canada, Australia and the UK. Just like other similar services, Crackle comes with a mobile app. If you are in the US, you can view Dilbert, Seinfeld and a number of other movies and shows.
YouTube
YouTube has grown over the years to become a popular destination for watching free TV shows online. You can watch several TV shows on YouTube. Television networks also upload their shows there, for their users to watch later. There is also a YouTube TV Shows Page, that provides legitimate shows that have been put up by the company.
Livestation
This service provides video streaming of live TV news. They are approved and completely legitimate video streams. At Livestation, you can watch news from big networks such as BBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Aljazeera and Sky News. Some networks require a subscription, such as BBC World News. However, the majority of them are free. Additionally, Livestation works in most of the countries in the world, without region blocking.
BBC iPlayer
This service is mostly found in the UK. It offers a variety of free BBC television shows, including Doctor Who. Just like other services, BBC iPlayer allows international viewers to access the shows.
Pay to Watch
There are numerous options when you want to watch TV online and easiest option is the TV bundle provided by your ISP. Thanks to technology, there is a huge number of TV shows and movies that you can watch live, as long as you have an internet connection.
If you are willing to pay to watch TV online, then you have all the choices and options. Netflix is one of the service providers with amazing TV shows and movies. Another live streaming service is Amazon Prime.