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If you're thinking about cutting the cord, your local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, and PBS stations are
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probably among your must-have channels. The good news, you can get those channels without a pay TV
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subscription. But the bad news, unless you have an antenna, it'll cost you. This is the reason why
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federal law allows the major broadcasters to charge pay TV operators, so cable, satellite
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and live tv streaming to carry their channels that explains the broadcast tv fee that you may
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have seen on your cable bill and it also explains why locast a free streaming service that provided
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access to locals was sued by the major broadcast networks and its shutdown in late 2021 has left
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cord cutters scrambling for cheap ways to watch local tv in our video today i'm going to share
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with you the best ways to watch local TV without cable. Let's get started. Number one, get an
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antenna. And I know this is not an option for a lot of you. So I'm just going to spend about 30
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seconds talking about antennas. Stick with me. There's more to come. If you live close to broadcast
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towers, an antenna is the best way to pick up your local stations because it's only a one-time cost
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for the antenna. And after that, you get a lifetime of free TV. I've got a Mohu Leaf indoor antenna
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you can watch my separate review video to see how I set up this antenna in my home
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Now, indoor antennas like this one work best in cities and some suburban locations
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but for homes in more rural settings, an outdoor antenna is the way to go
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You can check out Tyler the Antenna Man's channel for details. Number two, sign up for a live TV streaming service
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YouTube TV, Hulu Live, DirecTV Stream, those are just three of the live TV streaming services
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that carry local network stations. Now, I refer to these as cable 2.0 services
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They offer bundles of cable networks, plus your local ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC
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and perhaps PBS stations for about a month at recording time Now the benefit of these services over cable is that you don have a contract Now be aware that not all cable 2 services
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carry your local stations. Sling TV is one of the more affordable options
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but it only offers Fox and NBC stations in select markets. No ABC and no CBS
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So before you sign up, enter your zip code on a services website to confirm the channel lineup
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Now, 70 bucks a month, that is really steep, especially if you only care about those local
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stations. It may be enough to get you to explore antennas further, but I've got some more creative
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solutions coming up next. Number three is Paramount Plus. And Paramount Plus, formerly CBS
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All Access, is a streaming service that has a mix of both on-demand and live content. Most of the
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content is on-demand from a variety of Paramount-owned networks. You see them here. But if you pay for
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the premium plan $9.99 a month at recording time you get 24 7 access to your local CBS station
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the cheaper plan $4.99 a month only offers some live coverage such as the NFL on CBS moving on
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to number four and that is Peacock you can think of Peacock as NBC Universal's version of Paramount
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Plus but there is a significant difference with Peacock the service does not offer 24 7 access
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to your local NBC station. Peacock does simulcast NBC on occasion for its premium subscribers. And
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Peacock Premium members can also stream current NBC shows the day after they air. Now to number
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five, Hulu and my recommendation is changing. And for years, Hulu has been my substitute for a DVR
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because it's made many network TV shows available the next day. But Hulu is having to pivot away
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from that strategy and focus more on original content. And here's why
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Starting in the fall of 2022, new episodes of NBC Universal shows
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will no longer be available to stream the next day on Hulu Instead they be available on you guessed it NBC Peacock And although Hulu struck a deal for out episodes of Fox shows
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the streamable reports those series will also be available free on Tubi. That is the Fox-owned
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service with a growing library of shows. Now, if you care about ABC, know this, Disney controls
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Hulu so it does remain the primary streaming home for next day episodes of shows that air on the ABC
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broadcast network. So the bottom line is that with streaming rights so spread out Hulu is no longer
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one-stop shopping for network TV shows. But if Hulu brings back its Black Friday deal one year
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service for only 99 cents a month you may want to keep it on your list anyway. Number six network
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apps with so many streaming services I rarely use the network apps anymore but they do provide some
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free content to watch and I do have one exception the problem with the apps for ABC CBS NBC and Fox
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is that not everything is free lock icons like this one indicate that you will need a pay TV
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subscription to sign in now that could be your cable satellite or one of the live TV services
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that I mentioned earlier. But one network app that I really do like is the PBS video app. It is free
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and a great way to stream your favorite programming from PBS. You can get more content with PBS
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Passport five bucks a month, but why not start with the free version? We've made it to number seven
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local news apps. And if you're just looking for your local news, there are apps like NewsOn and
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Haystack News that provide content from local stations across the country. But if you've got
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only one favorite station, I would skip those apps and first start with your station's website
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That's because most stations will let you watch newscasts live from a computer or your smartphone
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and some of them even have their own apps to stream to a TV set. For example, here's the app
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from Miami station WPLG that I downloaded for my Roku And there are lots of places to find national news including replays of the popular morning and evening broadcasts Pluto TV is a great place to start and yes it is free You can also follow your favorite local and national
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news sources here on YouTube. Look here, NBC Nightly News uploads its entire broadcast to
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YouTube. And one more option that I want to address in this video, it's called Puffer
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Puffer is retransmitting the over-the-air broadcast TV signals as part of a research
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project for Stanford University. After signing up, you can stream ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS, and the CW
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Since this is a research project and a not-for-profit service, there are limitations. Like only 500
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people can watch Puffer at any given time. Plus, it's unclear at this point when the research project
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will be completed. Now to my key takeaways, and if you cannot set up an antenna, think about the
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content that you watch on the major broadcast networks and try to find streaming alternatives
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Here's a recap. Local stations air lots of news. I already mentioned where you can find the news
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If it's network sitcoms and dramas that you enjoy, look into affordable services like Peacock
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Paramount Plus, and even Hulu Basic. Syndicated programming is a bit more complicated. If you
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watch shows like Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune every night, a live TV streaming service may be
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your best bet. It really depends on the channel that airs those shows in your city. And the major
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networks also broadcast a lot of sporting events, including the Super Bowl. In this case, you may
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decide that it is worth paying for a live TV streaming service like YouTube TV or Hulu Live
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Remember, no contracts. You can cancel at any time. A lot of people tell me they would be happy
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to pay 20 bucks a month for a streaming service that only has their local stations. But unfortunately
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I do not see this happening, at least not in the near term. And that's because the companies that
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own the broadcast networks also control many cable channels. So while paying for 100 channels
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when you only watch 10 of them doesn't really work for us as consumers, it does work for the
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bottom line of these major content companies. Learn more by clicking on the video on your
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screen right now, and I'll see you over there
